Xanax Is Not Good to me

[bigdannydog]

Hey guys and gals. I want to get your thoughts. I am in a high stress business so I do have panic attacks. My Dr. put me on Xanax to help. Unfortunately all it does is put me to sleep and I cant function. My question is there something else out there better to take the edge off and not knock me out? Thanks 

 

[Conceited]

Hey guys and gals. I want to get your thoughts. I am in a high stress business so I do have panic attacks. My Dr. put me on Xanax to help. Unfortunately all it does is put me to sleep and I cant function. My question is there something else out there better to take the edge off and not knock me out? Thanks 

Usually the sleepiness wears off after taking the same dose of x@Nx daily for a week, even after a fews days in most cases.  Maybe ask for some v@lium.  

If you have never used bnz before most of them, if not all, can make you feel sleepy when you first start a course, then it wears off after taking them regularly and you can function normally. Maybe your dr has prescribed you a to high of a dose. 

 

[Florida40Cal]

First off, im not a doctor, but I know a good deal about benz0s and anxiety. As with any medication, your body needs time to adjust. However, I'm not so certain that waiting for your body to build up a tolerance to a benz0 is the best idea. Xans are prescribed on an As-needed basis, to take when you feel the on-set of a panic attack or extreme anxiety. They are not made to take daily, in situations with no or little anxiety (you wouldn't/shouldn't take Xan like, say, an antidepressant or anti-botic- that's not their intention) as they are fast acting, and will only provide benefit for a few hours. Based on what you said, you work in a high stress job, which means you probably have anxiety throughout the day, which is where other drugs may be much more beneficial than Xan. And, if it's putting you to sleep, I think you're better off looking at a more long term medication (or other alternatives to medications)

If you're looking for something to help prevent panic attacks, and reduce your overall anxiety, that you take once a day rather than during a panic attack, a longer acting benz0 is your best bet. Klon0pin, V@lium, or ativ.n are much, much longer acting. Their affects may not be as strong, or as immediate as Xan, but they will provide anxiety relief all day.

What I will say, is that Xans were never intended to be long term medications. If you're having panic attacks daily, or once a week, you probably should look at medications such as Prozac or other anti-depressants which have the added benefit of anti-anxiety, to help reduce the overall amount of panic attacks, keeping the Xan prescription for the worst episodes.

I had panic attacks often in my early 20s, and, at that time, as much as I'd rather curl up in a ball and take a Xan and wait for it to all be over with, I found a much much better non-benz0 solution, an SSRI which helped with anxiety, and eliminated my panic attacks all together. I'm also in an extremely stressful job, and about 40 people rely on me for a paycheck, and, although I don't have panic attacks at work, as soon as I get home, I can feel the onset of one. I use meditation and relaxation techniques, but, have a bottle of Xan if need be.

Again, Xan is very beneficial during panic attacks, but I wouldn't use it as something to take daily. I'm willing to bet, the prescription bottle you received, says to take as needed, not take once a day. I would explain to your doctor, that youre looking for an overall long term solution to reducing panic attacks and anxiety. 

 

[Back2Good]

I'll second @Florida40Cal on his reply, from personal experience.  To be clear, I've been prescribed X@nax for 11 years now (@ 1mg 2x per day to start, then 1.5 mg 2x per day)  - Yet even as my Doc was writing the first prescription for it, I was still politely asking for Ativ@n.  Unfortunately, what I wound up with (Topix was the only place on the 'net back then to look for alternatives, and more than half of those vendors were scammers) after a year or two of taking the X@nax as prescribed was a X@nax monkey on my back and a huge across-the-board tolerance for benzos - Take your pick, name any benzo; I guarantee you I'll need a higher than normal dose of it for it to be effective.

Eventually, of course, since my Doctor and the VA really weren't concerned with my situation, and just wanted to throw more X@nax at it, I found vendors for legit Ativ@n and V@lium (much harder to do then than it is now), and weaned myself from the X@n@x, then, when I had gotten through the quite rotten little hell of X@nax WD's, started myself on 2mg Ativ@n first thing daily - Presto, no more panic attacks, no sleepiness, finally, normalcy.  Now, of course, it's much easier to get VERY good Ativ@n and V@lium than it was then, but a funny thing happened along the way...I got the notion into my head that if I didn't always have a sufficient supply of all three meds on hand, I'd relapse into panic attacks (I won't lie to you - Even on what is now 2.5mg Ativ@n daily, I still feel them coming on occasionally, and a football banishes them instantly).  V@lium, of course, is a wonderful muscle relaxer as well as anxiolitic, so I have to have a few of those around as well.

