Xanax Addiction

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine gave me a bunch of 0.5 mg Xanax pills as he only takes one at night to go to bed. His doctor prescribed him to take 4 of these of days, so he had oodles of them.

I can say that yes, initially they worked, they helped with my anxiety and feeling relaxed. I was not abusing them in the sense of trying to get high or messed up on them. However, over the past two months I have become more mentally dependent of them and have, at times, taken 4x 0.5 mg in a day, which from my readings is within a normal dose and researching online people have taken, by prescription, as much as 10 mg in a day.

I've been doing this for about 6 weeks roughly and reading about how dangerous Xanax is to come off of I really feel like I ate the apple off the tree if you know what I mean. That's the bitch of it, it does work, it kills the anxiety, but as always things come at a price. I am in the process of finding that out because I forgot to take a pill this morning and the anxiety is back in full swing. I think partly for knowing that Xanax can have withdrawals, so perhaps most of it is in my head, or I hope so.

I mostly wanted to vent and my plan is to taper off this stuff and try to get off this stuff. Seems all these medications are basically poison and as I go on in life I'm finding that often you are what you are and no pill can fix you.

[MHJG]

At least you have an intention to make changes. It's very good.
I wish you can fight against anxiety and thrive. mile:

[Anonymous]

At least you have an intention to make changes. It's very good.
I wish you can fight against anxiety and thrive. mile:

I generally hate all medications, ironically. I guess that is irony anyway. Kind of makes me a bit of a hypocrite. The thing is the drug works until it doesn't and then you're kind of locked in. I am feeling better as the day progresses but I do think I need to taper off and not go cold turkey. Even though I haven't been taking this stuff all that long, or taking very high doses withdrawal effects can be pretty nasty for some...

[Zen]

I generally hate all medications, ironically. I guess that is irony anyway. Kind of makes me a bit of a hypocrite. The thing is the drug works until it doesn't and then you're kind of locked in. I am feeling better as the day progresses but I do think I need to taper off and not go cold turkey. Even though I haven't been taking this stuff all that long, or taking very high doses withdrawal effects can be pretty nasty for some...

Good luck mate. You're right psychotropic meds are both highly addictive and difficult to come off of. Have you thought about talking with your doctor about this as they can advise you on cutting back. Especially if you are taking your friends meds- that's pretty risky mate, if you guys fell out- no friend = no pills. There are good on line anxiety management resources.

What it all boils down to is understanding anxiety as a chemical release (adrenaline), once a person trains themselves to become aware that adrenaline and therefore the following anxiety aren't needed, in certain circumstances, the symptoms reduce naturally.

Good luck with that mate, and seek professional help if needed.

[TigerLover]

A Doctor prescribed your friend quadruple the dose he needed.

Let me guess you're American right?

Still you seem to be handling this in a very intelligent way. Slowly weening yourself off the pills is definitely the right way to go. If you go cold turkey your brain will freak out no matter how long you've been using them.

[Anonymous]

Good luck mate. You're right psychotropic meds are both highly addictive and difficult to come off of. Have you thought about talking with your doctor about this as they can advise you on cutting back. Especially if you are taking your friends meds- that's pretty risky mate, if you guys fell out- no friend = no pills. There are good on line anxiety management resources.

What it all boils down to is understanding anxiety as a chemical release (adrenaline), once a person trains themselves to become aware that adrenaline and therefore the following anxiety aren't needed, in certain circumstances, the symptoms reduce naturally.

Good luck with that mate, and seek professional help if needed.

[MENTION=24253]Zen[/MENTION] I don't think our friendship is at risk, at least nothing on the horizon and was something I gave thought about, the what ifs. As I mentioned first doses it was like magic and probably a few weeks ago I began to realize the true nature of the drug and that I had been duped into thinking that this drug was going to make things better. I forgot to take one this morning and for the most part felt really crappy, but as the day has gone on, not so bad. Various sources say that the initial 72 hours are the worst and if someone were to have adverse withdrawal effects it would likely occur there...can have seizures and withdrawal can be lethal. Makes you wonder why the prescribe the stuff to anyone at all and even many sources say the stuff is for temporary only yet I read so many people having taken the stuff to 10 years when the sources say 6 weeks to 6 months max.

A Doctor prescribed your friend quadruple the dose he needed.

Let me guess you're American right?

Still you seem to be handling this in a very intelligent way. Slowly weening yourself off the pills is definitely the right way to go. If you go cold turkey your brain will freak out no matter how long you've been using them.

[MENTION=22948]TigerLover[/MENTION] Yeah of course. My doctor has done nothing but push pills at me and either have done my own research and refused to take it or I take it and get sicker than a dog. I can't speak of this to my doctor, if I do I am an addict and then they will not take you seriously when you do have something go wrong and again, kind of makes me a bit of a hypocrite to hate medications and then take someone else's on their word and ending up being a rather nasty benzo. Can't tell the doctor though, I have more than enough to ween myself off of. Been taking relatively small doses 0.5 mg tablets and can break them in half for .25 mg, I have never taken more than .75 mg at a time and no more than 2 mg in a day's time, just to more accurately describe what I have been doing. So I think cutting back to .25 mg when I would take a whole 0.5 mg would be a good place to start.

The catch about Xanax though is that in my case, I felt that I felt normal for once but normal isn't normal. I felt more relaxed but then I also felt fuzzy, like a mental fog which I do not enjoy at all. I feel mentally foggy all the time, but that just might the work I do lol.

