Long Term High Dose Xanax Effects (Page 4)
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I began taking Xanax in 1982. I have been abusing it more and more over the years. I can now take 14 mg and not even tell it. I can stop taking it with no withdrawals. It's like I am immune to it. For the past two years I have been experiencing a lack of cognition, forgetfullness, and general fatigue. It does not matter if I stop the Xanax for a couple of months, I feel like the deficit is permanent. Can Xanax lead to permanent brain damage?

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I'm wishing for a long sleep too. I can't take the pain or memories or bulls*** anymore. I've been drinking (a bottle of wine) and wanna take Xanax but I only have a few left. I don't want to get sick...I want to sleep peacefully... forever.

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Donna, while im not quite at the same dose aa you I am prescribed 8mg a day but for years my Dr hasn't raised it to compensate for my toleranceso I've ended up getting extra from friend or even have paid others to get it off of the street. I was at around 15-20 mg a day then did start having the problems you mention. Over the last couple years I have cut down to 10-12mg a day trying very hard to get back to what im prescribed and even though it isn't easy those symptoms you did cheapest for the most part. I have started smoking marijuana and actually find it helps a great deal with the symptoms you mention too. It has helped me forget sometimes about all of the horrible things input ib my body over the years and it also helps me sleep greatly.

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I have been seeing the same doctor for 8 years. I have been on various antidepressants and also xanax. He has steadily increased the xanax dosage over the years because the antidepressants do not help with my Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder or PTSD. After a suicide attempt last year I was put on clonazepam instead of the xanax but over time it lost it's effectiveness and He now has me on 18mg of xanax per day. I'm finding the side effects are different now than when I used to take it a year ago. I feel angry, aggressive, hostile, more depressed, and the anxiety is only helped if I sleep to escape it or take enough xanax to make me completely out of it. I have a huge tolerance. In my suicide attempt, I took 330 pills - a mixture of xanax, zopiclone and zoloft. By the time I got to the hospital it was too late to pump my stomach because the drugs had been in my blood stream for 5 hours. My short term memory is completely shot. I've been trying to get counselling for 2 years with no results. I also have been looking for a family doctor for over 2 years but there are no doctors where I live taking new patients. I am now on disability and can no longer work because of my problems. I don't believe that I have much longer to live - can you give me any advice that might save my life?

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Thanks Elizabeth, no 2 Mg is not a ton, I was on 3, smashed my head and just cut down 33%. I am addicted to the substance as Xanax is sinister in every sense of the word. However I do think Ashton might work very well for me. The problem is this stuff clouds your thinking, and changes your brain chemistry too. I deal with anxiety, and rebound anxiety from the medication as it produces its own kind of anxiety. I really feel for those who abuse this medicine, not knowing the hidden side effects when withdrawing!

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There is really so much more awareness of mental health issues but we've still a long way to go. It doesn't even sound like you have an addiction problem but whatever you are dealing with I wish you the best.

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Very informative! We don't have these types of resources generally in our health care system. They push the mentally Ill on the streets for the most part. My Hospital in this small town is the size of a Wendy's, and they are the only one in 200 miles. While I have been getting 6 mg daily of medicine for the last couple of years, I only take about 2. Somehow I have so much Xanax, so I don't suffer with finding a Doctor or having enough medicine which can make you go crazy alone! I just try to maintain things, I don't suffer from classic Panic attacks so perhaps there is some hope for me. Maybe I'll move to Canada? Thanks for all your great advice!

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Just a little bit of info Eddy. I don't know how it works in the States, but here I could not just check myself in to go through a withdrawel program so I was depressed at the time and wanted to get off the pills so I had to say I was suicidal, they have to admit you. Once there, they follow the standard withdrawel process and the doctor just determines if you are OK as far as a danger to yourself or someone else, but noone but you and the doctor know that you are not so the doctor will let you stay for six weeks maximum. Not sure what the law is there but if you want to get off them quicker than Ashton Manual you might want to try this as it's free but if you are taking near 8 mg it won't be over' prepare for the worst at home.Like I said, give yourself another 6weeks at home with someone being able to watch you just in case.

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Sorry Eddie, did not see your other post. No it was not a physchiatric facility, it was the physchiatric floor of the regular hospital. We don't have a detox or a rehab here so I just checked myself into the hospital and that is also where they put people who have overdosed or who are causing problems in the hospital trying to get meds. They legally can not make someone who is not mentally ill stay more than 72hrs. so I had to sign forms saying it was voluntary. Like I said not the most ideal setting but not as bad as you might think either,I mean, you are not receiving counciling,just a psychiatrist for 20 minutes a day, but at least your somewhere with medical supervision if you should need it,Ideally, I would have rather been in a privately owned rehab facility but they are way too expensive.

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Oh ya Eddie, the reason I would recommend the Ashton Manual is not only because it's an easier way to get off but also you can at least still function, so for most people it would be the only way. In order to do it the way I did you have to be able to take at least 3 months off from life basically.I would not have been able to do it this way and work or do anything else, I literally could not function during this time. Stayed home the whole time, But if you are able to take 3 months off and can have some kind of supervision and are really determined, it sure is faster.

