Long Term High Dose Xanax Effects (Page 4) (Top voted first)

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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wow, sickening to read...i am a grown woman who has never had a benzo addiction problem, and a 20 year old junkie can get suboxone AND xanax from the same doctor, and enough to both abuse AND sell? is he dr. nick from the Simpsons?? what a joke. i guess if i was having anxiety issues as a 41 year old woman, i'd have to beg for xanax...God bless america!!

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Tootie? You have to let the person know who you are talking too, or you might end up with a million friends LOL
Janet

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Janet ty. I can't remember who I posted that too. On other sites if you click post a reply on a persons post, it usually directs right to them. Anyway, I suffer with horrible anxiety and panic attacks and have been on every med out there. Xanax has given me my life back. If there's anyone who needs friend I'm here to help anyone at anytime. I have a big heart.

Toots

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Same here tootizie.
Hae a great tomorrow

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Im 33 and have been on xanax for over ten years and have abused it the whole time. I drank almost every weekend in mt early 20s, did a lot of coke, and tried almost anything else. Opiate pain killers were next then sniffing heroin. All while on at least 6 to 8 mg of xanax a day. In the last year i realized i have to get this under control so i have suboxone i am self medicating with to get off any opiates. I am down to less than 1 mg of that a day and am tapering slowly but the xanax is still the problem. Im at 10mg a day now to get through and know i have to cut down slow but im determined. I am prescibed 6 mg of xanax a day but get extra. Once in a while i take extra hoping ill feel good but lateley all its does is put me to sleep. The only thing i worry about now is what i have been doing to my liver. I know i wouldnt get it checked until something went wrong with no insurance

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Jdog that is really smart. When I first started taking them, they had given me my old life back and I went overboard. Took 60 1mg x's in 15 days, when I realized what I had done, I got a hold of myself real fast. I will never do that again. I don't drink or use illicit drugs, so it just goes to show how easy it is to get out of hand.

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Ughhhhh, I typed up this whole thing and somehow just wiped it all out, as i type on this dreadful cursed laptop keyboard which is a piece of crap compared to a regular keyboard....i was reading your posts, Joe, and i feel for your situation....i can relate to bits & pieces of it....i was never fully immersed in xanax addiction, but i had my bouts with it when using it to help me get off of opiates and cocaine a few years back....xanax was never my primary drug of choice, for just the reason u said is happening when u take more, they make u tired...xanax was always a "i want to pass out now and can't stand to be awake thinking anymore my brain is going to explode and i think i might want to blow my brains out"....i quit opiates after years of abuse, cold turkey, november 2005 and it was not pretty...however, my alcohol usage promptly skyrocketed, and i was in the worst downward spiral of my life....no longer drinking beer of course, just nasty whiskey and whatever cheap crap i could get my hands on since i was unemployed at the time, and then i really LOVED having xanax on hand....i'd had prescriptions for the little .25s here and there from my primary doc, but i was getting them from a friend by this time, the "bars" for $5 each which wow looking back, that was damn cheap....between the alcohol and the xanax, i went on a bad ride of blackout city for several weeks, it was bad. weeks of my life i do not remember, including a DUI i scored while driving and hitting a parked car. i was lucky to not have killed anyone, and 2 months later I was done drinking and that was over 6 years ago...xanax i have since had, but have only taken it as prescribed and only take it at bedtime...i cant imagine being able to be up and alert and awake and functioning after taking xanax, but i guess i never built up a tolerance in comparison with people like yourself who take it regularly....and u are taking suboxone to help with getting off opiates....how is that going??? i myself take suboxone and at this point in my life, i have zero clue when i will be off of it....i have every excuse in the book, won't lie...i have been on it since october 2010...started at 24 mg or so, and now am at 8 mg for quite a while now....i'd like to know more about your situation, email me privately if u would like...i don't know if i can help u or not, but i work for a pharmaceutical company and have access to all kinds of information and work with some amazing PharmDs who may know of good cocktail to help u iron some of this crap out....also, should be a way for u to get the right meds at little to no cost since u do not have insurance at the moment....good uck and be careful, xanax w/d, well, u know im sure, can be dangerous.....drop a line......danielle

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Joe and doolah, I don't drink or use illicit drugs, but I do realize how addictive they all are. Xanax has really changed my life. After suffering with panic attacks for 25yrs, I rather have the Xanax then panic attacks. Without it I had no life. I just have to make sure I don't over do it.

