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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Is there anything better I could ask for beside xanax

jdpaul88

jdpaul88

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So I recently had a traumatic experience after trying marijuana for the first time. I must say right away that I became a extremely anxious person after my father died when I was 16. Almost to the point where I stayed up late thinking about how I might die just as he did. It haunted me and caused me lie awake until 3 or 4 am every night. After a while I found some good hope through the greatest thing ever (my faith in Jesus Christ). The ability to sleep and not get anxious started to get better. I was functioning more and was thinking less about fearful thoughts and impending doom.I believe I had this predisposition due to a childhood filled with fearful experiences. My father would always scare me with the deep waters at swimming pools - sometimes he'd sneak up behind me and grab me and take me out to the shallow parts. I often half-trusted him but knew if I started to sink he'd save me. I was teased a lot by my brother when I was growing up with this idea of a rock monster that would live within the basement - we had an area on a far wall that was basically covered with flat rocks and a fireplace in the middle. I guess I was given to fear sort of - but at the same time I was very carefree. I'm 23 now and I had tried marijuana 3 or so weeks ago - I literally thought I was gonna die and the high sucked. I felt my body becoming warm and that my blood was gushing through my system. I felt the warmness and triggered it to my aorta and thought, "Oh No! This is where I am going to die and have an aortic dissection just like my dad did." My sister was always given to paranoia too and so she caught on and started to believe me but I didn't want to her to so I kind of simmered down I guess but it was very frightful. I saw the doctor at my campus where I go to school and we had a few talks and she gave me a script for some 0.25mg xanax to help my fearful thoughts/anxiety. Is there anything better I could ask for when I go back to see her since this first script was just a trial basis. As always, thanks for your help! I knew 0.25 is way too small and so I know I will ask for something better. Is there a benzo that deals better though with social outings - making you less paranoid or scared but more talkative and open - perhaps more than alprazolam would?
 
The anxiolysis of benzodiazepines varies from drug to drug, but doesn't really change in character. Things to think about are speed of onset (lorazepam is good for this) and duration (alprazolam/Xanax is very short, lorazepam a little longer, diazepam and clonazepam a LOT longer). Some benzos are more sedating than others - diazepam, for example, though classed as an anxiolytic benzo, is pretty sedating for a lot of people. The hypnotic benzos (temazepam, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam etc) are not going to be as appropriate here.

Did the Xanax help at all? Is it that you have panic attacks, or constant anxiety?

Really though, this is something to talk over with your doctor. Everyone is different and every situation is different, so it is best to have a dialogue with someone who can elicit the full history and who knows what they are talking about :)

It is important to remember that benzos treat the symptoms of anxiety but not the cause. Have you had any counselling at all? You have had a series of difficult experiences (I'm so sorry about your dad :() and I think it would be really useful to be able to talk about these with a therapist. Something like CBT can also be extremely helpful in dealing with anxiety and could help break the train of thought (such as thinking you are going to suffer an aortic dissection) and can help to change your behaviour too. Remember also that regular benzo use will lead to tolerance and dependence - and benzo addiction is horrible! The withdrawals can be dangerous too. You really only want to use them sporadically and they are not a good long term solution..

I would also recommend checking out The Dark Side forum as they are excellent for providing support and advice for things like anxiety and drug-induced paranoia.

Good luck! <3
 
^^^ ninja post there cat woman, did you see mt Friday the 13th pic I posted for you this morning ?...your obviously on the ball now ;)


You will soon get over your bad experience with marijuana, it is not uncommon for it to trigger paranoia, your doctor gave you something to calm you down not something you should use long term.

You have spoken about a bad experience on marijuana but I sense you have an ongoing anxiety issue, you need to discuss this with your doctor, alprazolam is a Benzodiazepine and long term use (m ore then a few weeks) will lead to dependence and tolerance to the effects, it is not a good long term solution to anxiety disorders.

Any medication for this needs to be done after assessment by a properly qualified doctor, we can't do that for you via the internet.
 