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So funny how your regular doctor will prescribe these, most doctors here no longer want to prescribe xanax since it has been classified as a controlled substance, My doctor that I have now will not prescribe it at all. He told me stories of what he has had to go through with people coming in and wanting prescriptions for it. He just refuses and tells them to go to emergency where he says if they make a big enough fuss they will probably give them some but they may also be placed in the psychiatric ward too. He also said he seldom sees people who have been long-term xanax users such as us ever get off them, so he is thrilled that I did it and makes me feel very special every time I see him. I started taking them along time ago because I had a couple of panic attics. They were prescribed alot back then and it didn't even make sense because if you have ever had a panic attack you don't have warning and the pills take up to an hour to work, so I just took them before I would go anywhere to prevent a panic attack. That's what my doctor says too,not even the right stuff and look what happened. I thought my anxiety was so bad that I started taking them all the time, Then I would remember all the things I was able to do in the past without any anxiety or just normal anxiety like anyone else and I would get so depressed. It was never explained to me that once you build up resistance you start to go through a short-term withdrawel from it between doses which causes intense anxiety, This is a long explanation but if I can help anyone understand that they can get by without them, and in fact feel great. Also, I have not even had a panic attack since I quit last year, which I was told that I may get them again and just to talk yourself through it by realizing it will only last maybe 30 minutes and will be gone not worth taking meds for. Anyway, the whole ordeal is now over and I can't believe how great it feels to actually enjoy so many of the little things that used to be such a fog to me. If your medicated your actually not fully experiencing anything, your senses are dulled,A lot of people have told me that I should sue the doctor who was prescribing these so liberally but I do not go looking for trouble any more and I know he wasn't doing anything illegal just very irresponsible. I really want to help anyone now if I can, Just to let them know they can feel so much freedom when you aren;t counting pills anymore and it is hard at first but I went through hell during withdrawel but it was so worth it. Good luck!

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I also wanted to ask you Elizabeth about the 6 week stay in the Hospital, but its hard on this type of Forum. I was admitted as an Emergency patient, spent a Week in the Hospital almost dead, and my Insurance company wanted me out after day two. This 6 weeks and Xanax withdrawal, was it a treatment center or Psychiatric facility?

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I did not realize you are 100% Xanax free now! The Ashton Manual is one of the best I understand. When my new doctor mentioned he had his own method for a withdrawal to Xanax I thought oh no... Here in the States the regular doctor gets you on them, and the specialist who can be impossible to see or pay for gets you off them. I have plenty for now, and I now know Xanax is not medicine to use more of in a crisis, after learning how deadly it can be!

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25 years is a long time, I was 20yrs of course all those years were not too bad but when a crisis happens and the amount was increased it just stayed there. The withdrawels were bad but I went off too quick.They lasted a full six weeks after I left the hospital and I was in the hospital for 6 weeks. Have you checked out the Ashton Manual, wish I had seen this before. It sounds like the best way, you could work with your doctor on this. You won't believe how much better life is without the stupid pills. I have never tried poutine myself,but don't think gravy belongs on pizza.

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25 years worth of Alprazolam, and I currently have more Xanax than a Safeway. I was warned when I started about its addictive properties, yet was never warned about the serious withdrawal problems. I almost called it a potential but it is almost guaranteed, you will get very sick when stopping Xanax the wrong way.

On an unrelated note I just heard that Pizza Hut is making a Poutine Pizza in Canada. Is this something you would try?

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Yes,we have some very expensive rehabs here too, but they are not covered,also we do not have a detox in my area, so I checked myself into a hospital and underwent the very quick weening process on the psychiatric ward, not ideal,but better than nothing. were you also on Xanax or was it something else. Over 15 years the increase was gradual but so were the consequenses and with no doctor telling me this would just end up bad, I feel deceived. I know I should accept some responsibility, but by the time I recognized the difference between the real me and me as an addict, it was too late. Had the dr just said from the beginning, this is temporary that would have been it,but he seemed to think I was doing just fine taking it forever,That's why I tell anyone prescribed this to be careful,noone told me that.

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8 Mg a day is a lot. How much were you raised over the years? Xanax is very misunderstood in any Country, your Doctor wasn't doing you a favor. I too would like to go through a 6 week program . Those programs are only available for the very rich and the mentally ill. If you have regular Insurance like me you choices are very limited and full of co payments. Canada sounds like a better place to be!

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I am Canadian and it was just a few years ago that I started having to sign for my prescription as a controlled substance. Even with having to sign, the last bottle before I quit had 7 repeats on it and was for 8mg/day and I hadn't seen the Dr in months. I was weaned off in the hospital over a six week period and the nurses in the hospital couldn't believe the size of the pill bottle and that I was having such an easy time getting the amount I was.It gradually increased over a 15year period.

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Elizabeth it was 1970.

The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was enacted into law by the Congress of the United States as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.[1] The CSA is the federal U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use and distribution of certain substances is regulated. The Act also served as the national implementing legislation for the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

The legislation created five Schedules (classifications), with varying qualifications for a substance to be included in each. Two federal agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, determine which substances are added to or removed from the various schedules, though the statute passed by Congress created the initial listing, and Congress has sometimes scheduled other substances through legislation such as the Hillory J. Farias and Samantha Reid Date-Rape Prevention Act of 2000, which placed gamma hydroxybutyrate in Schedule I. Classification decisions are required to be made on criteria including potential for abuse (an undefined term),[2][3] currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and international treaties

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Eddy, is this schedule 111-V Canadian or American and how long has it been in effect?

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#118- "NOBODY DIES FROM BENZO WITHDRAWALS ALONE ?? YOU.....ARE TOTALLY WRONG !!

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