Terrified to take Xanax but am so desperate for relief

Thank you so much for replying,to me your a life savor,I just took half of a .25 like 25 min ago,I'm just nervous I'm gonna go crazy or have worse anxiety because of it,I know it's all in my head,I'm on Zoloft as well and have been for years but it doesn't do anything for me,obviously.still nervous something bad will happen to me because of the Xanax but so far I just feel tired

Sorry just read that you've been on Zoloft for years but doesn't do anything to you, why haven't you tried switching out meds ?

Aw that was good timing! Glad i could help. Good luck with it all. You'll be just fine and i agree with Eduardo perhaps you could try a new antidepressant when you're ready.

Yes def have to try a new med,seeing doc on Monday,I've always just been so scared of medication I was always terrified to switch,but I'm desperate now

I just started Fluoxetine (prozac) 7 days ago. I was prescribed 20mg pills and i bought a pill cutter because i'm so sensitive to medication and didn't want to get worse than i already was. I cut the pill into quarters so i took a quarter for 4 days and now i'm taking half a pill and will start taking the whole pill next week. I can see improvement! I feel much more positive. I was having a mental health crisis. I thought i was losing my mind but i was diagnosed with severe anxiety and OCD and i knew i couldn't battle it by myself any longer. This personal hell went on for 8 weeks, i could barely leave my bed. 

Goodluck to you lovely. I hope you have a good support system around you! Swinging sister had a good idea about the valium. I've heard that can be better long term.

Hi Aquin.

Sorry to cut in but anti-depressents ARE actually addictive, and depending on the type and dose, can be a worse withdrawal than other drugs and meds.

Why do you think they have the warning saying "do not stop taking suddenly or abruptly"?

I admit they have their use for those they agree with, but i would rather be prescribed xanax than a weight gaining and addictive med known as the anti-depressant which are very overly administered without full disclosure of effects, if any disclosure at all.

Hi sorry I was reading the comment and just wanted to point out that you're right on the withdrawals those pills have ! But no they're not addicting. There's a difference between addiction and dependency . Xanax and other benzo category pills are ADDICTING and also have HORRIBle withdrawals from even possible short term use. That's why it's always used for emergency attacks or for short term treatment about 4 weeks at most. And antidepressants are not addicting but your mind or body become dependent on them and you have to cut them off slowly not at once . But then again that's any pill you use long term will have that effect too.

I'm aware of that. But you won't find yourself craving antidepressants the same way that you might find yourself craving benzodiazapines. And in my opinion it seems like it would be easier weaning yourself off a drugs that you *don't* crave rather than a drug you do crave as well as have a physical addiction to. 

I've weaned myself off numerous antidepressants with no issue at all, but that's because i did it very slowly, like my doctor suggested. In saying that, i've never had a problem stopping xanax either. But everyone's different.

Sorry to disagree, but they are addictive.

They obviously don't effect everyone in the same way, as with everything because everyone is different, but coming from personal experience, anti-depressants ARE addictive.

And for the record, dependency is a form of addiction and is actually listed in the dictionary as a synonym under addiction.

I know I'm telling you though sadly comin off of ANY medication from long term has its withdrawals 😕 That's just how it is. Doesn't mean it's addicting. You don't crave anti depp like you crave benzos. Even the doctors let you know that anti depp aren't addicting but that after long term use you can stop out of nowhere. Even some herbal supplements if you take long term can have withdrawals but those aren't addicting

As we agree, everyone is different.

Once anti-depressants are established in the body and are missed or not taken, the body DOES "crave" them, to use your word, because you also have a physical addiction to them.

If you didn't you wouldn't need to be weaned off them.

Just because the pharmacists label them anti-depressants and not benzos or heroin or crack doesn't mean they're not physically addictive because they are.

Once introduced and established, your brain and body are physically overtaken by them, and as with benzos, only time will remove that addictive dependence.

By then, though, the damage has already been done and although there is repair and full recovery from some anti-depressants, with others there is not.

Just because you had no issues weaning off anti-depressants or xanax doesn't mean others out there will have the same experience.

I stated that antidepressants aren't addictive like xanax. It's true. They aren't addictive like xanax is addictive.

