11-02-2011, 05:39 PM
(11-02-2011, 04:24 PM)Ryan Wrote: Mat, be very very careful with Xanax. Doctors don't know much about these benzos as they call them. If you take it daily for a week or 2, you get addicted, then it's nearly hell trying to get off them. So use them sparingly as needed. You begin having interdose withdrawals when you need a pill. They can last up to months later. It took me 3 months to get off a drug similar to Xanax but a longer half-life (Xanax is the worse to be on). I only need it for a week or 2. Because of it I had to go on anti-depressants in order to wean off the Ativan, I still had horrible withdrawals for a week after each drop-down followed by a 3 month period of having very weird symptoms randomly pop-up.
If you need something regularly ask the doctor to try some anti-depressants, if they have horrible effects on you, ask to try another. Another good one I liked was Buspar which is similar to Xanax, but longer lasting and it has absolutely no withdrawals. It's a much lighter pill but for anxiety. Some doctors are so eager to just throw pills at you without any knowledge about them. But, mine were always wrong, I had to go through it mostly on my own.
Ryan
Yeah the xanax is for extreme anxiety provoking situations, definitely not an every week thing. The prescription is only for .25 mg so it's a fairly light dose as well. But I've heard of the addictive nature of xanax so I'm definitely only using it sparingly. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm still not sure about taking anti-depressants only because I want to see if these issues are all from negative beliefs and thinking. It's hard to tell you know? It's mostly social anxiety, but I still have anxiety when there are deadlines or when I have a lot of work to do. I'm not against medication, but I want to make sure that the underlying issues are addressed.
I just have a question for you Ryan. I'm sure you have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy. It makes sense that thoughts would influence a person's emotional state, but sometimes I feel like the social anxiety doesn't have thoughts attached to it. Did you ever feel like that? Either the thoughts are subconscious and I can't identify them or this thing is purely chemical imbalance.
