Alrighty then. Some doctors seldom listen, in my experience. Seizures for over 15 years, doctors said nothing was wrong. Developed aphasia, anesthesia of the throat, spontaneous swallowing without intent, went back to my neurologist, he said nothing was wrong, citing the recent tests I had, and threw me out of his office. Of course I went to another neurologist, he did a 24 hour, ambulatory EEG, and said from the moment they connected it, I had spikes indicative of seizure activity with the diagnosis being secured by the 24 hour EEG. Put on Phenytoin, and 15 years of misery went away over night.

During those 15 years of undiagnosed seizures, I had at times been on Valium, or Xanax, not at the same time, on an as needed basis. Too much for too long makes it hard to get away from, so I learned to live with anxiety. But during those 15 years, as a substitute for Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin etc.), they tried; you guessed it; antidepressants. But I had an undiagnosed seizure problem, and rather than make things better, the antidepressants made things worse. But they'd think I wasn't being truthful, I just wasn't trying, etc.

And surprise, Benzodiazepines are used to treat seizures, and also relieve anxiety. Taking Benzodiazepines for too long at certain doses can actually cause seizures, so doses are generally tapered off under those circumstances. But in my case, I knew Xanax and Valium did not worsen my undiagnosed seizure symptoms but antidepressants did. Later in life, on as as needed basis (PRN on American Prescriptions denotes "As Needed", and as needed gives a specific dose not to be taken more than a specific number of times per day) I started taking Klonopin.

Something that helped minimize my use of Klonopin is that the Phenytoin interacted with the Klonopin and produced overly strong sedation, so, with my Doctor's awareness, I took reduced doses very infrequently.

Xanax has the shortest Half-Life, around 10 hours, Klonopin's is around 35 hours, and Valium is around 100 hours. Big difference on how long the effects of the drug persists.