xanax How do you take it?

My medical doctor prescribe xanax and said take it when i have a panic attack. up to 4 times a day  Is there a difference between panic attack and constant anxiety? Is xanax right for constant anxiety?

[dolphin845]

how bad is your constant anxiety?  For me,  there is a difference between daily anxiety and a panic attack.  My daily anxiety can be dealt with much better than a panic attack.  A panic attack, I NEED a benzo.
Daily anxiety, if my stomach is real upset, enough to keep me from eating, I take a benzo, if not, I don't.  I'm also on Buspar (an anti anxiety med that is supposed to build up in the system).  but I haven't even been on that for a week yet.

[Jade59]

Hi Marty.....I'm sorry you're having to deal with anxiety/panic.  It makes life difficult.  There is a big difference between daily anxiety and a panic attack and believe me, if and when you have a panic attack, you'll know : )

If your daily anxiety becomes impossible to deal with then I would suggest a longer acting benzo such as Klonopin or Valium.  Xanax is for occasional use only and if it's used more than that you will quickly build up a tolerance and it won't work when you need it to.  

So, to answer your question, Xanax would not be appropriate for constant anxiety.

Best of luck.....

[dolphin845]

don't mean to jump in here with a question of my own.  But FMX.... does valium stay in the system a longer time??  Than say ativan?  Because I took 2.5mg. of valium yesterday around 3:00pm and it seemed like it lasted a looong time.  Even today I don't feel anxious and so far no panic attacks.

[Jade59]

Valium can stay in ones system up to 200hrs I believe.  A much longer time than Ativan or Xanax which work only 4-6hrs.  

If you have any other questions on benzos, you can put any med up in the "Search Medhelp" at the top on the right and read previous post discussions.  Pay particular attention to replys from RCA7591 aka Ryan.

I'm glad the Valium works for you and you're panic free today.  What a relief, huh?

Take care....

[Jade59]

Ok...just looked up my "Ryan" notes and Valium lasts about 8hrs.  It's the half-life that can be up to 200hrs.

Sorry, I have trouble remembering these facts off the top of my head.

[Summer123]

I have the generalized anxiety disorder AND panic disorder.  For the generalized anxiety, I take .5 mg xanex and I'm O.K.  For panic attacks, I need 2 mg of xanex.  It would probably be better to take valium for the generalized anxiety disorder, but I would still need the xanex to deal with panic attacks.  I don't think many doctors would give both type of benzos (at least mine won't).  Therefore, I have to deal with it this way.  I wish there were some other way, but have tried valium and a lot of the antidepressants, and nothing works for panic attacks like the xanex.  I have been fighting and fighting the need to be on the xanex.  I hate to be addicted to anything and I am addicted to xanex.  The lowest I can go down on my daily dosage is 1 mg/day and that is pretty hard.  I think I would be alright if I could just take valium daily and take xanex only for panic situations.