I was prescribed 30 .5 mg Xanax pills for high blood pressure. Advised to take up to 3 times a day as needed. I can get refills. I do not want to develop a dependancy. So my question is at what amount/frequency can I take them without getting addicted? If I take 1 a day for a week, 2 weeks, take 3 day break in between, etc.
Benzos Xanax precautions
- Thread starter Cygnusx8
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Sertürner
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In my experience it took quite a while to become dependent upon them. But everybody is different and your body may react differently. Dosing 3x a day at any dose above .25mg (probably below as well) will eventually cause a physical dependency, but the severity of the dependency may not be bad or it might be severe.
Considering that you're taking it to reduce blood pressure, I can imagine that after about 2 weeks of 3x daily dosing you will have at minimum a rebound effect/ discontinuation syndrome in which anxiety and blood pressure will elevate. To what degree, it is unclear and variable between persons. As the above poster already said, I would use them sparingly and take them only when your BP is high as opposed as a maintenance medication. There are alternative drugs that work much better for chronic hypertension than xanax.
Considering that you're taking it to reduce blood pressure, I can imagine that after about 2 weeks of 3x daily dosing you will have at minimum a rebound effect/ discontinuation syndrome in which anxiety and blood pressure will elevate. To what degree, it is unclear and variable between persons. As the above poster already said, I would use them sparingly and take them only when your BP is high as opposed as a maintenance medication. There are alternative drugs that work much better for chronic hypertension than xanax.
nuttynutskin
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I don't understand why they would prescribe xanax for blood pressure unless I guess anxiety is what's causing it. Seems odd to me tho as someone who suffers from some anxiety disorders and can't even find a provider to prescribe a benzo.
jose ribas da silva
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0.5 mg 3 times per day is way too much. It is sufficient to get withdrawal symptoms and dependency over time. For sure there are other drugs for blood pressure that do not cause dependency. I would not risk, it is a very powerful drug.
I am on regular BP medication daily. Xanax was prescribed for times when I have a spike. During those time it becomes a vicious circle bp up - anxiety up - bp up, and so on. I've read on this forum how shitty benzo withdrawal is and just trying to make sure I'm careful.
I'd say take it as needed.
They key word here being "as needed". For example, you might not actually "need" the whole .5 mg football as a single dose - for someone without a tolerance, a .25 mg dose of xanax is plenty for getting someone to relax, unless we're talking about an actual panic attack.
At a dose of .5 mg per day (.25 mg twice per day), xanax is actually pretty sustainable. Perhaps sometimes you'll need .75 mg per day, perhaps some days you can make do with just .25 mg or none at all. Also, try to keep track of your intake.
If you keep doing more than 1 mg per day, tolerance is just going to catch up with you quickly.
I'm not a fan of the idea of taking high doses for several days, then having 3 drug-free days - what are you going to do if you have a spike on one of said drug-free days?
They key word here being "as needed". For example, you might not actually "need" the whole .5 mg football as a single dose - for someone without a tolerance, a .25 mg dose of xanax is plenty for getting someone to relax, unless we're talking about an actual panic attack.
At a dose of .5 mg per day (.25 mg twice per day), xanax is actually pretty sustainable. Perhaps sometimes you'll need .75 mg per day, perhaps some days you can make do with just .25 mg or none at all. Also, try to keep track of your intake.
If you keep doing more than 1 mg per day, tolerance is just going to catch up with you quickly.
I'm not a fan of the idea of taking high doses for several days, then having 3 drug-free days - what are you going to do if you have a spike on one of said drug-free days?
Jack123456
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In that case the benzos aren't primarily for BP control but for symptom management, and only if needed. So you really should only take them when it gets really bad anxiety-wise. If you start to take them regularly for anxiety, chances are you'll at least become psychologically addicted, and probably physically depending on dose and frequency as others have stated. If you have anxiety issues unrelated to the BP spikes and you feel as if you need to take the benzos constantly, maybe think about working on them in some more direct way (CBT, etc.).
If your BP spikes are occuring so often under medication that you feel you need to dose benzos daily (as it seems, ee your first post, maybe your BP medication needs to be adjusted?