I agree with the posters who say there is a reason for you to take this medication and it does happen to cause dependence, but that is not the same as saying you have a substance use problem (addiction). You may technically speaking addicted, but people fear benzos too much in my opinion due to that. They are important meds, just as pain killers are for pain. I had 3 years of knee surgeries and had to be on pain killers almost the whole time. Of course I was "addicted," but was it a substance abuse problem? No. Should I have stopped taking the pain killers because I was addicted? No. They were being used appropriately for a medical issue for which they were designed. Same with benzo use.