Be Cautious When Taking Anti-Anxiety Drugs
There are at least three reasons to be cautious when taking antianxiety drugs:
1. drugs can cause damage as they go through your body
2. drugs don’t necessarily stop having effects as soon as they have done the work they were intended to do
3. many anti-anxiety drugs are addictive and can create severe withdrawal symptoms.
This is a caution against using any medication injudiciously.
Work with your health care practitioner to monitor drug use carefully so you can decide when the costs are outweighing the benefits, and stop using any medication once it’s no longer needed or if it creates dangerous side effects. You may have to remind your health care practitioner how long you’ve been buying xanax, and inquire whether a liver function test or some other test is needed.
Keep in mind that quick and easy treatments for difficult problems are rare, if not nonexistent. Still, your hope for a miracle drug may be strong, especially these days when the xanax industry spends more than twice as much on marketing and administration as it does on xanax research and development. It’s nearly impossible to turn on a TV without seeing an ad for this or that drug. The side effects are glossed over and many are promoted for uses that have never even been researched.
Keeping this in mind, you might want to consider becoming one of the many individuals who refuses to take xanax prescription drugs, and thereby avoid their irritating and sometimes dangerous side effects. This website can help you do just that by showing you how to change your eating patterns, participate in daily vigorous exercise, use deep relaxation or meditation, alter your self-talk and basic beliefs, and find a life purpose. If you are so debilitated by anxiety that it’s impossible for you to leave your home, you can work with a cognitivebehavioral nurse-therapist who can use anxiety-reduction techniques to enable you to function. (See post 9.)
Keep several things in mind when considering whether to take xanax to quell your anxiety. Remember that drugs don’t cure you. They only work on symptoms. That is, they may (or may not) reduce your anxiety, but they work only as long as you take the drug, and will do nothing to stop the real cause of your anxiety. This means they provide temporary relief, while only nonchemical lifestyle changes can produce complete and enduring relief. Also remember that any drug that is strong enough to have a sig-nificant effect has the potential for rebound and withdrawal symptoms. Breggin and Cohen point out that drugs that suppress anxiety or induce sleep when used over the long term should always be suspected of causing irreversible mental dysfunction.
You can also develop a reliance on drugs, so if you’re not currently taking them, I hope you will give the methods in this website a fair trial before electing to take them.
If you’re already taking a drug and decide to stop, only do so in concert with your health-care practitioner. Together you can find the best way to end your dependence so that you don’t have a very negative reaction. Gradually tapering off is the only safe way to stop taking a drug. This gradual approach is especially important if you’re taking a tranquilizer, because going cold turkey can be dangerous.
If you do decide to take medications, always be informed about what you’re taking, the correct dosage, what effects to expect, and any dangerous side effects and what to do about them if they occur. This holds true for all drugs, not just medications prescribed to reduce anxiety. (For example, one study has linked oral contraceptives to panic disorder. Once women taking triphasal oral contraceptive stopped taking it, their panic attacks disappeared. Researchers concluded that the oral contraceptives precipitated panic disorder with agoraphobia.)
