About Xanax for any interested.

Hi all

Yesterday I had a follow up visit with my General Practioner to go over "blood work" I had from a recent complete physical. Seems I am in pretty good shape, fortunately.

As some of you may recall I have been trying to reduce my daily dose of Xanax. Recently for a few days I got down to 1.5 mgs for the entire day by extending the amount of time from my evening dose to the afternoon dose the following day. I reduced my daily intake by about 25%. But I am now back up to where I was, around 2 mgs per day. I talked to my pharmacist and she said that I was simply torturing myself by my reduction efforts. But it did definitely lower my tolerance level. I took 2mgs yesterday, 1mg twice that day and it felt like too much. So today I will knock it back down to 1.75 mgs. It may seem strange but one of the reasons I felt compelled to go back up to my original comfort zone yesterday was do to my anxiety about what would happen to me if my doctor cut me off the Xanax. Or if he moved out of this area and i had to find a new doctor who might turn out to be benzo-phobic or something.

As many of you are aware I have been taking it for many years on a daily basis and I am habituated. And on a certain level I don't care that I am habituated as the drug has allowed me to live my life (for what it's worth) in greater comfort than I would have been able to do without it. It has improved the quality of my life I feel. Of course if life would have dealt me a different hand I might not need a drug to feel comfortable.
And "in depth" therapy seems to me but a luxury for the few. I mean does anyone know any "analysts" who offer to do long term therapy on an ability to pay sliding scale?"

Well anyway I thought I would "grab the bull by the horns" and come straight out and ask the doctor his thoughts on my use of the Xanax that he has been prescribing for me for so long.

I said to him:

"It would be a great relief to me if I knew that I would be able to continue to recieve Xanax for the rest of my life if I wanted to. Barring any physical neccessity of stopping, such as poor liver functions etc. do you see any reason why I wouldn't be able to continue taking it indefinitely?"

His answer:

"No, I don't see any problem with that."

I said to him:

"What about developing a tolerance to the Xanax?"

His answer:

"Generally the developement of tolerance occurs during the first year of treatment."

I said to him:

"I worry sometimes that if you were to leave the area I might not be able to find a doctor willing to continue prescribing it for me."

His answer:

"Generally Xanax would not be "our" first choice, but as you have tried other drugs in the past without benefit, and as the Xanax seems to be working for you, I think many doctors, would likely adhere to that old adage 'if it's not broken - don't fix it.' Actually long term treatment with Xanax in cases like yours is really not uncommon."

Anyway I was somewhat relieved by what he had to say, and felt like sharing it here amongst fellow DP sufferers.

john