I have taken Xanax daily for 10 years. I seldom used the 3 a day I was allowed. For at least the past year+, I was only taking 1/2 pill at bed time. IF I felt I needed sone during the day, I would take another 1/2 pill. A few times I have had procedures done that I felt anxious about, I would check to see if I could take a Xanax before the procedure, which basically makes me feel sleepy. My preference would be not to take any of these meds but, with my other medical issues, this is what works for me. As I said, all my doctors know this. I took Valium eons ago and would not take it again. What works for one person might not for another. Always work with your doctors and let them monitor you. It is good to research things but, even here, you are getting a variety of information that can get confusing. You will need to find out what is right for you. What questions you are asking here, make a list and ask your doctor. You are still taking a low dose of the Xanax but, yes, many of these drugs can be addictive. Some meds you can stop and others you have to wean off of.

Sorry for the delay in responding. Truthfully, as a young adult, I became psychologically dependent on Valium, I lived with my wife and son miles away from my parents home, but one night had tension so bad I had my father bring out a few of my mother's Valium pills to hold me for a couple of days. I took them by prescription, as did my mother, it's not a case of taking drugs not prescribed, rather a case of not having them on hand. Nevertheless it was an indicator I had changes to make.

I was plagued by anxiety, afraid of Bridges, afraid of crowds, didn't like tall buildings down town. So, what do I do, I go to a tech school, down town, riding a bus to get there, it's Pittsburgh, crossing bridges is unavoidable, and the tech school is by the river, so my classmates, every day after lunch, cross the bridge and back for exercise. Well, I gradually started to accompany them on their lunch walks, sticking to the road side of the sidewalk, then week after week walking in the middle of the sidewalk, then weeks later being able to stand at the railing and look down. It helped that my classmates were sympathetic, and those anxieties disappeared over the 21 months of school.

But too much Valium was bad, from the first paragraph, and my anxieties were manageable, from the second paragraph, and my usage of Benzodiazepines dropped way down. Taking anti-Seizure medicine reduced my desire to take them since I was overly sedated. So with my doctor's knowledge, I was only taking 1/4 of the pill. It occurred to me it was now easy enough to live with the anxiety.

In November 2018, I developed afib. I'm still in it. My anxiety was horrible, and I asked for and received Klonopin while in the hospital, but though it was prescribed twice a day, I only took it once. From my release 4 days later, until the end of January 2019, I took 0.25 or 0.125 mg every night before bed (0.5 in half is 0.25, and quartered is 0.125). I stopped for several days with no noticeable negative effect, in fact taking them I awoke every night at 2:00 AM +/- 15 minutes, not taking them I sleep the entire night.

Prior to November, I indeed took them only as needed, insofar as they were written for 0.5 mg twice a day as needed. I've never taken them twice a day, and I only take 1/2 or 1/4. Remember my anti-Seizure medicine augments the sedation, without that I'd taken more I'm sure.

Valium has an extraordinary long half life, near 100 hours, Klonopin 35 hours, Xanax about 10 hours. Certainly a drug exerting effects over a longer period of time may be appropriate for those with Anxiety, but I think more so if you can disconnect a strong feeling of sedation from the drug being effective. Valium and Klonopin have half lives as stated, but I doubt that strong feeling of sedation persists that long. Had I used them when in Tech school, I didn't need to feel strongly sedated to cross bridges, I just needed relief from the anxiety that crossing the bridges caused.

Though reading above might sound like I used them daily, before my afib started, I doubt I took 1/4 of one pill more than once or twice every three weeks. I hope this helps.