amandack t1_jefmszr wrote on March 31, 2023 at 5:38 PM

Reply to comment by psychrolute in ELI5: If benzodiazepines are CNS depressants, why is it so hard to die from a overdose of them alone? by psychrolute

I have multiple failed attempt including one with Clonazepam and alcohol to try to take advantage of the cns factor. Bodies just like to stay alive. And it's an ld50 for a reason, so theres still a 50% chance you live.

dlige t1_jegit68 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 9:11 PM

Eugh I hate reddit for doing what I'm about to do, but I always find this distinction interesting.

Strictly it's 50% of the population would die.

The reason why that is different than '50% chance of dying' is because 50%chance of death implies that everytime you take that dose you're flipping a coin. The reality is that if you tried it once and it didn't kill you, it would never kill you (ignoring the fact that this is certainly not true due to everything from the liver damage you would sustain to the fact you'd be aging as time went on). But if you were able to repeat the same experiment on yourself again and again after the first outcome where it didn't kill you, it is not 50% chance of death each time.

Ishana92 t1_jegrlge wrote on March 31, 2023 at 10:13 PM

So it's more like the dose that 50% of people can survive or dose that kills 50% of people

dlige t1_jegruad wrote on March 31, 2023 at 10:15 PM

Yes, that's it!