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For now I've pretty much given up on quitting xanax all together. I'd just like to get it down to around 4 of the 2 mg bars a day and feel comfortable. Right now I can get by on 5 without withdrawals or if it is a bad day sometimes 6. I've asked my girlfriend to help me by holding them and only giving me that amount each day and unless she leaves them out and I'm stupid and take a bunch at once it has been working that way and I feel that if I keep trying it may take a while but I will at least be able to get down to 4 bars a day. My tolerence is much higher as you know so I'm just hoping for normal days with no withdrawal. I have been on such a high dose for so long I really wouldn't mind being on it for the rest of my life as long as it does not kill me( and I don't plan on ever taking enough to come close to overdosing). Like i said in older posts I can take 5 bars at a time now and it is a waste. Now with the subs I may think I have a much worse problem than I do but I don't want to underestimate them. I used to pop opiates all of the time for a week or so then I'd stop and be sick for a few days and next time they were around I'd do the same. A few years ago I started messing with sniffing a little heroin every weekend or so. A year later I was doing the same with that as I did with the pills. I'd but 200 bucks worth, make it last 3 days and then be sick for at least 3 days until I could even get up to go to work. Soon after I was unemployed and doing it like this for around 7 months a few days a week. Once I found suboxone I found I could do the heroin then if I timed it right take the sub a day later and not be sick until I'd let it wear off then do heroin again. That cycle lasted a few months. Before I found the sub I told my girlfriend and is one of the reasons I originally stopped. This time around 2 months ago i got a bunch of subs and told myself I'm getting off of them. The first week or so I took 2mg once a day and that was enough for e to not go through withdrawl. I've cut down very slowly over these last 2 months and am down to taking only 1 mg of sub each day and feeling just as good as when I took 2. May have felt a little crummy for a few days each time I cut down a bit. I have found a batch of 10 strips now which I'm hoping will be enough to finish this off with as little withdrawal as possible. Next week I am cutting an 8 mg strip into ten peices to get down a bit more and hopefully the strip after 12 pieces from one. I want to get down to taking around .25 mg every other day before completley stopping. Does anyone have any suggestions about my plan? I'm really hope I can get through it without feeling too horrible. I work by swimming every day and take a lot of vitamins. Does anyone think I'll still have it bad if I get off how I plan? If so then what should I expect. I have someone here to make sure I don't get back on the dope and other than my xanax and pot I won't touch anything else. Let me know. Thanks

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Joe, best of luck to you.
Janet

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tootzie, you are the kind of person they made xanax for...your quality of life has improved and you are not abusing your medication...there is definitely better living to be had thru the right chemistry...unfortunately you are an exception as 7 out of 10 people who are prescribed a benzo will go on to abuse it at some point....u are doing yourself a huge favor by not abusing it - it's keeping your tolerance lower & even - this is how u will be able to continue taking it & getting the positive results u are getting....if at some point u do feel u are not getting the same therapeutic relief, u can certainly tell your physician this & he/she will likely titrate u up a wee bit.

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Doolah, Joe, and K,
Thanks for the support. Because I lived in fear of ever going anywhere, I ended up losing all my friends. Listen, I'm a very honest person. After about my second month taking them, I did abuse them. I noticed by like the 18th day into my script they were gone. I scared the crap out of myself and quickly got a hold of the situation. It was the same with my oxycodone. I am petrified of withdraw and if I ever have to stop any of my meds I'm doing it my way, slow and a little at a time. Dr's aren't perfect and truly can't tell you what's best for you. I'm having migraines, I forget things, I sweat horribly. I've been to the gyn, she says I'm not in menopause, I go to my neurologist and he swears its hormonal. So as you can see I'm in a bad state of depression and cld use your guys friendship. Your not alone. I'm always willing to listen. Had a horrific cluster headaches, so I'm going to lay down for a bit. Talk soon!

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That was supposed to be a J not K after Joe. Sorry!