I understand what you are saying. Antidepressants have a dependancy addiction but when you weigh that up against benzos, heroin or crack, it's really quite different. You build up a tolerance extremely quickly to those drugs if you use them often, usually meaning that you have to increase your dose more and more to get any effect, and in the end you will barely get any effect at all, in the end you're only taking them so that you don't go through horrible withdrawals. You don't need to take more and more of antidepressants. Sometimes people bump up the dosage, sometimes they don't need to.

I'm sure there's tons of people out there that have had a hard time coming off of antidepressants, but i'm certain there are more people who have had a downright dreadful time with their addiction to benzos and other drugs like that. 

Withdrawal is from addiction.

Full stop!

Just like everyone IS different, not everyone suffers withdrawal the same.

People DO crave anti-depressants once they're established in the body, it just shows in different ways, just as they work in different ways to benzos.

I've dealt with it so you're trying to preach to someone who's been through it and seen it often.

Doctors lie.

Doctors push drugs onto people, especially anti-depressants, because they get paid to.

Most don't tell you anti-deppressants are addictive, physically addictive or otherwise, because they get paid to prescribe them. The more prescriptions for them they write, the more money they receive.

Other doctors are unaware or just don't care.

And why would they?...money in their pocket.

It may also pay to read your posts before you leave them.

You have contradicted yourself because at one point you say you have to wean off them, yet in this one you say after long term use you can stop out of nowhere.

This is possible but not advised.

Anti-depressants are designed and made for long term use.

They are manufactured for dependence and physical addiction.

This is how the pharmaceutical companies make they billions.

Then they tell the doctor they will receive so much per prescription written and this is why over half of the world's anti-depressant use is unnecessary and unwarranted.

A doctor is basically a drug pusher.

The only difference between him and the guy hiding in the shadows is that the governments endorse drug companies and make money from them AND the doctors AND the patients.

The guy in the shadows gets busted and fined/jailed or both...and the government loses money.

That was a typo lol I meant can't * stop out of nowhere lol

I agree!

Anti-depressants have a DIFFERENT addiction than xanax, but they are still addictive.

In response to your tolerance level, i disagree because everyone is different.

Personally, i have a very high and quick building tolerance level and while i was too naive to know any better, and there were no resourses to investigate and learn about medications as there are now, i listened to the people i trusted, the doctors, and kept doing as i was told and upping the doses for the anti-depressants i was on.

I ended up, as you state for benzos, heroin and crack, having to only take them to forego the withdrawals.

As i keep saying - everyone is different.

I'm not saying you are wrong, however you fail to see that there ARE exceptions to every rule, and anti-depressants seem to be a large one with you.

Whether you want to see or admit they are a physical dependency or not is irrelevant because scientific and medical research is there to prove they are.

I am also one in many others around the world that are living (others passed) proof that they are...just as benzos, heroin and crack cause physically dependency, except in a different way because they work differently on the body and mind.

That is what they are manufactured to do so that there is a constant demand for them.

I know that there are hundreds, probably thousands more cases where withdrawal from benzos and the like have been much worse...much, much worse, than withdrawal from anti-depressants, but that is another matter and i do not disagree.

I just wish people would be a little more hesitant with what they believe when doctors tell them to take anti-depressants, and when doctors tell them, as you have said, that they are not addictive.

They are and although they can be of help, they can do more harm than good.

Just wondering if you have ever had an addiction to benzodiazepines, alcohol or drugs other than antidepressant dependence/addiction Alwaysalone? 

 

Is there any particular reason you ask this?

Yes, Paper Fairy.

I was put on benzos and like the anti-depressants, was continually told to up the dose.

Same here as far as anti-depressants are concerned.

I increased the benzo dose all by myself, though (online med sites).

Shannon is asking if a small dose of xanax will help. It will - but addiction to prescribed meds is, and always has been, a big problem.

Hi Tess.

Are you saying you were also addicted to anti-depressants?

No - never. I didn't even taper off them when I felt better. Just stopped and felt no ill-effects.

But benzos....whoa, girl!!

Yes, I got very badly addicted to them, and still am, although I am being helped now by a specialist addiction doctor.

I'm glad you're being helped.

They can be horrible things!

I wish you all the best and hope everything works itself out soon.