How Long Do Benzos Stay in Your System?

Benzodiazepines, commonly known as “Benzos,” were created to help people who needed something to help them relax, decrease their anxiety and to help mentally/emotionally stabilize them so that they can lead healthy, productive lives.

They have also been used to help people with various medical problems such as schizophrenia and panic attacks.

The problem is that not only do they work, but they sometimes work too well, and people have begun to use them recreationally to increase their physical and mental states of relaxation or to increase the effects of opiate or alcohol use.

One interesting thing revealed, in a study carried out by the National Library of Medicine in 2008, is that usage seems to be more prevalent in women and, for men and women, the percentage of benzodiazepines use increases with age.

Since 2008, the number of people using them, whether for medical conditions or recreational use, has grown. This increased usage amount, according to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, is attributed to the higher amount of deaths related to benzodiazepines overdose.

Now that’s a quick overview completed. Let’s talk about what you came here for: how long do they stay in your system.

What are Benzodiazepines?

Benzodiazepines are a group of medications prescribed for their strong sedative effects. The benzodiazepines prescriptions are given to patients who have problems with panic attacks, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, and social phobias.

This group of substances helps patients with the mentioned disorders by acting as a tranquilizer and depressant to the central nervous system.

Benzos have also been used to help calm patients who are having alcohol withdrawals, helping them to calm down even though the potential for drug abuse to the system benzodiazepines are very high and can become a replacement for the alcohol abuse.

It may sound strange, now that you are aware of their addictive possibility, but they have also been widely used to help decrease the withdrawal symptoms of people who have abused heroin, cocaine, speed, and other stimulants.

Types of Benzodiazepines

At this time, there are 15 Benzodiazepines that have been approved for medical use by the FDA. The list is as follow, listed by brand name and classified as short or long-acting:

Long-Acting:

Ativan
Centrax
Doral
Klonopin
Librium
Paxipam
Serax
Tranxene
Valium
Xanax

Short-Acting:

Dalmane
Halcion [Triazolam]
ProSom
Restoril
Versed

How Long do Benzodiazepines Stay in the Human System?

Multiple personal factors can affect how long do benzodiazepines stay in your system. There are various answers that you may find in your search, but the information below will give a rough idea of the time it will take for them to clear your system.

Benzos Can be in Your:

Blood for about 2-3 days
Urine for approximately 3-6 weeks
Hair for around 90 days or 3 months [we stock detox shampoo]

As mentioned above, these numbers aren’t solid and can be shorter or longer from person to person, depending on the amount used, how long they’ve used it for and, sometimes, even the weight of the person.

What is Half-Life of a Drug?

When we hear someone talking about the half-life of a drug they are talking about how long it will take your body to eliminate half of the amount of substances.

As noted above, some benzodiazepines stay longer in your system, whereas others are short-acting. This affects the half-life as well.

Short-acting Benzos can have a half-life of fewer than 5 hours up to 24 hours.

Long-acting Benzos can have a half-life of 24 hours or more.

How long does Valium last in your system?

Valium half-life is around 2 days, so it takes about that amount of time to eliminate half the dose from the body. Valium is broken down into metabolites, and these can be detected in the body for a greater length of time. Valium can remain detectable for up to 10 days.

How Reliable is a Detox product? Is it Really Worth It?

If someone has been using benzodiazepines for quite some time, and have become dependent or addicted to them, the most reliable detox is a medical detox that happens in hospitals or in detox centres and typically lasts for four weeks.

Detoxing at home is NOT advised. There are withdrawal symptoms that cannot be managed effectively at home, seizures are a hazard, and the possibility of mental dysfunction and brain damage are high.

To safely detox, an inpatient program is the most reliable way to remove the toxins from your body and live to tell about it. An inpatient program will assure that you will get the rest, fluids and food needed to help combat the symptoms of benzodiazepines withdrawal.

Take a look at some of the benzodiazepines withdrawal symptom below in order to get a better understanding of why an inpatient detox program is the most reliable way to detox .

The list includes:

Seizures
Psychosis
Hallucinations
Confusion
Increased anxiety
Headaches
Panic attacks
Impaired Judgement
Weakness
Insomnia
Muscle aches
Liver toxicity

If you are in a position where you need to get the benzodiazepines out of your system in a hurry, the information above should tell you whether or not this is possible for you. If you have only used them occasionally and as needed for a particular condition, you might be alright.

But if you have been using them for a while, either recreationally or to treat medical problems you are having, a quick “I can do this myself” plan is not the way to go.

If you are scheduled to have a urinalysis in a few days to see if there are toxins in your body, and you need the test to come back negative not positive, there is no reason to put your health in danger. There is another way.

Need More Info?

If you have been using Benzos and find yourself needing a urinalysis testing to check for toxins in your system, you need to be sure you have either gone through an appropriate medical detox or have been off of them long enough for them to not show up in your urine.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

These are some of the common questions we are asked;

How long do benzodiazepines withdrawal last?

How long withdrawal lasts will depend on a number of different factors. Withdrawal symptoms for short-acting drugs such as Xanax can appear in less than 24 hours while longer-acting drugs such as Clonazepam can take up to a few days to start showing signs.

With the short-acting substances, withdrawal can last from anywhere between a few days to several weeks.

Chronic users of benzodiazepines may experience protracted withdrawal, which means that the symptoms can come and go over a period of several months, with around 10% of users still experiencing symptoms of withdrawal years after giving up.

Some of the other factors to take into account apart from the type of benzodiazepines taken are the dosage amount, other addiction issues, prescription medication is taken, mental or medical health issues and the method on how the substance was taken.

How Good is the Cold Turkey Method?

The pretty much unanimous opinion on this within the medical community is NO! This is a dangerous method that could cause seizures and has a higher risk of withdrawal psychosis. Going down this route could also result in Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome.

Does Xanax show up on a 5-panel screening?

A 5-panel urine screening is used in order to discover the presence of these types; Amphetamines, Cocaine, Opiates,PCP and THC. Therefore, Xanax won’t show up in this type of testing.

A 6-panel test will test for the presence of benzodiazepines as will all the other screenings from 7 panel to 12-panel.

Can screenings tell the difference between benzodiazepines?

Benzodiazepines urine tests can’t detect the parent compounds but can detect their break-down products when testing. These break-down products are called metabolites. For instance, Triazolam is detected as the metabolite α-hydroxytriazolam and Clonazepam is detected as the metabolite 7-aminoclonazepam in urine tests.

Many metabolites remain in the body for a longer time than the parent drug. Therefore, urine or blood tests for drugs have a much higher probability of determining if a person has taken drugs, by identifying the metabolites still present and not the parent drug.

What drugs can cause a false positive for benzodiazepines?

It has been reported that taking the antidepressant Sertaline could result in the possibility of a false positive. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry tests can help differentiate benzodiazepines from Sertraline hydrochloride.

Another drug reported to cause false positives is Oxaprozin [oxaprozinum], this is an anti-inflammatory, which is often used in order to treat osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It is also known under trade names such as Daypro, Dayrun, Duraprox and others.

This product is to be used in accordance with all federal state and local laws. This product is not to be used on lawfully administered urine tests.