Long Term High Dose Xanax Effects (Page 5)

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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Ive been taking Xanax since 1984. I thought that date was when it was introduced to the market. I will say that no matter how much I take I can no longer feel the effects of it either. One difference is after stopping I cannot sleep and have bizarre withdrawal effects. In my opinion alprazolam is the most problematic medication on the market today. Irreversible long term effects are to numerous to list. Quit now and never go back. Thats what Ive done and the benefits far outweigh the usefulness of the drug. Good Luck.......

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I have had been using xanax for a long time. I was not aware of its long term effects but now I am trying to decrease its dose.

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I have been on it for over 10 years and was to the point I was taking over 20 mg each day. It was just to get the high from it and I abused it for years. After decided I had to cut down though I have went from 20 mg a day to 10 or less on most days and plan on cutting until I get down to 8 (4 bars a day) and that is where I plan on staying. It may seem like a lot but I have so many panic related problems plus have had intestinal problems since I was a child so for me it is a huge accomplishment to get to where I am at. Each time I cut down by a half of a pill a day I did not feel great for a week or so but it levels out. After a week or so of that I would go down a bit more. So from my experience other than slight withdrawals when cutting down it hasn't been to difficult since I have taken my time and done it on my schedule. I'm sure in a couple years when I want to drop down another few mg doing the same thing will be a bit harder but will still work. Unless they come out with a similar drug without side effects I will be on xanax for life and i don't have a problem with it. It doesn't get me high no matter how much I take but even after cutting down so much it still helps me not to have panic attacks.

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I have used xanax on and off for years. This is a wonderful, lifesaving drug. Anyone that says your better off without it never needed it in the first place!

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The benefits vs. risk of Xanax (alprazolam) have been debated over and over again. It has long been known that the risks of alprazolam far outweigh any benefits. The positive effects of this medication can be accomplished by using any of the other benzodiazapines currently available in the United States. I am surprised that alprazolam has not been removed the market or at least moved into schedule II. Attempts have been made to accomplish that goal but have been destroyed by Big Pharma and the economic benefits of the medication. I once thought that Xanax was heaven sent. In 1984 I loved it. In 2012 I hate it. Countless other peoples lives have been destroyed by this med alone. Good Luck......Misinformed

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I agree with you 100%. I just wish it wasnt so addictve. I didnt even go to my high school prom because of panic issues that xanax has made disapear as long as i stay on it. The anti depressants out there that every doctor hax wanted to try instead of xanax made everything worse. Anc i tried at least 4 giving them the full time to kick in. Each one gave nd withdrawals coming off of too

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Joe is am so happy to hear you realized that you were truly over doing it and cut back. I don't care what anyone says on here, but unless you've suffered with panic attacks and anxiety like I have for over 20 yrs and this wonderful medicine was introduced into my life, I have never been so happy. I am free to be me again. After being homebound for 7 yrs, all the nay sayers can shove it. If you use it as prescribed and don't abuse it, it's a life saver, PERIOD!!

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It will take more than a couple months. You have to want to quit, your an adict. I wish you all the luck
take care

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Karen, you are so right? I have great respect for this drug. I admit I had abused it in the past, no more. I take now only when really needed. I wish people wouldn't say mean things here. we are suppose to help each other on this site. Such a shame some people are so very cold.

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I have been on methadone for 3.5 years now b/c of a heroin addiction, about 2 years ago I started to take and abuse 2 mg xanax bars. I would take them to abuse the methadone to feel a similar heroin high, it happens when you combine methadone and xanax. I got to the point where I was taking 10 2mg in one swallow after getting medicaided in the methadone clinic, thats 20 mgs in one shot on top of 290 mgs of methadone. I was at this point for about 3 months, after 3 car accidents and a good look in the mirror i started my own benzo detox. Believe me it was hell.

First if you stop cold turkey there is 99.9% of failure or death. I had to cut back 4 mgs and stay at that dose for a 2 weeks and then take a .5 mg kalonipin at night, then the next 2 weeks I went down another 4 mgs and 1 mg of kalonipin at night and continued this until I was completely of xanax and on about 1.5 mg of kalonipin at night. Then I slowly tapered myself of the kalonipin, .5 mgs every 2 weeks.

