Hi everyone. As a long term user of different benzos, I see again how each one hits different people at different times. Anyway, what I've read and my experience:
Both xanax and valium have muscle relaxant properties. Xanax also has an antidepressant property, which is why it was popular for shrinks to give out when it first was marketed. My experience has been that the blue valiums with the hole are much stronger than generics, and that generics seem really sensitive to light and heat. If valium is not doing the trick for anxiety, likely xanax will. There was a good post by a doctor (though I can't find it now) describing the downside of xanax - that when you get used to it, your body eliminates it faster and faster and needs more, etc.; while valium can be insidious while you develop the tolerance it builds up in your system still as you take more.

Besides a lot of this having to do with body chemistry and individual preference, just as an aside, the last time we ordered valium from an OP it didn't do the trick and this time we'll go for the xanax 2mg.

Don't know if others have noticed this but there is a "melancholy" quality to valium that xanax doesn't have. Xanax hits in about 15 minutes if you have an anxiety attack and valium takes about 55 minutes.

Both of these meds raise a red flag in dr.'s offices, unless the dr. is cooperative you risk being called an "addict" or being told to see a shrink, even if they're not triplicate in your state - in NY where I'm originally from they became triplicates even though they were schedule IV because so many medicaid patients sold them on the street. This happened around 1986; before that you could buy valiums on the street in many parts of Manhattan for only $1 - then the price went to $3-5 and they became very difficult to get from physicians.

If it weren't for this ugly attitude from dr.'s and idiotic laws we all wouldn't be ordering these so often from ops.

FYI a really safe effective benzo that works for sleep, anxiety and is an aid to narcotics withdrawal is librium 25mg - the mother drug of all benzos. Librium is not prescribed much by doctors because of market positioning of drug companies; it is so old fashioned there is no gain to encourage doctors to write it and I haven't seen it on any ops. It is cheap to fill generically, very long acting (peaks in 2-3 hours though you start to feel it in about a half hour - it's not something with a big "bang") and the withdrawal from it is easy because it is so slowly released in your body.