18 Days off Percs and Xanax question

Hi, haven't posted in a while- percs were/are my DOC & I have made it 18 days w/ out them (the longest in a few years) and feeling pretty good now however, still having the internal fight to refill my script. However, in the mean time I have been experiencing panic/anxiety attacks and the Dr prescribed Xanax .25 2x per day and I felt ABSOLUTELY NO effect from it so the dosage was raised to .5 2x per day.... and still all this does is put me to sleep....... Is there a reason why this drug does nothing for me? Obviously, I am also an addict w/ addictive behavior and I read all the time about fellow addicts being addicted to Xanax but, I feel ignorant to why? What is "supposed" to be the reaction from this drug and what is the feeling that gets you addicted? I guess it is a GOOD thing that I am not responding to this drug bc the LAST thing I need is to be addicted to yet ANOTHER substance lol.  Any input on what this drug should make u feel like or anything else would be greatly appreciated- Thanks

[Bob641]

My recommendation:Stay away from the Xanax!!! It is a benzo with a short term life and very addictive. It's my DOC, I'm battling now to ged rid of the habit, but have to wean off slowly, the effects of withdrawal cold turkey might include seizures, even death. It is highly addictive and very difficult to get rid off. Careful.
Good luck.

[SuzieeQ]

A long time ago when my first husband died in an airplane accident I was given valium for a short time by a doctor friend (all ligit)(sp) then about a month after I had stopped taking them I started having panic attacks and went to a walk-in clinic where the doctor gave me xanax and I felt the same way you are, I didn't feel a thing.

I think you are used to how the percs were making you feel and the xanax in best description brings you back to a normal feeling. No real high from it.

Be careful its highly addictive.. You won't even know what hit you.

[landbray]

Hi,
My drug of choice was morphine.
I was prescri xanax from the first time it came out.
I was on it for 20 yrs.
When my dose was 5mg per day the dr stopped and gave me kloninpin. He felt I reached a tolerance to xanax.
I took xanax in the am with celexa. 1mg. I felt fine. I didn't feel sleepy. I never felt a buzz from them ( unless I was abusing them & I tended to between getting the morphine). But I could safely take 5mg to 6 mg a day and feel productive. . My husband , a big addict also, will fall asleep for 14 hrs if he takes 1mg xanax. I felt he was like that b/c he didn't have allot of anxiety, or depression like me. I know since xanax nothing has ever calmed my heart or mind , seemed like when I stopped xanax my heart raced. did and still have the hand shakes. I knew people who got the xanax bars. I never understood why my dr never gave them to me. I believe drs are finding out how addiciing xanax has become that's my dr took me off it. I now can see what a fog I lived in with xanax. I literaly can't remember some important things that happened in my life. It was more difficult, has been more difficult to stop the xanax then the morphine. But I am getting use to it.
I am on suboxine now . Xanax & klonpin are not an option.
I take 2mg valium a day and I feel fine.
Write your questions down for your dr.
Some are so fast these days you get cut off easy. Having ? on paper helps me focus.
Congrats on your 18 days.
do you go to meetings?
there are no NA meetings in my town. I attend them on line. It helps but not the same as in person.
good luck to you
paaddict

[cheerios]

Xanax- Oh I remember the first time I tried them - they did absolutely nothing to me exept make me sleepy.  I actually threw them away!  Then like a year clean off opiates via sub, my sub doc recommends a cut in the sub and I became so anxious and I told a generalist about my axiety and he recommended the xanax.  So I took it combined with sub and I didn't take .5 mg / 2x a year, instead I can take 8mg all at once.  Obviously I started lower, (but still higher than you) as I took double than whatever my doctor said and felt so relaxed and kind of buzzing - kind of like my body was tickling me - and I got so social.  Well, that was 3 years ago already.  And not I am back to feeling nothing except when I take so much that I don't remember.  I literally convinced myself so many times that I lost some pills (b/c I wounldn't remember taking them).  I am so addicted to them now.  I'm reading the posts here and to date have not seriously started to reduce (please, don't be mad, I'm almost at my breaking point).  But at least I have reduced the sub and I have not touched an opiate in 3 years.  It doesn't help that my doctor says I can remain on them for life, if I wish....I do experience blackouts but much less now.  I need so much to "feel" something that now I just take enough not to feel w/d.  Once thing I can say, if you do get the buzz, you will become addicted to that feeling.  I think the xanax addicts know what I mean...

