It was interesting because I was on valium for years when I first started having my anxiety problems in 1994.....& then I ended up OD'ing on them also several times. Strangely, I decided one day that I wasn't going to take them anymore & just stopped & had absolutely no effects from stopping like people said would happen. I think that maybe because I was on the pain medication for the horrible migraines I was having in the first place might have helped me not have any reaction to going off the valium.

The technical terminology that is used is that we become dependent on the medication....it's only considered to be an addiction if there is a continual need for a higher & higher dose of the medication. The fact that one goes through withdrawal when they do off a medication is because of the bodies dependence on the drug, not being addicted to it. My pain specialist is the one who has provided the definition that is used in the medical field for how the body reacts to the drugs.