How many mg's of
xanax were you taking a day? The reason the
valium may not have helped you in that case was that you had built a tolerance to benzo's. You see, xanax and valium are not in proportion concerning mg's. ~.5 Xanax = 10 mg valium respectivly. I take
Xanax XR 2-5 mg's a day, depending on whats going on that day, and I know that one 10 mg valium (highest dose concerning 1 pill) will not effect me to where I can detect it. As you probably know, these classes of drugs (bezodiazepines) are addictive in many ways, but what we are talking about here is tolerance. Addiction in this case means you will eventually have to keep raising the dose of xanax/valium/klonopin to achieve the feeling you got in the beginning. Hope this helps. Also xanax has a much shorter half life than valium. xanax has about a 4-6 hour half life where valium has about a 12 hour half life. This means xanax will stop working sooner than valium, when doses are proportional, and will require you to take more pills/day which contributes to tolerance/addiction.
-cheers. L.C