Long Term High Dose Xanax Effects (Page 8)
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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 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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Im sorry this was meant for greg helin..please respond back. id appreciate it.

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

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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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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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It does. At least you gave an idea of what im dealing with and I am very glad to hear you think my plan is good. My dr tried putting me on paxil years back and one or two others to help me get off the xanax but even after a week or two on them i actually felt much worse then ehen stopped that feeling stayed with me for weeks. Then when he swiched i went through withdrawal for another. The 3rd antidepressant i didnt take but told him it did the same. Then he finally said everyone is different and kept me on xanax. So any of those antidepressants are just as addictive as xanax i think but they push the samples on you so that when ypur hooked you gotta buy full price at pharmacy with no generic because its new. Id rather stay on the onw that i know works even though they say it is so much worse for you

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Joe I think you have a good plan. Let me tell you something. I've been on paxil and wellbutrin for severe depression and anxiety. I also take Xanax and I am on 4 15mg oxycodone a day. I went to my dr. And asked if I could switch to lexapro, because it's worked so well for my mom. She stopped me cold turkey from the paxil, even though I told her you just can't stop ANY medication that you've been on for yrs. She disagreed. Sure enough 4 days later I was in the er and the Dr walked in the room and said you're going through withdrawal. As soon as I got one dose in my system I was feeling so much better. So my point is, no matter what meds you take, the safest and easiest way to get off any drug is to take it slow and drop down little by little and you should be fine. Trust me I'm petrified of withdraw from the oxy and Xanax and if I ever not need them anymore, (which I doubt) I have a lot of major medical problems that's how I would do it. Also I won't tell my dr. Because I want to do it at my own speed not theirs. I hope this helped

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Joe, best of luck to you.
Janet

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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 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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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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If I would have known how addicted I would have become to xanax I would have dealt with panic attacks once in a while and never gotten on the crap. I always messed around a little with drugs but thought "this is in pharmacys so it can't hurt you that much" when it came to xanax 15 years ago or so. I wish I could go back in time and smack that first pill out of my hand.

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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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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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Same here tootizie.
Hae a great tomorrow

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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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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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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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Xanax is very, very addictive! You need to wean yourself of of it. Never go cold turkey, ask your doctor to help you to stop. He/she will tell you how much to take each day untill you won't go through any withdrawls, they can kill you, and have many people who just go off of it, without tapering off first. Best of luck to you, I know what it's like to get addicted to xanax, it was hard to wuit. But just listen to your doctor, and you will be just fine. I am at the point now when I can take it when I really need it.

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