After reading a current thread on the pain-relieving and abuse potential of opiates, I came here to ask a question about a different type of drug.
I have a prescription for Xanax that I got some years ago when I had a lot of stress in my life and asked my doctor if he had something that could help me “take the edge off”, so to speak. My main problem was trying to get to sleep at night because my mind kept going over crap from earlier in the day, and what was going to happen the next day, and I had a hard time getting to sleep.
After using Xanax for a month or so, at the 3-pills a day prescribed level, I started only taking one before bedtime, and have done so most nights since. I may occasionally take one if I feel really anxious at some point during the day, but mostly I just use it at night, so I am not using the full prescriptions worth.
Now, I feel no decernable affects from using Xanax, but it does help me relax and get to sleep easier, and it will help me if I am feeling anxious, but I feel no other physical affect.
I hear and read where a lot of people want this drug and abuse it, but I am wondering what the desired effects are if you take large doses. It doesn’t seem to me that the drugs effects would get you “high”, or would make you loopy or anything. Obviously there is something that the drug does in large doses that I am not aware of.
Personal opinion only, no medical facts involved:
When I take Xanax, the relaxation, lack of stress, and pleasant euphoria are reason enough. It doesn’t make me “high” in the way strong narcotic painkillers do, but is still very pleasant, like a decent “buzz” from drinking.
I do not take it on a regular basis, but on occasion I do. I do not need “large” doses, a mg is enough.
Xanax is in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines that also includes Valium, Librium, and many others that are used for medical reasons but also have rather high potential for abuse and addiction. Their mode of action is very similar to alcohol (they both work on GABA receptors in the brain) so the similarities in effects aren’t coincidental. The benzodiazepines are often used for alcohol detox and their is cross-tolerance between the two. Drugs like Xanax are a godsend for many people but the downside is that tolerance can build over time necessitating larger and larger doses for the desired effect and that is a good start on the road to addiction. Addiction to the benzodiazepines is fairly similar to alcoholism but the withdrawal symptoms can be even worse and often require hospitalization to overcome safely (my grandfather died from prescription Valium withdrawal for example) Even some people who take them exactly as prescribed have a hard time stepping down from them without some adverse effects.
I am not saying any of this to scare you or imply you are an addict or anything of the sort. I am just giving you the worst case of what happens to some people. You are feeling some of the effects of it though. That is what it is supposed to do and that is what makes it an attractive drug. If you start thinking that it isn’t doing much, you could look at it like a harmless drug that you can take at will and you will only find out the fallacy of that when you try to stop.
I have never gotten anything resembling a euphoria or buzz from them. I just know they are having some affect because they definitely do help clear my mind so I can fall asleep. I have gone without taking any for a couple of days in a row, with no ill effects. If I am really tired and have trouble staying awake, I do not bother to take one a bedtime because I know I will be out in no time anyway.
I have heard that they can be addictive, so I have always used them sparingly and as needed, and that seems to work well for me.
I was just curious why people abuse them. Since I consider them primarily an anti-anxiety drug, I was wondering just how anti-anxietic you can get.
Again, the best comparison you can probably relate to is alcohol. Most people just drink a couple of beers or have a glass of wine and it helps relax them. However, you can take a much higher dose and get a much stronger effect from it. You may not want that but some people do and the behavioral effects you get to specific dose aren’t directly linked to dependency. If someone abuses benzos, they will become tolerant to the perceived effects of it and will require higher doses over time to achieve that effect.
Unfortunately, that is often the start of true addiction and your body will require some minimum dose to even function normally because your brain receptors adjust themselves to having it around and expect it. The natural neurotransmitters that are supposed to bind to those receptors won’t be produced at a high enough rate to do the job. The drug tricked the mechanisms that produce them that there is already plenty around while, at the same time, the receptors have altered themselves to expect more of it. You can’t just take away the artificially elevated levels of that drug without a rebound effect from the nervous system and that is an ugly and painful thing to watch in the case of benzos.
Again, you are using the drug as prescribed so this isn’t about you. However, many benzo users start out innocently enough and then start adjusting their dose upwards on their own until they get some dependence yet the doctor won’t give them any more. That is when the doctor shopping begins with multiple prescriptions for the same drug filled at different pharmacies. People that manage to get addicted to prescription drugs usually don’t like to think of themselves as addicts so they hide what they are doing hoping they can find a way to get out of it without ever being caught yet benzo addiction is difficult and sometimes medically dangerous to do without outside help. This type of thing tends to build up over a period of years like alcoholism does so it isn’t like there is a clear start or end point of the problem they have.
From what I understand, the people who abuse them typically mix them with booze and/or other RX medications (if not various street drugs) as well.
I don’t think that there are too many out there who are hardcore Xanax junkies who don’t also indulge in other forms of substance abuse simultaneously.
(this is for those who are taking them ONLY to get high, not for any legitimate medical purposes)
As an anxiety sufferer, I can say that being able to relax is itself euphoric. Untreated mental conditions are often (though not most often) the catalyst for drug addiction.
I also agree with the analogy to alcohol. In fact, the primary effect of both is the same: potentiating the GABA[su]A[/sub] receptors by binding to the BDZ receptors and increasing choride ion production. Or, in layman’s terms, making the brains natural slow-down chemical (GABA) work better without actually increasing the amount (which is more dangerous).
I also agree that they are usually used with something else, but they also have hallucinatory effects in higher doses–without the risk of a “bad trip,” but with the risk of dying from depressed respiration. As an involuntary addict, I never tried it, but I did once take a double dose because the first one wasn’t working, and started having some of the effects I mentioned.