You'd be better not going down the benzo road. If you really need help that badly, ask for an SNRI like venlafaxine or Cymbalta. Takes a while to kick in, but when taken regularly every day after a few weeks they work really well for generalized and social anxiety. I would be wary though of accepting any psychological medication without speaking to a psychiatrist. Anxiety in general is way over diagnosed in our society. You are SUPPOSED to have trouble sleeping when your dad dies. You are SUPPOSED to be afraid of crap in the basement when you are a kid. There is nothing abnormal about these things. To put it into perspective, I have missed just about every major social event in my life, including my prom, due to social anxiety. I never had or went to parties, I never dated. I missed all kinds of school and I have had to quit two different jobs due to my anxiety. Still, I talked to a general practitioner, 2 psychiatric nurses, 3 psychologists and 5 psychiatrists in total, each of which telling me the same thing, before I finally decided to try medication.

If you really believe you have such terrible anxiety that it has a large negative impact on your life, then by all means seek help. But seek it from the right sources, and don't immediately jump on benzodiazapines as soon as a doctor prescribes them. There is a thread going on right now about the impact this class of drugs has on long and short term memory. Also if you search for benzo withdrawal, almost everyone who has experienced both will tell you that it's worse than withdrawing from heroin. I have learned to manage my anxiety for the most part, and have given up long term drug treatment (SNRIs). Now I just use clonazepam. However I limit my use to once or twice a week, only when I absolutely need it. This is not a good class of drug to take regularly. Xanax is a particularly addictive form of this drug class. If you are bound and determined to use a benzo, probably 0.5mg clonazepam twice a day as needed would be a reasonable prescription. Again, I would urge you to consider the long term negative effects of benzo usage, particularly the difficulty in discontinuing them.
 
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^ +1 on other meds apart from benzos, if you want to go down the pharmacological route.

In the UK benzos are rarely prescribed. First like is an SSRI, then a SNRI (or t'other way around), then "other pharmacological options" including buspirone, gabapentin, pregabalin, hydroxyzine and amitriptyline. Benzos are used very sparingly, and way down the list usually.. they do work, yes, but tolerance and addiction make them impractical for anything other than very short term - and the fact that they work makes it hard to try other approaches, which are less instantaneous (but more sustainable and can be very effective indeed). The cognitive effects on memory are another concern as SPC mentioned, and stopping benzos is a nightmare by all accounts.

(Atm I didn't see your pic! I'll see you in EADD shortly)
 
I take valium and like others said, it last longer and it works better for my anxiety and keeps my panic attacks at bay. maybe try that. I dont smoke marijuana, it causes my heart to speed up and isnt very good in different situations, besides being illegal as well if the dr decides to make you take a UA, you may lose all your meds.
 
Indica strains of cannabis with a high cannabidiol content and without pesticides are more mellow.Do you know what kind of marijuana you had?

It helps to remember that no one has died from weed, remember your just high, listen to your favorite music, do it with a group of close friends that won't fuck with you(intentionally or not) and try not to overanalyze the high. Just go with it.For me the more often I smoke it the less anxiety I get relative to how high I am.It even relaxes me. Though cannabis isn't for everyone, maybe your just one of those people who gets no pleasure from it.

I've experianced something similar with spice. The anxiety will gradually reduce over a couple weeks. If your just an anxiety prone person and it interferes with your life then I think benzo would be appropriate, maybe a little higher like .5mg if .25 isn't working. Though there is a study which showed that talking to a medical professional about the anxiety and getting advice was just as good as a benzo, with effects lasting longer. Sure as hell wouldn't work for me though.
 
I should also mention that I think mental disorders or predispotions to them run in my family (also myself along with my mom are both very chemically sensitive). I was the first to actually be hospitalized for one after my father died - I mentioned in my first post that I would stay up late thinking I would die. The truth is that after several weeks or months it became bad enough to turn into a psychosis where I thought I was swallowing my brain. I was hospitalized for that obviously - They had me on seroquel and other sedatives. The next year or two (maybe three. I forget how long). A few of my brothers friends locked my brother in the trunk of a car and said they were going to drive down to some other state (( don't know the entire story). Anyways, he basically snapped and he started to freak out. He was hospitalized and treated. Now it has been a year or two since he was hospitalized and I have never felt I lost my brother more than I do now. He is on haldol and clonazepam. I watched him blow his first semester at college away because he had no motivation. I asked him, "matthew, why don't you go to class. Why don't you want to go?' He just sits there and tells me he is not motivated. Now at home he is a lifeless smog hovering around. He never engages or interacts with people and all he does is sleep. I do not like that effect benzodiazpines have and I don't want the xanax to do that to me - thats why I asked for something that might mellow me out but not rip the life out of me. I am a very outgoing lively person and so was my brother before he got on the haldol and clonazepam.



