anxiety
"I try and avoid taking valium and only use it as the last resort if physical techniques (progressive relaxation, breathing control etc...) don't work. At most I have I never taken more than two 5mg tablets in a day. I find on an empty stomach the effects are within 10-15 minutes and it certainly calms things down mostly.  In my anxiety state I get a dreadful felling in the pit of my stomach followed by chest tightness and also the inevitable irrational thoughts, even though I know they are irrational. The valium seems to smooth it our and there is that calmness which block crazy thoughts (claustrophobia is one of them, being trapped, worrying about inconsequential things, playng out what-if scenarios... completely irrational stuff)"