I bet they’d also make “bad trips” from other drugs not happen, since they make you so calm about whatever is going on. Plus, when researching ways to deal with my involuntary* addiction, I did run across some actual druggies who said it potentiates the affects of opiates, and helps prevent obvious signs of being high on uppers.
*For those who don’t know, that means my doctor prescribed them for too long, and I got unknowingly addicted. At no point did I intentionally take more medicine beyond what I was prescribed. Even the double dose mentioned above was doctor sanctioned.
I briefly took Xanax (for about a month) in about 2001, as it was prescribed for me to help with some anxiety issues I had at the time. For me, that stuff was hardcore. I started with .5 mg and it did more than just take the edge off. It positively chilled me out and slowed my brain down. I could absolutely see why someone would like to take it recreationally, if they wanted a downer type of a drug. I stopped taking it, because it slowed me down mentally too much, even at the .25 mg dose, and I felt that I could easily develop a dependence on the drug.
It made me so relaxed that I started to look forward to root canals. It wasn’t a high, but it was a different form of relaxation than you get out of stuff like vicodin. I simply zoned out to the buzz of the drill, enjoying the moment, and once home I’d fall in to the deepest sleep I’ve ever had. Very nice, and my leftover pills were very tempting on bad days when you just want to be somewhere else. One pill, and your whole grumpy afternoon will just happily melt away.
I think the danger is that they are just so darnn addictive- one of the most addictive things out there. It isn’t that they are so compelling that nobody can resist them. It is that they are pleasant and nice enough that you may want to have one now and then, and that could be all it takes to become chemically dependent. And withdrawel is a bitch. More than one of my friends claims they have never quite been the same after a bezo withdrawel.
Personally, that feels like playing with fire, and I’d only consider them if it was real dealbreaker life changing anxiety. Why risk hard core chemical dependency for something that can likely be achieved without addictive drugs?
At the peak of my addiction, I was taking 7mg per day. At those levels, anti-anxiety becomes euphoric. It’s not like getting drunk, but the feeling is pretty damn good compared to an unaltered state. The downside is that the half life of Xanax is so short, I had to take a 1mg tab every 3 hours. I would wake up at 2:00am to take one to get me through the night. Miss one, and you crash hard within a couple of hours; rebound anxiety is not pretty. Eventually, you don’t even feel all that great, you are taking all those pills just to stave off the screaming meemies.
I detoxed from Xanax at home, with no medical supervision beyond weekly med checks with a psychiatrist. Not recommended, one of the worst months I ever spent.
I take Klonopin (Clonazepam) for anxiety and now I’m scared. What are the side effects / withdrawal effect like exactly?
And my dog was prescribed Xanax for anxiety, two little blue pills a day. It does absolutely no good. I think his brain is broken inside somehow. But I don’t want him addicted to the stuff.
I only take .25 mg of xanax (1/2 of an orange tablet) at a time, and never more than three days in a row. I definitely feel it. In a good way. It feels like one stiff drink. I use it when I feel a panic attack coming on, and I’ve used it in this way for this purpose for 25+ years. I’ve never taken anything remotely close to the dosage you name. I think it would put me flat on my ass.
What’s the dosage? I ask because people here are talking about taking .25mg and it being strong, and my 90# dog takes 2-3mg when there’s a storm and it hardly does anything for her!
Makes her wobbly for a bit, then a little aggressive, but she still whines and cries about storms
I have a prescription for .25 mg Xanax. I take them occasionally for anxiety. Sometimes daily for a few days, more often only once every few weeks.
I get absolutely nothing from them, except less anxious. No high at all, can’t feel anything from it except losing that high stress edge. Based on my use, I’m not terribly worried about addiction.
My physician was concerned, when I first got the scrip from him (refill from a previous doc), but he got over it after he saw how I handled it.
I also have a few 2mg Valiums, from an Urgent Care visit last year. Now that makes me just a little loopy. I use them (usually halves or quarters) occasionally when I’m having anxiety when going to bed.
My mom was addicted to Valium. Mother’s little helper. After she developed a drinking problem, friends did an intervention and sent her to detox (this was back in the late 70s). She came home overnight between detox and going off to rehab and ended up in the hospital from withdrawal and convulsions. Damn idiots had pulled her cold turkey for 3 days after 20+ years of heavy daily use. Scared the crap out of us kids.
I took .25mg of Zanax occasionally, years ago when I was having panic attacks. That was enough to provide a fairly powerful calming effect, and let me get on with my day.
The people I know who abused it used 7-8 mg at a time. I can’t even imagine breathing at that dosage, much less enjoying it. But the body ahs amazing ways of adjusting and overcoming these effects. It’s part of what makes us so adaptable.
My dog is 45 lbs and takes 2 1mg pills per day. They do not work; he is systematically tearing up the house when we are gone, even for just 5 hours, injuring himself in the process. I even tried two pills at once that day. No difference.
I didn’t think it was something that had to build up in your system, my boss takes it just when needed; I take my Klonopin (.5mg) only when needed but lately it’s been every day which is why I’m worried about both of us.
I think I am at a safe level, and feel no need to even take them at full prescription recommendation, so as long as they seem to help, I will continue.
I don’t think I am getting quite the effects that others on here do, especially those using a lower dosage, but at 275lbs, I guess the effect isn’t as great.
I don’t know about others but Xanax, for me, depends on how anxious I am. If I am not stressed and take one I don’t feel it. But if I am highly nervous, like flying, the same dose will make me feel almost drunk.
Pretty much my experience is similar to Pulykamell’s - I love it because it just takes the edges off. It chills me out, slows me down, makes everything copacetic. And I fucking LOVE that feeling.
Which is why I’m not allowed to take benzos any more, unless something really bad like a full-bore panic attack has happened.
