Benzos Possible benzo addiction, any advice appreciated.

[Chrono21]

Approximately 3 weeks ago I had my first ever major panic attack which, at the time, I believed it to be a heart attack so I ended getting a taxi to A and E. I'm 20 years of age and have had issues with anxiety since my early teens but I had never sought or received any help or treatment. A few days after, I went to a psychiatrist who prescribed me Zoloft and a months prescription of Xanax.

I have drank, smoked weed and taken MDMA a couple of times but nothing has ever hit the spot for me like Xanax. After two days of taking 0.5mg, I started to abuse the substance. I don't take any during the day but every evening for the last 15 days I've been taking 3mg all at once.

I'm trying to stop using but I feel as though I can't take the edge off without them. If I were to go cold turkey now, would my withdrawals be completely pyschological? I have read that Xanax is also very physically addictive and seizures are even a possibility. Although I've been taking them for such a short amount of time but because of my excessive use, do you think I should be subject to any physical withdrawals? Any feedback will be appreciated.

 

[Felonious Monk]

Any w/d would be mostly psychological at this point, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You clearly slid very easily into benzo dependence, probably because of the issues that prompted your Doctor to script it to you in the first place. What you really need is talk therapy. Maybe a benzo with a long half-life (a la Ativan or Klonopin) that would be more difficult to abuse.

 

[beforethebeginning]

above poster is correct about withdrawal,
but benzos every day r bad idea. try taking 0,5mg of xanax or 1mg of ativan once or twice a week max. not higher not more often. as someone with anxiety and high sensitivity to physical dependence i feel like thats the max or maybe thats alteady too much. once a week wud be safer.

i keep a calendar and every day i write which drug and how much i take.
look i been where u are at. heart phobia anxiety etc.

im just really happy i stuck through it and didndt start taking benzos and antidepressants daily
cause they are a bitch to taper.

ur not gonna get a heart attack from high heatt rate.
its high bloood pressure that kills and even tho panic will elevate blood pressure a little for a small duration... at a young age like yours your usual blood pressure is probably excellent.

so dont be stupid like i was and forget about all the things that worry u before u waste more time on this.
stop smoking weed its only making u more paranoid

 

[BlueHues]

Yeah, you probably haven't been doing it long enough, in a high enough dosage to where you'll have to worry about true physical dependence to alprazolam, but I assume you're still suffering from anxiety/panic?

Even if two weeks of using xanax at the dosage you were isn't enough to trigger dangerous physical withdrawal symptoms, rebound anxiety is a symptom that even people with no previous problems with anxiety can experience after semi-regular use of the drug. The fact that you have pre-existing issues with anxiety, coupled with the fact that you have been using alprazolam daily for the last two weeks, are pretty good indicators that you might suffer some pretty intense rebound anxiety and other psych symptoms if you just stop abruptly...

Maybe you should try a quick taper, if for nothing else to make the psychological transition smoother for you...

Of course, I'm not an expert on benzos, and I'm sure others will chime in with their own opinions of this...

 

[Chrono21]

Thanks for the reply. Where I'm from its sort of a taboo to talk to anyone about anxiety or depression etc. I'll suggest those alternative benzos to my doctor next time I see him.

 

[BlueHues]

^Yes, you should let your doctor know about your concerns about the addictive nature of benzos, but also be honest with yourself and your doctor about how you're truly feeling...

I'm not sure where you're from, but trying to pretend that "everything is fine" when "everything's not fine", isn't a way to live your life...I hope you have someone that you're close enough with to be completely honest about what's going on with you!

 

[Chrono21]

^Yes, you should let your doctor know about your concerns about the addictive nature of benzos, but also be honest with yourself and your doctor about how you're truly feeling...