effie said:
The anxiolysis of benzodiazepines varies from drug to drug, but doesn't really change in character. Things to think about are speed of onset (lorazepam is good for this) and duration (alprazolam/Xanax is very short, lorazepam a little longer, diazepam and clonazepam a LOT longer). Some benzos are more sedating than others - diazepam, for example, though classed as an anxiolytic benzo, is pretty sedating for a lot of people. The hypnotic benzos (temazepam, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam etc) are not going to be as appropriate here.

Did the Xanax help at all? Is it that you have panic attacks, or constant anxiety?

Really though, this is something to talk over with your doctor. Everyone is different and every situation is different, so it is best to have a dialogue with someone who can elicit the full history and who knows what they are talking about :)

It is important to remember that benzos treat the symptoms of anxiety but not the cause. Have you had any counselling at all? You have had a series of difficult experiences (I'm so sorry about your dad :() and I think it would be really useful to be able to talk about these with a therapist. Something like CBT can also be extremely helpful in dealing with anxiety and could help break the train of thought (such as thinking you are going to suffer an aortic dissection) and can help to change your behaviour too. Remember also that regular benzo use will lead to tolerance and dependence - and benzo addiction is horrible! The withdrawals can be dangerous too. You really only want to use them sporadically and they are not a good long term solution..

I would also recommend checking out The Dark Side forum as they are excellent for providing support and advice for things like anxiety and drug-induced paranoia.

Good luck! <3
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effie, first off, thank you for you reply. Secondly, without a doub the xanax worked. If describing its efficiency I would say it is like having ten darts and hitting the bullseye every time. Plain and simple the xanax is a mysterious drug but it worked instantly for me. I'm not sure I really need it and I realize in my head that if I don't use it sparingly I will just start popping them. I'm given to addiction and I noticed that the first day I got alprazolam I took the .25 and then I was thinking, "wow, this is going to make me so careless and stop my anxiety." and then a few hours later I just popped another .25 for the heck of it. The following day I think I took .75 mg and I was thinking how I need to save the rest or I'm not gonna have enough to last me until my next doctors appointment. So I started to rationalize that perhaps I'd just do half of .25 which would let me do more on certain days I wanted to. By the way, do you have a thread that describes in detail the differing effects of the benzodiazepines
 
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It sounds like you are, without a doubt, quite anxious. If your anxiety is chronic and relentless, if it impairs your ability to function everyday, I would suggest you look into a longer acting benzo to be taken on a daily basis. If your anxiety comes and goes, if it has a tendency to spike, but doesn't trouble you on a daily basis, I would suggest a benzo, possibly short-acting, to be used as needed. I might actually suggest you look into clonazepam or diazepam if you feel you need a benzo daily. If you need a benzo to be used as needed, many benzos can do the trick. But, I want to say that a HIGHLY doubt that your brother lacks any motivation because of the clonazepam, rather, I think the Haldol (haloperidol) is the issue. It is one of the worst anti-psychotics in terms of causing unpleasant symptoms. Clonazepam is a great benzo to be used for round-the-clock anxiety management. Possibly the best for certain situations. Diazepam is good, too, but its initial effects don't last as long, only the metabolites' minor effects, which would require more frequent dosing, and it might not work as well with your anxiety just from the impression I am getting. If you want a benzo everyday, try clonazepam. Without a tolerance, you do not need much for anxiety relief, and I doubt it would cause you to lack motivation or the like. Much higher doses of clonazepam might cause this for someone with no benzo tolerance, but it would have to be a hell of a high dose.

I also suggest psychotherapy because of what you have reported. I think a lot of your issues could be helped via therapy, in addition to drug therapy. I wish you the best.

-Alex
 
Your brother may not necessarely be unmotivated because of the medication or laziness, the negative symptoms of schizophrenia include what's called avolition, where there is no motivation to do anything.