People couldn't believe how I did it all alone but if you do it the way i did it at structured regiment it can be done. It was not easy and there was some discomfort but it could have been a lot worse. I haven't touched any benzo's since.

Benzo's are a lot worse and more serious then most people think. Best of luck to everyone..

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Jan, I think you need to be more educated on benzos. I believed what you did and only found my world crumble. How long have you been on them? To help others in the forum please consider what you do not know you may end up experiencing yourself. All, I have one website all should see and consider. This made me realize what I was doing to people around me and how it affected my life in a negative way.
ashtonbenzomanual.com/

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I have been taking xanax since 2003, I take 0.5s, I moved from Texas to Flordia and now I can't find a Doctor that will perscribe it to me. I have now been without it for 2 weeks and I feel like I am going crazy. I do not abuse it. I take 0.5 3 times a day as I am suppose to. Due to Flordia so called being the "Pill Mill" of the United States NO DR will give it to me. I have kinda seemed to grow a dependancy for the xanax, but I don't take it illegal or abuse it. Can anyone tell me what they think I should or could do? thank you!

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Anyone who has some advice or willing to talk can e-mail me at xxxxxx@xxx {edited for privacy}

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This is for Blake:

If you now have been 2 weeks off xanax just keep going!!!! You were taking only 3 of the .5's a day, hell I was up to almost 24mg a day last June and I did it pretty much cold turkey, well in a rehab setting, took my body about 3 months to fullt withdraw from the medicine but your definitely over the hump!!!! It should only be maybe another week but it gets A LOT better!!! Amazingly better!!! I now go to the gym A LOT, life isn't perfect by any means, still have stresses in my life but no more xanax ever again and I love it!!! Just talk to someone near you to get your mind off of it, It's only as powerful as you let it be, trust me keep going and do not go back!!!! I know this doesen't apply to everyone, But best of luck to you!!!! Oh and I live in Florida also, it's bad here and only getting worse so I would kick it now while you have the upper hand!!!! take care and best wishes....:)

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Whoa, akillies; you are lucky... You chose precisely the WRONG drug to use as a substitution. Yell us, why, out of the 44 BZDs on the market, would you use clonazepam as an alprazolam substitute? It, along with the alprazolam itself, is of the same strength, the strongest benzodiazepine anxiolytic (well, clonazepam is not an anxiolytic but an anticonvulsant) you can possibly get, with a half life of little over twice that of alprazolam. And you were using brand name meds!
Experience of US generic alprazolam has shown me that apart from Greenstone and maybe Purepac, US alprazolam, esp the highest seller, Sandoz GG249, is the poorest quality outside India and Pakistan. In fact some Indian alp may be better than those awful Sandoz things. You gave away your location by sayimg you used 'Klonopin', which is, for those who do not know, the Roche brand in the USA
of clonazepam, what everybody else knows as Rivotril.
So. You have used buckets of Pfizer and Upjohn's brand XANAX, which most Americans would find exceedingly strong considering they have only the Greenstone generic that is any good. Xanax is also way beyond the means of most Americans, being dreadfully expensive, forcing alp patients to use the cheap and, certainly in the US, nasty.
Klonopin is also an extremely expensive brand. You must be very rich. But it makes no sense at all to use an equally strong drug as a detox substitute, and especially one with a relatively short half life. I have used these two drugs myself for many years, I know their strength and effects.
You have the internet. Have you never heard of Dr Prof Heather Ashton, probably the world's leading authority on benzos, their effects and their withdrawal? She wrote the definitive work on detoxification, the Ashton Manual, available at benzo.org.uk.
The idea is that as you gradually cut down, and the Pfizer/Upjohn Xanax I agree is most difficult - most US generic alps would be a lot easier - and substitute with a WEAKER drug, with a MUCH LONGER half life. Your choice of Klonopin (Rivotril), Roche's clonazepam, makes no sense. For a start it is not by any means a sleeper, and most users, who tend to have epilepsy or other seizure conditions, often need a proper sleeping hypnotic if insomnia becomes a problem; I fail to unferstand what makes you think, and I am on 8mg Roche Rivotril daily, that it has any sleeping effect at all. The classic drug to substitute with is diazepam. Medazepam and prazepam, and of course the actual active metabolite nordazepam, are also used but diazepam is preferred because it causes heavy sedation even at quite low doses, and its half life, determined like the others by that of nordazepam, is around TEN DAYS.
You are lucky that in choosing the ridiculously strong Roche clonazepam you were choosing one of the most effective anticonvulsants, probably saved your scheme from ending in tragedy! READ THE MANUAL and you will see how lucky you were with your home made detox going against all the rules. I do not think that being able to afford to buy the most expensive but best brands is much to brag about, but you HAD to tell us it was XANAX and KLONOPIN. Being so much better than any generic in the US, on the contrary, these will cause many more problems than if you had been on, say, the very weak GG249 Sandoz.
For ANYBODY considering stopping, or even cutting your BZD dose, please, please consult the Ashton Manual. And don't take any s*** from your doctor. You print the relevant pages and present it as a fait accompli. You tell the doc to write the scripts strictly according to Prof Ashton. Nobody else on earth knows benzos better.
Sorry, I still can not believe anybody would even consider using clonazepam as an alprazolam substitute when trying to withdraw! !It's like using vodka to substitute for whisky when you're trying to quit drinking.
Remember. Ashton, Ashton, Ashton!