I'm not sure where you're from, but trying to pretend that "everything is fine" when "everything's not fine", isn't a way to live your life...I hope you have someone that you're close enough with to be completely honest about what's going on with you!

im from a very rural part of Ireland. I'm only starting to realize now that I've been suffering from anxiety for the majority of the last few years but just didn't know what it was and assumed most others felt the same. Hopefully with Zoloft along with other things I'll be able to improve my situation and won't depend on self medicating in unhealthy ways. I'm only new to this and I really appreciate your concern btw

 

[Chrono21]

@beforethebeginning thanks for the advice. Health phobia is a major trigger for me also. I hope that you too keep your issues with anxiety under control.

 

[Chrono21]

@felonious monk, thanks for the reply. Good to know I won't end up in hospitable with withdrawals once my Xanax runs out. I'll make sure to suggest those less addictive benzos to my doctor next time I see him

 

[RTrain]

Idk, I think a 3 mg dose for 15 straight days could cause some physical withdrawal. Just because the dose is a decent size. Nothing that will put you in the hospital, but you might feel a bit crappy and spaced out at the times you are use to being on the xanax (apparently the evening), for around a week.

 

[BlueHues]

I imagine rural Ireland may not be the most understanding place to grow up, as far as "talking about your feelings" goes, considering that many 3rd generation Irish in the U.S. are still notoriously stoic and quiet about any "personal issues" they may be having...As long as you have someone you can talk to, it makes a big difference...

 

[sam05]

i've gotten to the point that when i take xanax i dont really even feel it, i usually dose 2mg at night to help me sleep but last night i had 4mg just to see if i would feel it and i definitely did feel it, i felt tired but euphoric at the same time and it was great, i didnt think i could feel euphoric from taking xanax but i did. im a bit worried about addiction potential too which is why i posted in this thread but i read on wikipedia only 35% of people taking more than 3mg for 8 weeks experienced withdrawal symptoms after stopping.

 

[DETROIT*edm*JUNKIE]

just taper off. Xanax is best not to be taken daily. i prefer taking phenibut daily and tampering off once in a while (relatively easy with phenibut) and keeping Xanax on hand for panic attacks. Good luck OP, you'll be fine.

 

[adder]

Benzodiazepines themselves don't do anything to solve the real problem, like any medication they can only be a tool. But it's a terrible tool which makes you less able to do the job, and that's how it is with benzodiazepines when you start taking a lot, and you're even more calm than you should be putting a lot of processes in your body at a slower rate. It may be handy to control the anxiety in the first phase when you literally think there's nothing you can do to stop your mind and your body from producing responses to stress that make you unable to focus on anything else. But then later it's a terrible trap. I wasn't even prescribed BZDs in the first place, I took my first 10mg temazepam pill to stop thinking about a girl, it was so stupid really, and 3 years later I was on 9 mg clonazepam a day officially, probably more most of the time. I can't even stress how shitty in the end it made me feel when I somehow 6 more years later woke up from the dreamy depressed cloudy state of mind.

Throughout these years I managed to develop anxiety as a response not only to the stuff a normal person usually fears at least a bit, so it lets you survive in the jungle. A common sense got transformed into an automatic mechanism of treating every problem as the end of the world. And alprazolam is in my opinion way worse than classic BZDs, I've never used it regularly for more than a week or two weeks, but I took quite a lot of estazolam with lorazepam before I switched to clonazepam. These triazolo-BZDs hit much faster, and they also have some other action different from acting on BZD receptors making them more potent at alleviating anxiety immediately, and when you combine that with a shorter half-life, you get a worse withdrawal then.

This is not the way to fight anxiety on a regular basis, with time it dulls you so much that you become indifferent. I used to think that's what I'd always needed - think nothing about some stuff. But you can do that on your own and you possibly will as a result of defensive mechanisms. I always hated antidepressants and "atypical" anxiolytics, but I think I would be now in a completely different place if 1) getting BZDs hadn't been so easy for me, and 2) some psychiatrist had got engaged to help me for real and not just put off problems for later when I actually don't have time now to solve all the problems, because there's too many of them, and they keep cumulating.