So, but for 10 footballs or so I keep for myself for emergencies, I give the remaining 80 footballs I'm prescribed monthly to my wife, who breaks them in half and uses them for sleeping pills on nights she has trouble sleeping - I laughed out loud when I saw the gargantuan pill bottle she'd purchased to keep them in, there must be 1200 footballs in that thing.  Understandable - I, also, am a hoarder, and keep between 600 - 900 Ativ@ns and 600-900 V@lium stored in a lockbox in the coolest room in our home, with normal sized pill bottles containing perhaps 60 tablets each in my medicine cabinet - I handle my own refills

It is sad that treatment for anxiety, and panic attacks (I would include PTSD in there, but every time I even allow the phrase to cross my train of thought the Infantry God grabs my throat and yells in my face "There is NO SUCH THING AS PTSD, UNDERSTOOD?  DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE YOU WEAR PINK BOWS IN YOUR HAIR TO WORK FOR A WEEK OR TWO, YOU SNIVELING EXCUSE FOR A SOLDIER?" *, is so badly studied and practiced by physicians here in the US - Sad that many of their patients know more about the alternative medications for treating these conditions than they do, and are capable (with the miracle of the internet) to determine the proper dosage regiment for them as well, but the point remains - If you have rare panic attacks, sure, get a X@nax prescription and use only as necessary.  But if you have frequent panic attacks, ask your Doctor for V@lium or Kl@N@pin, but be aware that the latter are daily medications, and you will become addicted to them, and develop a tolerance to them if you use them for more than short periods of time.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - I can't see any alternative to using an anxiolytic for the rest of my life, and given I am old and busted  up anyhow, I gave up drinking (except on special occasions) 12 years ago, and gave up my beloved Copenhagen smokeless tobacco (now that was hard - Needed a full course of Chantix to get through it) in '09, so it isn't as if my liver and kidneys are under constant attack.

* That's an actual quote from the Doctor (A Medical Corps Colonel) who conducted my exit physical with the VA when I retired from active duty - Back then, even mentioning PTSD could get you reassigned to a desk job and very quickly discharged.  Every month, when my disability check is direct deposited, and that SMS from the bank pings on my phone, I remember that fat, red face with a drunkard's broken veins covering his nose, hovering two feet from mine and shouting that quote at the top of his lungs - His decorations included no overseas service, no decorations for merit (not even an Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM), and he didn't even wear an Expert Field Medical Badge, which meant he'd never trained for or attempted the test, or that he took the test and failed.

V/R

- b2g

 

[Def_Starr]

i got put on lexapro cause the doctor felt the xanax wasn't doing enough for me with my compulsive thinking, and tbh i feel great, no more worrying compulsive thinking. All my stress related issues were from my employer, but at home or out and about on my off days i dont really need anything, Work anxiety messed me up , been on xanax already 8yrs

 

[PTFC]

I'll second @Florida40Cal on his reply, from personal experience.  To be clear, I've been prescribed X@nax for 11 years now (@ 1mg 2x per day to start, then 1.5 mg 2x per day)  - Yet even as my Doc was writing the first prescription for it, I was still politely asking for Ativ@n.  Unfortunately, what I wound up with (Topix was the only place on the 'net back then to look for alternatives, and more than half of those vendors were scammers) after a year or two of taking the X@nax as prescribed was a X@nax monkey on my back and a huge across-the-board tolerance for benzos - Take your pick, name any benzo; I guarantee you I'll need a higher than normal dose of it for it to be effective.

Eventually, of course, since my Doctor and the VA really weren't concerned with my situation, and just wanted to throw more X@nax at it, I found vendors for legit Ativ@n and V@lium (much harder to do then than it is now), and weaned myself from the X@n@x, then, when I had gotten through the quite rotten little hell of X@nax WD's, started myself on 2mg Ativ@n first thing daily - Presto, no more panic attacks, no sleepiness, finally, normalcy.  Now, of course, it's much easier to get VERY good Ativ@n and V@lium than it was then, but a funny thing happened along the way...I got the notion into my head that if I didn't always have a sufficient supply of all three meds on hand, I'd relapse into panic attacks (I won't lie to you - Even on what is now 2.5mg Ativ@n daily, I still feel them coming on occasionally, and a football banishes them instantly).  V@lium, of course, is a wonderful muscle relaxer as well as anxiolitic, so I have to have a few of those around as well.

