Xanax xr suddenly didnt work yesterday. What could have caused it?

[1BallsJohnson]

I've been prescribed and taking xanax xr for about 4 months now. For the first 2 months I was only prescribed 2mg per day (two 1mg pills with freedom to choose when I take them), but after finally getting my psychiatrist to understand that 2mg wasn't even enough when I FIRST started taking it, he increased my prescription to 3mg a day (three 1mg pills). For reasons that would take way too long to explain, I barely develop any tolerance to benzos. More importantly, my xanax xr worked perfectly well the day before yesterday, and I only took 2mg. For some reason though, when I took my xanax xr yesterday, it literally didnt do anything, so I took some extra in hopes that it would help. I ended up taking 6mg in less than an hour and a half, but never felt anything. Its been over 24 hours since, and it never kicked in. I even chewed them up so they would kick in quicker, and it felt like I hadn't taken any. Does anyone know what could have caused this? If it helps to know, I also take gabapentin, vyvanse, lexapro, clonidine, trazadone (for sleep), and benadryl for allergies. Yesterday, I only had only taken my lexapro and gabapentin before I took my xanax xr, and I only took benadryl and clonidine within 2 hours of taking the xanax. I took my trazadone substantially later. Anyone who has any ideas, please let me know

 

[AnythingEverything]

I can only speak from my own experience with Benzos but for me, they barely worked at all past the first week or so and hence my dose went up up up to ridiculous amounts.

I would suggest taking a substantial break , skip as many days as you comfortably can or take a lower dose just to get you through.

I obviously don't understand the not building a tolerance thing as you say its a long story but it sounds just like your body has gotten dependant upon them. For me, with xanax i only 'felt something' the very first time I took it. My relationship with benzos has gone on for years but I do not feel a thing, even at crazy high doses.

You may benefit from changing to clonazepam which is the same strength with a longer half life. But ultimately, if you're taking them every day and not only in the case of acute anxiety, they will stop having the desired affect at some stage. And that's how people (like myself) get into trouble, up dosing all the time and chasing that 'feeling' I can never get back. My initial dose of 7.5mg of diazepam became 400-500mg in just a few months. And xanax was the same (in equivalent doses)../I've now been tapering for 3 years and still have a long way to go and truly believe I will never feel any effect from a benzo again. They are one drug that you just feel you can never have enough of.

I guess too, you're not really supoosed to 'feel anytning ' as in high from benzos, they are designed to reduce acute anxiety. For those of us wanting 'that feeling' they are going to stop producing that quite quickly.

I think your best optjon is to use a lot more sparingly, only when needed and have rest days where you don't have any. This should get you the best therapeutic results. Benzos are a slippery slope, be careful. Already, by taking more and more to get that effect, you are reducing the chance of them working at all when you really need them.

 

[1BallsJohnson]

Normally I'd agree, but to help make more sense of it, I guess I'll explain the thing about my tolerance not building. Basically when I was 16, I had a really bad concussion that actually caused a pretty massive amount of bleeding in my brain that was coming from my pre-frontal and frontal cortex in the right hemisphere. The short term effects were massive headaches for weeks, and seizures and dizzy spells for months. The long term effect was severe anxiety. At first I didn't even know that the injury was the cause of my anxiety. I just started experiencing the anxiety along with depression from that day forward and never made the connection, and after a while I finally reached a point where I needed psychiatric care. Then when I was 18, through a series of events and countless appointments with different doctors and therapists, a neurologist told me that he was basically certain that the head injury was the problem, and he explained to me that the part of my brain that suffered the worst damage is where stress and anxiety are processed the most. So my anxiety isn't something that happens randomly, or happens some days but not others. Neither are my panic attacks. I go through the same process everyday. When I first wake up in the morning, I feel fine as long as nothing stressful happens. But as the day goes on, my anxiety starts building and getting worse and worse. First hour by hour, then minute by minute, then second by second. If I don't do anything to relieve it, then usually by the time I've been awake for between 8 and 10 hours, I reach a full panic attack that can easily last over an hour. So the reason I barely build any tolerance to benzos is because of the effect my injury had. My brain has been very limited at adapting and adjusting its gaba and serotonin receptors ever since. I used to take lorazepam but that didn't work well because my anxiety is too consistent to take something with such a short half life. Then my old psychiatrist tried switching me to klonopin, but for some reason, klonopin doesn't work at all for me. Then he refused to give me anymore benzos at all ever again, so I had to go almost a whole year without any before finally finding a new psychiatrist and he recommended xanax xr, which I didn't even know existed because I figured that if you wanted a long lasting benzo, klonopin was the only option. So it's not that I'm looking for a buzz and I used to feel one but didn't. Its that I'm used to my anxiety stopping when I take it, and my anxiety just kept getting worse as if I didn't take any.

 

[1BallsJohnson]

Me and my current psychiatrist are hoping to find an alternative way of treating my anxiety so I don't have to keep taking benzos, but until that goal is achieved, it's my only option. But that's why he has me on gabapentin and clonidine as well. We also tried adding trazadone for me to take in the day time (i already take it for insomnia) but it seems to make my anxiety worse. When I take my prescribed 300mg, or sometimes just 150mg if I'm feeling tired enough already, it's enough to just make me sleep, but when I take a low dose of trazadone like 50mg it makes me uncomfortable in my own skin of that makes sense.

 

[AnythingEverything]

I replied before but it mustnt have posted. It sounds complicated for sure. Have you told him they didn't work this time? Have you ever tried a beta blocker for anxiety. Good idea to get off the Benzos. I wish you luck

 

[manboychef]

That is a conundrum. I have to say though that it seems like you are experiencing tolerance and dependence. Dependence is not the problem, but tolerance to xanax is a very real problem.

Like anything everything stated, I would also try clonazepam. It works after two hours, and has a very long half life. Basically you may end up on a very high dose as years progress if you go the route of benzos. I was on 10mg xanax and 90 temazepam after a couple years of taking them because they do stop working when you take them daily.

 

[1BallsJohnson]

It actually just took much longer than normal to get into my system. About an hour after I posted my last message, I felt my anxiety dissipating. So it turns out I'm fine. But thank you for the input and suggestions.

 

[AnythingEverything]

Good to hear

 

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