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Hi, just wanted to know when you got off the xanax, did you go through any bad withdrawals, like sezures or anything else. i want to stop cold turkey too, but im scared...please let me know what were your symptoms please...god bless...

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Im sorry this was meant for greg helin..please respond back. id appreciate it.

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I have already overdone it with the xanax but as long as I can get myself off of everything else other than a little bit of pot to relax now and then I will be happy being on 6 mg of xanax when I get down that far and thats when I will stop trying to quit, say I've won, and live the rest of my life happil.

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ALEXIA, PLEASE! LIFE IS A GIFT. PLEASE CALL THE SUICIDAL PREVENTION HOTLINE. TALK TO A FRIEND, FAMILY, CLERGY.GET SUPPORT, YOURE NOT ALONE. GOD BLESS YOU.I've been prescribed xanax 1 mg 5 times a day for over 10 yrs now. I have severe panic disorder. I can't tolerate any of the new antidepressants, so I'm also given remeron 45 mg. My psychiatrist wanted me to take the xanax every 4 hrs as a preventative measure of preventing panic attacks. I saw her last month and told her I can't take it like that bc I need to be able to function. She cut me down to 4 a day. I take 2 when I feel panic attack building. It only helps slightly. I take 2 at bedtime. In my personal experience, I won't take more bc it doesn't work whether I take 2 or 4. I have gone 2 days without taking it at all. It scares me bc I know you can have a seizure after being on this med for so long. I guess I am addicted to this medication, never realized it until I read some posts here. I also cut the remeron in half, bc Im worried about the weight gain associated with the tricyclic antidepressants. I have bloodwork done twice a year and liver enzymes are fine. Please, use this medication with caution, and if it's taken for recreational purposes, it's russian roulette. This medication has helped me more than I realize, but I choose not to abuse it. God bless

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Tootziebear, I suffered with cluster headaches for over 30 yrs. Im a woman in my 50's. The only 2 things that ever worked was oxygen at between 8-10 liters a minute. Started it the second I felt the slightest twinge. It worked over 80% of the time, also imitrex nasal too. The oxygen was my Godsend, I don't know if you know about it. I haven't had a cluster h/a in over 5 yrs, and no one understands them unless you've suffered with them. God Bless

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My mother's cognition has been severely affected by Xanax. She cannot carry on a coherent conversation anymore except for right before the next pill is due. She "falls asleep" suddenly which causes her to drop the things in her hand (for instance, she dropped hot coffee on her lap and her laptop causing burns and ruining the computer). She does this in front of people also. One minute she is there and the next she has floated away. It is horrifying.

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OK so here we go.If I dont reply its a shame on me,It has been 5 days now without anything. Side effects for me. I have not slept more than 4 hours a night. My heart is racing during different parts of the day and more like a full chest pounding all the way to the gut of your stomach with the heart being the main area.I have over the past 2 days in the morning when I sit in my cubical got sweaty on my forehead and feel nausia, Until I take a few deep breaths and let it out.Confusion in talking or feeling like you may have "put your foot in yout mouth" or maybe "paranoid"is a side effect that happens after a few days maybe 3 for me" have run out on the weekends before a few times"or just trying to say the right words and getting stuck.Wanting to hide is what I feel now.I feel like a freak.I ruined a relationship by getting switched from Xanex to Klonopin as it made me angry and snappy. Thats why I got away from my psychiatrist and spoke with my primary care doctor and told her what I was doing. ALWAYS let your doctor tell you if its ok.I have been taking 2mg a day for 15 years. Now Klonopin" NASTY DRUG" at 1.5 a day for 4 months and balanced my Side effects" anxiety" at a high level and dropped down to 0.5 mg a day for 1 month. I wanted to know how I would feel if I stopped cold. I will tell you all that tonight I made it 5 days. Tonight I will also be taking 0.5 mg every other day like my Doctor had told me to try when Im ready. Dont be Heroe. This is no joke.LEARN TO Breath.If I did not a panic attack is sure to come"scared".I have been through them before so I know what to expect. If you have never gone through this then do not try anything.If your not friends with your doctor. You will get really close fast. Good Luck.

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