So, but for 10 footballs or so I keep for myself for emergencies, I give the remaining 80 footballs I'm prescribed monthly to my wife, who breaks them in half and uses them for sleeping pills on nights she has trouble sleeping - I laughed out loud when I saw the gargantuan pill bottle she'd purchased to keep them in, there must be 1200 footballs in that thing.  Understandable - I, also, am a hoarder, and keep between 600 - 900 Ativ@ns and 600-900 V@lium stored in a lockbox in the coolest room in our home, with normal sized pill bottles containing perhaps 60 tablets each in my medicine cabinet - I handle my own refills

It is sad that treatment for anxiety, and panic attacks (I would include PTSD in there, but every time I even allow the phrase to cross my train of thought the Infantry God grabs my throat and yells in my face "There is NO SUCH THING AS PTSD, UNDERSTOOD?  DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE YOU WEAR PINK BOWS IN YOUR HAIR TO WORK FOR A WEEK OR TWO, YOU SNIVELING EXCUSE FOR A SOLDIER?" *, is so badly studied and practiced by physicians here in the US - Sad that many of their patients know more about the alternative medications for treating these conditions than they do, and are capable (with the miracle of the internet) to determine the proper dosage regiment for them as well, but the point remains - If you have rare panic attacks, sure, get a X@nax prescription and use only as necessary.  But if you have frequent panic attacks, ask your Doctor for V@lium or Kl@N@pin, but be aware that the latter are daily medications, and you will become addicted to them, and develop a tolerance to them if you use them for more than short periods of time.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - I can't see any alternative to using an anxiolytic for the rest of my life, and given I am old and busted  up anyhow, I gave up drinking (except on special occasions) 12 years ago, and gave up my beloved Copenhagen smokeless tobacco (now that was hard - Needed a full course of Chantix to get through it) in '09, so it isn't as if my liver and kidneys are under constant attack.

* That's an actual quote from the Doctor (A Medical Corps Colonel) who conducted my exit physical with the VA when I retired from active duty - Back then, even mentioning PTSD could get you reassigned to a desk job and very quickly discharged.  Every month, when my disability check is direct deposited, and that SMS from the bank pings on my phone, I remember that fat, red face with a drunkard's broken veins covering his nose, hovering two feet from mine and shouting that quote at the top of his lungs - His decorations included no overseas service, no decorations for merit (not even an Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM), and he didn't even wear an Expert Field Medical Badge, which meant he'd never trained for or attempted the test, or that he took the test and failed.

V/R

- b2g

A nobody then @Back2Good, not fit to wear those epaulettes. It took many years for my father to have his PTSD recognised, amazingly more British service personnel took their own lives afterwards, than were KIA in the Falklands conflict*. There's a new breed of service support now, and in civvy Street, though it still varies. Thanks for bringing this up 

*I think this is still disputed in some quarters of the ministry of defence/Government. But my father has lost over a dozen of his close naval bretheren over the years after the conflict. Army estimates are even higher. 

 

[Back2Good]

Thank you @PTFC - That was a different army than today's (just as my army was different from my father's, and his different from his father's), going back four generations now, with my son making up the fifth (and of course my grandchildren from him are both male, so you know what that means - We'll probably have a soldier and a Marine in the sixth generation ).

The U.S. Army has made huge strides in addressing PTSD since my day - There was no official diagnosis for it, we officers were told to make it clear to our soldiers that it did not exist and was not to be spoken of, especially to civilians.  I suppose the number of studies done (by everyone but the VA, of course), made it impossible to deny that PTSD does in fact exist - And not just among soldiers assigned to the combat arms, but to combat support and combat service support personnel as well.  The men (and women) assigned to the Adjutant General's Corps will probably never hear a bullet fired in anger...But they are the ones who are responsible for retrieving the bodies of the fallen, bagging and tagging them, and preparing casualty reports - There's no way that doesn't have some effect on them.   So there are programs in place to monitor for it, train on it, and treat it now, buy my God, the generations before who had no treatment options and were pilloried for mentioning the term, those were some tough fellows - Even the ones who ended up taking their own lives.

Cheers and V/R, brother.

- b2g

 

[ElectroNymph]

My partner has PTSD, but from life events, and psychosis from former weed use. 

It's difficult to cope with, so I am more his carer.

On another thread, I gave my thoughts on Xanaxxx, in that it does nothing more than make me lose a few hours. 

Nitrazepam relaxes me and helps me sleep a bit better. Lor@z knocks me out  - it did last night.

It is potent too, so good for my anxiety.

 

[Back2Good]

@ElectroNymph - I'm the exact opposite - L@raz relaxes me and makes me able to function, where Nitr@z knocks me into the sack immediately, and I'm out for the night.  It is interesting reading about the effect different benz@s have on different folks, even if we may never understand it!

V/R

- b2g

 

[ElectroNymph]

@ElectroNymph - I'm the exact opposite - L@raz relaxes me and makes me able to function, where Nitr@z knocks me into the sack immediately, and I'm out for the night.  It is interesting reading about the effect different benz@s have on different folks, even if we may never understand it!

V/R

- b2g

It is weird. Nitråz used to make me crazy and then pass out! Now, it makes me feel more euphoric/relaxed - perfect for listening to music. 

I bought some generic midôzolam and admittedly it was slighty more pricey, but it really makes you sleep! x