Most benzos are about the same, some have faster or slower onsets and different durations. For me I'd say xanax is as good as it get(fast acting, short duration), though some like clonazepam(long acting, slow onset, makes me depressed) or valium(longer acting, quick onset).Lorazepam is short acting and has a slow onset. I read that oxazepam and clorazepate have the least effect on memory and oxazepam, which is short acting with a slower onset then most benzos, is the least toxic, least sedating, and the least abusable.
 
I have perhaps a surprising update. So I will try to be as precise as possible. I took the script I got on Wednesday and I filled it on Friday at a local target pharmacy - I received 14 0.25 mg pills. At first I placed a lot of trust in the pills and thought they would really rid me of my panic attacks. That Friday I was struggling in my mind as to when the best time to take it would be - so I finally just popped in a pill at about 4:30 or 5:30 pm. I thought it was good so I got giddy and took even more - didn't really have any sedating/tiring effect until very late in the night - perhaps 3 or 4 am. Anyways I have continued this trend and kind of abused the amount she put me on of 0.25. I think I took at the most .75 mg but It really didn't do much. Anyways, I am down to only about 1.125 mg and my appointment is on the 24 or 26. The strange this is that last night around 1 am I started to really listen to my bodily signs and for some reason I got very afraid (thought I was gonna have an aortic dissection.) I popped in some of the xanax about 0.25 or so and It really didn't help. I mean it took about 45 minutes for me to calm down. At the same time I had dilated pupils and felt very mental/psychotic. I don't know if there is some chemical imbalance that is making me more psychotic or mental on the xanax but It was irritating that I had a panic attack. This panic attack wasn't met with a burst of heat to the head and strong papitations just a very concerned and more out-of-reality beliefs. I think I may resemble my brother in the schitzophrenia aspect as a possibility. To be honest I felt like I was struggling through the paranoia and anxiety after I tried the marijuana better than recently being on the xanax. Do I need a longer acting benzodiazepine like clonazepam where the half life is much greater? What are your thoughts. I do take back part of what I said to effie about the xanax working - well, in some ways I'm conflicted because I don't know if the xanax really does work it is just me having an overly excited mind


I would say my anxiety is very cognitive engaging - For instance I found this in the anxiety megathread when it was describing anxiety.
Cognitive effects of anxiety may include thoughts about suspected dangers, such as fear of dying. "You may...fear that the chest pains [a physical symptom of anxiety] are a deadly heart attack or that the shooting pains in your head [another physical symptom of anxiety] are the result of a tumor or aneurysm. You feel an intense fear when you think of dying, or you may think of it more often than normal, or can’t get it out of your mind."
Click to expand...

This definitely describes me to the highest degree
 
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Update: Sunday night was peculiar in that I was having a very hard time sleeping. I tried to go to sleep on and off from 3 am to 8 PM Monday night. I had little sessions of sleep which were followed by a quick dream and then I would wake up. I believe it is the xanax causing it. I do feel an overall calmness but sleep deprivation does bad things to me - like in 2005 it led to a psychosis. I believe I need to switch from a different medicine. I do feel relaxed, but at the same time when I lie down my mind i scattered and refuses to accept my bodies desire to sleep. I feel dizziness and irritable but since I'm calm I'm able to handle it. The worst part is that I can't seem to fall asleep
 
Based on these current reports, I highly suggest clonazepam as a benzo to be used daily. The Xanax could be causing re-bound anxiety leading to these periods of panic and sleeplessness.
 
My mom suggested clonazepam (and actually has a lot of it since two of my siblings take it) - why would it not cause the same symptoms of the xanax? Would it have something to do with it having a lot longer half-life?
 
Yes, Klonipin (clonazepam) has a much longer half-life than Xanax, and if you take it daily there won't be spikes of anxiety letting you know it is time for your next dose, you will just be relaxed. Also, Klonipin is a bit different, and from personal experience more relaxing than Xanax. Xanax, at the right dose, is great for panic, but for anxiety/panic maintenance Klonipin is much better. Xanax kicks in quicker, but this doesn't matter if you take Klonipin regularly. It is really a good benzo for most anxiety/panic disorders which require everyday benzo dosing. Quite strong, but also subtle. Very good benzo IMO.
 
Sure, I have plenty of experience with both, and using Xanax to control anxiety/panic everday is very tough.
 
I would go to a doctor with this. And it looks like you're already building a tolerance and are having rebound anxiety and insomnia which leads to a vicious circle of popping pills.
 
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