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You will probably die! You don't mix binzos with narcotic. Narcotics speed up the heart and binzos slow it down if takeing 200 zs dont kill you taling the tabs with them deff will. Your heart doesn't know what to do and you will fall asleep one night and possible never wake up! Never take that many pills at a time deadly!!

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ive dealt with both of those and its hard, let me first talk about the paxil. you have two drugs and it will be two sets of symptoms. paxil worked for me at the lowest dose but did add sometimes to my mania, but there is so many reasons to get off it, It affects my left brain most creativity wich I value higher than the right.
going off paxil isnt anything like the xanax, but its good news its much easier ,you should start there and dont change your xanax habbit yet. You need to get your paxil down to the lowest dose i believe its still 10mg and the facts on the paxill label say " for 20 mg and above you need to ween down ,but at 10mg you can stop cold turkey with almost no bodily side effects but obviously you mite get irritable this goes away. Use some of the things that paxill tought you when it worked for the first time, it tought me about a switch in your head that paxill makes it not easy pull even when anxious, but I believe if you study the way you started to interac with people ,Im assuming it worked at one point and your anxiety changed based on things you did and the paxil just made it easier. You can keep those things like pausing and doing a breathing exercise for anxiety, it does work but not as good at first until you start to do one for most of an axious day,
So after all that (sorry) you need to cut your dose of paxil every two weeks by half untill your on 10mg then take that 10mg for 7 days then quit cold turkey, you will maybe be irritable, but I found it liberating from the side effects.
Dont even try gion back on it though it wont work youd have to take 60 or more mg,
Xanax if your taking the US maximum daily dose to be precribed 4 bars a day and if your lucky that 2 days after 28th day if script is for 30 days wich most are but their available to fill every 28 days thats 8 extra.
What I suggest about xanax which I am currently on but had quit before after 2 years and didnt take any for a few years, but my diagnoses is very complicated.
When I first kicked the xanax I did so cold turkey and it was rough for about 3 weeks mostly just stomach cramps and insomnia definatetly not like heroin which I kicked also so pay no attention to those who say xanax is harder,
The process is similair to paxils with one big difference "time" you can take time to ween off paxil with minimal side effect but not with xanax it satisfies the problem when you take the drug ,my point is if u use the 6 week structure above for paxl your failure rate could be extremely high and some tend to give up and end up on a slightly higher dose. This worked for me get down to 2mg a day in one week it will be miserable its best if u have a couple weeks the withdrawl of xanax is diferent than paxil you can ween off paxil in public while still doing your daily duties
With xanax when you get to one bar in a week by diong 3and a half bars one day then 3 or 2.75 bars the next when you get to 1 bar quit cold turkey this is when the lowest stress environment is crucial for sucess a vacation is the best it mite seem like a waste detoxing on a vacation but you wont feel that way when you get back,
10 years use has changed your body, habbits, and brain chemistry it all restores but can be overwhelming.
To keep from going back if you have to exercize and get a mild temporary sleep aid , I recomend trazadone or ammatryiptilyne wich i still sometimes use they dont work like Ambien based sleep aids but it works better for peole coming off xanax.
You should ween the sleep pill after two weeks, youre body has to learn how to fall asleep the way you did way back ,I would keep afew extra sleep meds in case of anxiety you can beat during the day with exercize and breathing exercizes the 4-7-8 test or the inhale hold exhale method ,google it if your not aware.
IF the meds have not been working good after 10 years you shoul quit fast and run ,becausae the next 10 years youll have to manage anxiety. You should absolutely resarch and do the breathing and if it starts to get to hard try the same ssri type drug as paxil but at its lowest dose never to exceed it should be easy paxil has to build up in you to work.
If none of things above work then you have to move to a beutifull island rent free of course with a beutifull partner, good luck with that one, if you dont like tropical island setting than do what youd do for your dream retirement, good luck dude

