I was prescribed Xanax for anxiety about 5 yrs ago and had no problems taking my nightly .5mg dosage. Then one day my doctor says, you don't need them and simply cut me off. I thought ok, no big deal, I'll just live without them. It's not like I get high or are addicted to them. What a booboo that was, especially going cold turkey. Now, benzos are wonderful for short term effects and relaxing for surgery or dental procedures but long term use, uh.... NO!
They're what's called a GABA agonist and they rewire your brain. To quit them at all, particularly suddenly, is a big mistake. It took me 3 months of gradual tapering and even then I was a wreck. Anxiety thru the roof, hallucinating, stomach upset, headaches, brain zaps, nightmares, night sweats, cramps, muscle spasms etc. If your physician ever tries to prescribe more than 30 of them for you, RUN!
Absolutely correct.
Benzodiazepines in general have a "half-life" of 24 hours (exceptions to the rule notwithstanding). That means taking 5 mg today will leave you with 2.5 mg in the body tomorrow. With an added 5 mg it'll leave you with 0.375 mg the day after, 8.375 the same day after your daily intake and on it goes. As such, by the time you've taken them for 30 days, you're flooded.
The even more dangerous aspect is that by then your brain "receptors" are wired to require constant replenishment on just that basis, the benzo level meanwhile acquired serving perhaps for merely a day or two until, without "topping up", the heebie jeebies set in pretty soon.
Cutting off abruptly after an extended period of ingestion is something any physician deserving the title should warn seriously against, and should never even contemplate.
All that doesn't make for demonizing them completely, they DO have their use if administered sensibly BUT under strict professional surveillance of any patient.
For anxiety disorders such as you experienced they may thus be useful as a "step into the underlying problem" that should however be addressed by more in-depth therapy, usually of psycho-therapeutical nature. IOW while you're on the peak of anxiety, you're practically unreachable and benzos may address the subsequent blockage to any more helpful approach.
Beyond that, their use as "the solution that comes out of a bottle or pill package" is disastrous and often exacerbated by the ignorance of the physician prescribing them in such a manner and for such a purpose.
P.S. If you have not already done so, see
a real professional. Fear (just another word for anxiety) is usually a learned thing and the brain and body can be induced to unlearn it again. If, that is, the anxiety is not linked to an actually "real" danger but comes along as "diffuse". I'm no professional in this field but have known many suffering PTSD (for instance) who found help in the actually underlying cause being uncovered and addressed.
And, needless to say, the trauma that is often at the base of it all need not come from combat experience. More often than not "over-coping" (note the inversion) with issues of every day life suffices.
Good luck and I wish you all the best.
