Has anyone taken
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never give up
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:59 pm
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Guest
Hi Never Give Up!
I took Xanax for more than twenty years. My doctors decided to get me off of it because they said it was a "bandaid" approach to my anxiety, panic, and PTSD. I was scared silly let me tell you, because Xanax was my saviour. It helped me get my job, and perform well at my job. I was retired now, so what better time?
What they did was lower my dosage of Xanax but at the same time they put me on low dosages of Wellbutrin SR and Effexor XR. It wasn't a big change for me at all, although I wasn't sleeping well. After a month, they lowered my dosage of Xanax and increased the Wellbutrin SR and Effexor XR and gave me clonasapam for sleep. I was having nightmares and still not sleeping very well but now I realize that I was much worse at that time, than I am now. Then after another month I stopped Xanax and they adjusted my other meds again. I have been on Wellbutrin SR, Effexor XR, and clonasapam for two years. I have faced some difficult memories, and thoughts, and done a lot of soul searching, and I am much less depressed, I understand a lot of the problems which caused my difficulties, and I can cope much better.
I think of it this way: If you have a headache and just take aspirin, you could be masking a major problem. It's the same with Xanax. It made me "almost" normal! Because of that it became very important to always have it otherwise I might fall apart and go completely crazy! But it wasn't allowing me to feel what I needed to feel, or think the way I needed to think. It's easier to mask the problems but when are you going to face them and fix them? Hopefully not when you are 61 like I am.
This is just my opinion but I will tell you that Xanax was my very best friend, for a very long time....
I took Xanax for more than twenty years. My doctors decided to get me off of it because they said it was a "bandaid" approach to my anxiety, panic, and PTSD. I was scared silly let me tell you, because Xanax was my saviour. It helped me get my job, and perform well at my job. I was retired now, so what better time?
What they did was lower my dosage of Xanax but at the same time they put me on low dosages of Wellbutrin SR and Effexor XR. It wasn't a big change for me at all, although I wasn't sleeping well. After a month, they lowered my dosage of Xanax and increased the Wellbutrin SR and Effexor XR and gave me clonasapam for sleep. I was having nightmares and still not sleeping very well but now I realize that I was much worse at that time, than I am now. Then after another month I stopped Xanax and they adjusted my other meds again. I have been on Wellbutrin SR, Effexor XR, and clonasapam for two years. I have faced some difficult memories, and thoughts, and done a lot of soul searching, and I am much less depressed, I understand a lot of the problems which caused my difficulties, and I can cope much better.
I think of it this way: If you have a headache and just take aspirin, you could be masking a major problem. It's the same with Xanax. It made me "almost" normal! Because of that it became very important to always have it otherwise I might fall apart and go completely crazy! But it wasn't allowing me to feel what I needed to feel, or think the way I needed to think. It's easier to mask the problems but when are you going to face them and fix them? Hopefully not when you are 61 like I am.
This is just my opinion but I will tell you that Xanax was my very best friend, for a very long time....
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Guest
Hello!Thanks for the post.What dosage did you take a day?I'm taking 1mg of the Xanax Er 3 times a day.Some days I still have alot of anxiety.Other days I'm real low.I'm not expecting it to take all my symptoms away but I was at the point where I just could not function because of the extremely high anxiety.I became housebound for almost 2 years.I'm just now really working hard on overcoming the agoraphobia.I'm making myself go out at least every 2 days.Very hard some days but I'm not giving up!I guess that I just can't believe that a person can have that much anxiety.