It does seem, from reading other people's account of their experiences coming off this stuff is that the longer you take Xanax it becomes much much worse to get off of, although people who have taken it for shorter durations also have issues, although not too much accounts that fit my case. One being, it's not something I have been prescribed, second being that not too many people complain about withdrawals too much and only been on the stuff for 4-6 weeks, so either doctors, American doctors anyway, either prescribe the stuff to people for way longer or people don't experience withdrawal effects as severely as others who have been on it a long time.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I'd rather get it over with, but my thoughts are leaning that I might be better off to take a small dose tonight and go from there. I think most of my anxiety came from knowing I missed taking it this morning and knowing that withdrawals happen shortly after cessation. I think that played a major role. Right now I just feel a little rough, but under control for the time being.

[matty7]

just lengthen the time between pills then down to missing a pill and work your way down - the effort is yours alone , not the drug - if you dont then you could be on for years of this .. do it while you know whats happened mate

[meridannight]

I used alprazolam (Xanax) for nearly 10 years. I still use it when I need it, but that doesn't happen much anymore. I got it prescribed for sleep problems. I am up at night and sleep during the day, and sometimes when there's noise outside (construction, etc) I can't sleep. I also get delayed sleep phase disorder (I can't fall asleep at the time I need, sometimes), and I used Xanax for that. It's very good, and helps a lot with it.

It's not poison. It is a very good drug that helps a lot of people. It also has anti-depressant effects which kick in immediately and not with months of delay like antidepressants themselves.

The thing is -- you have to keep your dosages under control, and you shouldn't really use it on a daily basis. Under no circumstances start elevating the dosages. If you feel you need to take more, you need to instead take a break from Xanax for a few days, and then it's okay to start again.

0.5 mg is okay. 1.0 is okay. Tolerance will build up really quickly (in just a few days!!!) and the drug's elimination half-life is about 11 hours (this means that if you take 1mg at 6 am, you'll still have ca .5 mg in your system at 17 in the evening, and ca .25mg 22 hours after taking the drug). You do this every day and you'll need to start elevating the dosages.

You shouldn't use it daily. Once in 3 days is okay, from my own experience, or less.

I am one of the people who can control their drug use. I could take Xanax 2 weeks in a row and then not use it for the next 2 weeks. And then take for 5 consecutive days, and nothing for a week. My doses did climb, of course (at one point I was taking 8 mg to achieve the same effect I initially achieved with 1 mg). I had no withdrawal effects when I quit it after 8-9 years of regular use (I did experience a bit of a depression, which may have been due to withdrawal from alprazolam, although there were other factors to that as well. But it definitely aggravated it).


I know this drug inside and out. And it's very safe to use as long as you do it intermittently and don't elevate your dosages.

[Anonymous]

[MENTION=21405]meridannight[/MENTION] They do definitely make Xanax out to be a villain of a drug. While I am sure it is more rare and probably more going on with those who have bad withdrawals such as seizures and death. However, I believe you are correct in that I need to not increase doses..despite it being safe to take in high doses coming off of high doses I'm guessing are much more likely to cause problems.

Anyway, it's good that you're able to keep that stuff under control, not that I have been completely reckless with it. I just know on a daily basis and having forgotten to take it this morning (I did take 1/2 of a 0.5 mg) this evening when I got home from work. My plan is to only take 1/2 and spread it out longer and just stop taking them altogether.

My friend does have them for sleep problems and in my case Xanax initially helped me sleep more but not as of late, hasn't done anything and I often don't feel that I have rested. Probably another sign I need to back off.

I guess what freaks me out the most are all the accounts of people having bad withdrawals and I think having read up on all those cases that I am more likely to be more anxious in the anticipation of possible withdrawals.

Initially this morning I felt fine, relaxed, then realized I forgot to take it, that's when anxiety started building and by mid morning I was not feeling well, but I also normally drink a lot of coffee which might be why I ended up with a headache maybe? Either way, anxiety and a headache is all I can really say and I find that in self-evaluating myself that I am more prone to being more anxious when I am expecting or thinking about something that would make someone. The only thing that has bothered me about anxiety, the worst I should say, is the kind that is more physical kind of like you're jittery and on edge for no apparent reason.

However, for all I know I might be making a bigger deal about this than it really is. Haven't been taking huge doses and haven't been on it all too long. I will say that it does vary source to source as to how long it can take before one builds up a tolerance to the drug and can have withdrawals. I will say also that american doctors just have you take things daily and on multiples of them. My friend takes them to help him sleep....

Finally, it is good to hear a case where someone has been on or used Xanax over a long period of time and not have the common horror stories about withdrawals and so on.

[TwisttheLeaf]

Xanax is -extremely- addictive. If you're showing indications of addiction, it's time to get off them now, because it will progress if left to do so. You may not be taking "bigger doses" yet, but addiction is difficult to control once triggered. Finding another solution is a much better option.

As [MENTION=21405]meridannight[/MENTION] said, as an occasional help, the med can be a good thing. I take it much in the same way he does, as a last resort averaging maybe once or twice a month when my anxiety is at its highest and I can't seem to get it under control. But, it's not something that should be taken regularly (for most people) due to the addiction risk, and it always shocks me when I see doctors prescribing it in that manner. And then everyone wonders why there's such an epidemic of addiction when it comes to prescription drug use/abuse.