Goodluck ... and congrats on your recovery....

[d_oz]

Hi. I see it's been some time since you posted this but I would like to give my input. I am not a doctor nor a health professional of any kind, all I can tell you is my experiences which are based on my opinions and sometimes arranged via my doctor. I too, for over 7 years, was addicted to Percocet (in my country we just call it Oxycodone). At one point I was popping 320mg a day as well as 300mg of "Kapanol" (a 12-hour slow release form of Morphine Sulfate). I'll just admit it - I was into opiates, I got them from a bad doctor 1 time - first time I ever tried Percs he prescribed the strongest available - 80mg. Of course that is just asking for problems, also he knew I had an addictive personality, and at the time I was taking 6 mg a day of Xanax from the same doctor. Just let's make one thing clear. Benzos and opiates do NOT mix. Sorry to point out the obvious. I cannot stand on a soapbox and say "I did it! I'm clean off them now!". After asking MANY health professionals ranging from pharmacists to doctors (I went in to see MANY about getting off Xanax). In the past I had quit cold turkey (off 6mg a day) and yeah, not recommended. First thing that happens is anxiety, then panic attacks, palpitations etc, but then the really scary psychomotor problems occur (perhaps its just me but seizures are a common side effect of benzo withdrawal) - I could barely walk. It felt like I had problems placing my feet on the ground... Anyway, to cut a long story short, after talking with many health professionals about the chemistry of benzos, and I was shown by a pharmacist who is now a good ally and friend - The benzodiazepene equivalency chart. Basically, Xanax has a short half life. This makes the high quick and the come down hard. Think of crack vs cocaine. (Not that I know personally). I am now on ~10mg a day of Diazepam and totally clean of Xanax but damn it was hard. Was it you who mentioned you had sudden urges to fill a script? NA (Narcotics Anonymous) calls that "Autopilot". You really aren't even making a conscious choice to fill that script; your body is. This drug is designed to be addictive; if it wasn't it wouldn't make as much money now would it?

About Percocet. What I've learned is this is a semi-synthetic opiate. I suppose you all know that. It was explained to me and even pointed out in the naming of the drug "PERK-ocet" that this drug delivers not 1 but 2 highs. You get a fairly pure and strong opiate high but also the synthetic lab produced part of Percocet, compared to drugs like morphine, gives you a HIGH rather than a zombified low like morphine. So it's an all-in-one polyaddiction pill. I am suffering from knee pain from broken knee and now Neuralgia, but yes I want to be off Oxycodone (Percocet) also. I've seen far too many people die from opiates, and I don't want to go that way.

Just a standard disclaimer - what worked for me was worked out with a qualified doctor as a short term way to titrate (wean-off) Xanax, which worked. Now I'm stuck on a Benzo with a longer half life (but that's less addictive). We are now debating what to do next. I am going to see a Neurologist to see about these psychomotor problems. But regardless of name or half life, benzos are a paradoxical drug; they, at first, make you feel relaxed. Sure. Then after tolerance kicks in, you can't feel relaxed without them. The drug industry loves this effect and they laugh all the way to the bank with it.

My 2 cents worth
D.

PS Please discuss any change of medications with a health professional. Don't do it on your own.

[chelsi_lovinMYgirls]

hey, i too am an addict, and have been struggling with the disease of addiction everyday, i dont know what to do about it. I am kicking the habit of xanax and benzos. I am on suboxone witch has helped me soo much, but the anxiety always comes back man, and thats why i started buying benzos of the street because i felt so helpless, but thankfully i have found another med that is non-narcotic and I am better, so just talk wit your doc! best luck!

[PhatTailDeuce]

Please be careful of the Xanax or any other benzos. I recently went to a 4 day detox for opiates ( a joke by the way...they didn't do anything for me and discharged me in terrible shape). Because I came out of the detox very squirrelly I hit the Ativan hard. I had been taking .5mg a day for about 3 months without issue (no abuse). When the anxiety and cravings hit from the opiates I took 10 Ativan in the course of 12 hours. 2 days later I had none left and resorted to an old friend to put out the fire....vodka. I blew 4 years of sobriety due to the anxiety. Wound up in the ER. Then the fun began. I went into 6 days of pure hell from benzo WD's. Much worse than opiate WD's. So please be VERY careful with any benzos.