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wow thats extreme as a 5 year methadone clinic,i can say its terrible they let u choose 200 plus mg, however laws are changing dea is cracking down, Methadone is "the US govnts. baby they love it, a higher dose is what they want.
END THE WAR ON DRUGS, ITS GETTIN EXPENSIVE hope this helps

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Hi,my name is Jay to.I have read all of your comments and am really feeling scared as I have been on xanax for 25 yrs.I started off taking .5 3 a day after what is called a threshhold my Dr. raised it to 1 mg 3 a day after a couple of more years.My threshold kicked in again and it wasn't doing me anygood.Now you have to understand this was back when Dr's thought it was a miracle drug in the mid 80's and 90's so they handed them out like candy.Anyway my Dr. increased my dosage 1 mg 6 times a day. It finally got to the point that I am now prescribed 2 mg 4 times a day.Now I said pres.for a reason for I don't take 8 mg a day.I am able to take 120 my whole months pres. in 1 week.I can take as many as 20 a day and not have that and lets all admit it ,that warm water rushing over us and feeling euphoric like we did in the beginning.You see that's what were looking for in xanax.But after you reach those thesholds unless you increase dramatically...then you not going to get that happy strawberry fields forever feeling again.In the meantime we are killing our livers.I will be honest with you.I am scared sh*tless to go into rehab on the dosage I take.And I don't know what other drug out there can control my Acute Anxiety Disorder like xanax even if I do have to take 15 to 20 2 mg a day.My name is also jhall funny huh.And j I have been where you are and understand.Now,i'm worse than you on the xanax and my liver blood work I get every 6 mths comes back fine.Unless my Dr. just isn't looking at it.j you mention ativan and how strong it was,if you could be so kind as to let me know how it made you feel it might help me get off all this xanax.But,for those of you that think you can O.D .on xanax and just go to sleep and stop breathing.Not going to happen trust me I have taken 40 2 mg at 1 sittting thats 80mg's folks if that doesn't take you out nothing will,oh yeh and I also drank a six pack of tallboy Buds.To boot.So trying to O.D. on Xanax is just wasting yor supply.And if your wandering how I take so many and not go through withdrawals is I have found a way and I have 3 Drs. I am living a life of hell taking so many and getting such little results.So if their is anyone out their that can give me a suggestion on another med.that would work so I can feel good about the day again and myself I would appreciate it.jhall II

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You say the amounts your taking to get the feeling we all want and your a few years ahead of me since i can feel it if i take 8-10 at once. Im prescribed 3 2mg bars a day but get more however i can. I have recently been trying to cut down with the help of my girlfriend (she holds them) and i can make it through the day with 5 vars no problem anymore( withdrawal i mean). I admit i still take a lit every once in a while but find the few days after i need a bit more to get by. My goal is to get down to 4 bars a day and i will be happy. Has the long term use caused any other side effects for you?

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