Just started Xanax...anyone have experiences to share?

Xanax is one of the worst benzos. Highly addictive even at low doses for short periods of time.

I'm not sure what linking is permitted, I no longer have the discussion link, I'll post it if I find it.

Articles I just found or have links to:

Are Prescription Opioids Driving the Opioid Crisis? Assumptions vs Facts
https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/19/4/793/3583229

AMA: Patients Being Harmed by Rx Opioid Crackdown
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/11/12/ama-patients-being-harmed-by-opioid-crackdown

Overzealous use of the CDC’s opioid prescribing guideline is harming pain patients
https://www.statnews.com/2018/12/06/overzealous-use-cdc-opioid-prescribing-guideline/

Good News: Opioid Prescribing Fell. The Bad? Pain Patients Suffer, Doctors Say.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/health/opioids-pain-cdc-guidelines.html

In my case, I had, for 15 years+, an undiagnosed Seizure problem. Benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Klonopin, etc., are used to treat seizures, Antidepressants can cause them, infrequently. Doctors are seemingly taught antidepressants are the cure-all, and tranquilizers are to be avoided. But as the situation would arise to try to get a prescription for one of them, over those 40 years, most significantly the 15 undiagnosed seizure years, doctors would try the antidepressant route, and I would have seizure symptoms, i.e. profound Deja Vu and I'd have transient memory disruptions during the seizure.

Despite me telling doctors antidepressants were making me worse (they were exacerbating the undiagnosed seizures), they wouldn't listen.

Benzodiazepines are used to treat seizures, it's no wonder I preferred them, and I'd take one at the beginning of my symptoms, it seemed to shorten the episode.

After 15 years, after several neurologists, after being thrown out of my neurologist's office because he looked at the latest MRI and said nothing was wrong with my brain. I consulted another neurologist, God bless him. Having yet another seizure, I phoned him, but was still a new patient. He was at a formal party, and there he was, listening to my symptoms. He said it sounded like seizures, and within a few days, ordered a 24 hour EEG. He said I had seizure spikes from the minute they installed the multiple leads. I left the hospital with multicolored wires glued to my head. In a little over 24 hours, turned the unit in, and shortly was told I was having seizures. He prescribed Phenytoin, and 15 years of misery went away almost over night.

The previous neurologist tried to collect for my last visit to him, his wife was his business manager. As she pushed the demands for payment, my wife informed her that they threw me out of the office, having seizures, and another doctor correctly diagnosed and successfully treated them, and that she's lucky we weren't suing her husband. That was the last we heard from them, many years ago now.

Pain, and anxiety, the govt is doing harm by thinking that America's Drug problem is largely defined by responsible doctors giving responsible patients such medication.These actions, against people with chronic problems, especially pain, are forcing them onto illicit drugs, too stringent of enforcement may be making the problems worse.

I've been taking Benzodiazepines in small amounts for 40 years now, but suddenly, I'm not to be trusted? That's ludicrous.

Best regards.

It's a Benzodiazepine, like the others. The thing that makes it most addictive is its short half life. In 10 hours or so, the levels in the blood have dropped to half of their peak values, but Klonopin takes 35 hours, and Valium takes nearly 100 hours, to do the same thing.

Sorry I just came in late on this discussion. My interest is in the "Opioid Frenzy"! So tired of hearing it over and over again. To live your life in Pain every moment is foolish! People who throw out all of these false statements have never had acute pain. Especially with something you had nothing to do with it affecting you!
I could write a book larger than "WAR AND PEACE" ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND THE FAKE NEWS I HAVE SEEN PUT FORTH ON THE USE OF OPIODS!
I consider myself very Lucky to have an Old Time Doctor who believes in helping his patients rather than listening to the government and the medical administration.
We play thier silly games and i give a urine test when it is called for! He wrote my percription of Oxycodone for two a day. He knows and trusts me that if the two do not take care of my pain as a last resort i may take another. Mostly I try and use and over the counter medication first.
I had my yearly physical a couple of weeks ago. we talked about how I was doing and how the headaches and body pain was so much under control. I was leaving town on a business trip that would put me out of town when my percription had ended. His nurse called it into my pharmacy. When I called to see if it was ready they said it was to early!! I then expalined this was not a once a day type of sleep medicine but was for Pain. My doctor had said if they had a problem for them to call him! It was ready in and hour!
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS DURING ALL THIS IS "GOODRX"!!
If your doctor percribed the medicine the pharmacy does not have to get the ok from your insurer or Medicare.
My percription through Atena of Oxycodone runs close to $100. Through GOODRX it is $19.
I truly can't believe people do not use it more. I probably use them 50% of the time. Most of my daily medications are coverd at No Cost through Atena but others my Pharmacy knows when I show up to check both to see which is a savings for me.
I guess I am Blessed compared to many out there to have such a Great Doctor and a Good Pharmacy!
Good Luck!
Sundance(RB)

Summary: great for occasional use, very dangerous for daily use - - be careful~!

Be careful, it is very addicting! Have you tried taking a 1 mg melatonin? I’d even start with a 1/2 of a 1mg. I have never seen anyone that 1 mg didn’t work on. I’ve have suggested this to a few people and it works every time. Also, you should be practicing meditation and eating a healthy diet. Walking is helpful too, along with deep breathing. Life is hard sometimes but it doesn’t have to stay that way. So what if you made a mistake, we have all made them! Don’t be so hard on yourself and don’t worry about what other people think because that causes anxiety and doesn’t matter in the long run anyway. Only care what God thinks and live your life according to that! Always try to live the best life you can, be true to yourself and treat others well, only then can you have true freedom from worry. If you think you made a mistake with the move, give it a chance for a few months, knowing that nothing lasts forever! Good luck and let me know how the melatonin works. Try not to take Xanax! Many people get addicted to that when all they really needed was a lifestyle change, and a better way of thinking.

I forgot to say that the kind of melatonin that melts under your tongue is the fastest acting.

Have you every had the antibody blood tests for Autoimmune Encephalitis? Sounds like you should! Your neurologist can have the blood drawn and sent to Mayo Rochester labs. I believe that’s the only place that does it. Please look up the symptoms. People have been misdiagnosed for years! It doesn’t always show antibodies but maybe you need to find neurologist familiar with this.

I think a much bigger problem is that too many doctors give prescriptions and never try to Find or fix the cause of the pain! Many of them don’t keep up on the latest in medicine, so all they know is to give out prescriptions.

Good for you and for having a doctor who has his/her priorities straight. Opioids, improperly prescribed or improperly taken are a very real liability for both physician and patient. That said, it is what we have, and everyone doesn’t abuse them. Pain is real and debilitating. So is addiction. You are so fortunate to have a physician monitoring this medication, and the physician is likewise fortunate to have a responsible patient. Stay with it!