Completely cured my anxiety, but now I have another problem!

[ChRoNoxThexDon]

Well, about 2 years ago I suffered a death in the family.. my brother who I grew up with my whole life died of cancer at the young age of only 35... after this happend I became what I like to call "Terminally depressed" .. I ended up losing my job because I didn't want to leave my bed and be out in the world, I just wanted my brother to come back... Sooner or later I started forcing myself to get up out of bed and by this time I was still very depressed but not enough anymore to make me completely immobilized, I also found myself to be INCREDIBLY anxious dealing with severe anxiety all throughout my days dealing with CONSTANT panic attacks. Especially in social situations... So a friend of mine convinced me to go see a psychologist who eventually referred me to a pyschiatrist who I began to see regularly...This doctor must have put me on and I must have tried every drug out there from zoloft to paxil, prozac, celexa, buspar, klonopin, and most recently xanax which I'm still on.

NONE of these meds worked for me... the depression, anxiety, and worst of all-panic attacks continued. Eventually, desperate, I began scouring the web for answers and I eventually came across this site .. anxiety.pcti-system. com .. which is this program to cure anxiety/panic attacks for good all naturally.. To make a long story short, it worked incredibly for me.. my anxiety is gone, depression as well almost all but gone, and I haven't had a panic attack in over a month. I do though from time to time still feel sorrow over my brother. However, this is my problem: I'm still taking my xanax because I'm completely ADDICTED.. when I try to stop taking it I start going through incredible withdrawls mentally and physically... If I would have known of this addiction problem I would have never allowed my doctor to put me on them. Has anyone else suffered from benzo addiction and if so, know how to safely get off it with minimal side effects?? Please any advice/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

[Zuena]

I have only taken the odd Urbanol when things got really bad so I can't help here, so just wanted to say well done and good luck getting off the meds. You have come so far, this will work out for you too!!

Zuena

[forwells]

Howdy

Sorry i don't have time at the moment but will come back later .

I was heavily addicted to benzos in a bad way . I will return and let you know how you can come off of them safely . It can be done but takes time and you may need to change to a different benzo to help .

cheers kev

[Robbed]

Admitttedly, I have never been addicted to a drug. However, I would imagine that dealing with benzo addiction is no different from dealing with SSRI addiction in the sense that weaning yourself from the drug should be done VERY slowly. This means cutting the dosage by a small amount, waiting for your body to adjust, and then cutting the dosage further. This may take months (or possibly a year or more). However, the goal here is to get off of Xanax. Not get off it in record time.

The suggestion of changing benzos might be helpful as well. By changing to a benzo that is less addictive and/or has a longer half life, it might become ALOT easier to taper off.

[forwells]

Howdy again

Ok to get of benzos you have to go slow as needed .

I was not only addicted to one but also had a very bad reaction which took me a while to get off of.

First off you need to swap from your benzo which is a short half life to one such as Valium which is a long half life . You need to talk to a doctor about this as the dose needed on all are different to get the same effect .

Then you swap over which should prove good and easy .

Then you start withdrawing . You start at 10% of daily dose and and do this for three days . If you get no side effects you can do more say 20 % or if you get side effects you can do less . You do it so that side effects are as light as possible . As remember that you need to see the difference here between side effects and maybe some anxiety because you are facing life without drugs .

3 days between drops is good but if you are getting no side effects and depending on how much your on you may be able to do it quicker .

My first on i would drop 10% and be on the floor in mental and psychical pain for days . When i changed to Valium i was free from them within 10 days and have not been back on any for 18 months .

So just remember change to long half life and slow and steady wins the race . Do it at your own pace .

cheers kev :D