XANAX Reviews (ALPRAZOLAM)Average Rating: 3.9 (928 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare XANAX with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Date added. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 |
More on XANAX: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR XANAX | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 4 | anxiety | none | very good drug which can be abused very easily. i take it as my doctor perscribes it. i have a stressful life so i need it. i know it's not meant for long term use originally but it turned out that way and in no way have i abused it. the reason i give it a four and not a five is because it's not a miracle drug but an effective one. | M | 25 | 5 years 2mg 3X day | 3/7/2010 | 5 | Stress at work | Brief period of light drowsiness, then alert again. | I wish this drug had been around when I was younger or it had been prescribed sooner. It's changed the way I approach work and social situations. I used to get so wound up that I really didn't function or communicate as well as I do when I take just 1/4 of a .5 mg pill. It's absolutely astounding the effect it has had on me. Might have saved me the triple bypass I had 3 years ago. I don't care about Big Pharma if they can deliver a near miracle like this, I'm lucky that this works so well for me and wish the effect was universal. | M | 57 | 9 months .125mg 2X day | 3/6/2010 | 5 | panic attacks,generalized anxiety | it can lead to sleepiness insomuch as it relaxes and calms, but it has never actually put me to sleep or rendered me unable to function | LOVE it. It is the only thing that actually helps and keeps me functioning. I know alot of people, especially doctors, would like to see it taken off the market, and won't prescribe it because it is addictive, but for me, it has been my lifesaver. I've been off it 3 times, always to cope for awhile then fall apart and come back to it. Nothing else tossed at me has ever helped,and yeah,unless you slowly taper off,it has withdrawal symptoms, but it was a cakewalk compared to one of the extended release anti depressants I had to quit cold turkey. Good drug with a bad rep. | F | 37 | 16 years 1mg 3X day | 2/27/2010 | 5 | anxiety | It can make you sleepy, that's about all. I have taken it for three years along with Cymbalta, and now I hardly ever need to take it. It is not addicting at all. Keep in mind that when the symptoms receed, the need to take it receeds too. Wonderful and inexpensive, too. | This is a wonder drug! It is NOT any more addicting than spaghetti and meatballs is addicting. I feel sorry for people in earlier times that had anxiety issues. I guess the only place to turn was alchohol. | M | 53 | 3 years 25 2X day | 2/25/2010 Patient History | 5 | anxiety and panic attacks | minimal, daytime grogginess at times, but not sure if it is from the xanax or the insomnia i also suffer from. | was hospitalized with a breakdown in 1967 at 19, and put on valium, imipramine and nardil, gradually got better and weaned myself off valium and everything else after 7 years. then back to the shrink and put back on xanax which i was told was not addicting! i have been on it since. initial dose was 1 mgm, 4x a day. over the years i gradually reduced dosage on my own and tried to get off this, but it is impossible, so i continue to take it at low doses. it has helped tremendously and i am sure i would be dead without it. it prevented many panic attacks and helps greatly with my anxiety. i am supposed to also be taking paxil, but it is an awful drug and refuse to take it. the shrink has tried me on all the ssri's, but they are like poison to me and make me feel like a zombie, so i wont take them. anyway, i am worried about the addiction (?) and the long term physical effects of xanax. can it kill you eventually? I think it is alot less harmful than alcohol. i dont drink. i am only taking 0.25 mgms and sometimes only take half doses. otherwise i see no problem taking it for the rest of my life. i have only upped the dose in crises, such as family deaths, divorce etc., so i dont abuse it. | M | 62 | 25 years 0.25 3X day | 2/24/2010 | 5 | Anxiety and Panic Attacks | quick calming effect usually withing 15-30 minutes. Sometimes causes drowsiness. | This medication gives me great relief. I always have it with me. Whenever I feel my anxiety intensifying or a panic attack coming on I take 1-2 of these. It calms me down, stops my heart from racing and prevents a panic attack. Which, if you have ever experienced a panic attack you know that this is priceless. | F | 26 | 2 years 1 MG 1X AN | 2/23/2010 | 4 | anxiety chest pains | Sluggishness fatigue | Scary drug. Started taking this med when I suddenly started getting chest pains which my p doc called panic attacks. Started on 3mg dose and eventually escalated to 6 mg. Withdrawal is like hell on earth. Don't start if u don't truly need it. I know I wouldn't have... | M | 25 | 4 years 3 mg 1X day | 2/23/2010 | 2 | Persistant General Anxiety Disorde | Yes, this drug will calm you down. It will help you sleep. It makes you feel better quickly. Then you become addicted and weaning off Xanax is horrible. The physical reaction to getting off Xanax is worse than the original symptoms. The rapid heartbeat, shakiness, stomach/intestinal upset, restless sleep and so on were worse when trying to get off this med. Too bad because initially, it really works. | M | 57 | 10 months 1.0 ng 1X day | 2/23/2010 | 5 | panic attacks/anxiety | maybe slight tiredness ...barely noticeable ...cup of coffee? | I take what I need ...sometimes as much as 3 or 4mg a day ...other days 1 or less. The best thing is ...NO PANIC ATTACKS!! ...and it works fast. Had this problem since forever ...but just recently figured out what it was. It's not something that you can easily open up w/. You just hide it the best you can. Script has stayed the same for quite awhile now. Always have some w/ me. If I'm addicted ...so be it ...I figure I'll need to be taking it for life. | M | 59 | 3 years 1 2X day | 2/11/2010 | 1 | Anxiety/Panic | W/D=HELL | I AM SORRY BUT THESE PPL COMMENTING TAKING THIS DRUG 20 YEARS AND SO ON WITHOUT INCREASING IT IS WITH BIG PHARMA!!!! You want to lose your life, take the Benzos! | M | 30 | 2 years 1X day | 2/10/2010 | 5 | NO | F | 33 | 99 days 2.5MG 1X day | 2/6/2010 | 1 | Anxiety | My symptoms that I took it for are mutiplied by 100. | I take only .5 when I feel like I am going to have a panic attack. That's only 3 times a month. By the next day, I wish I had just road out the original panick attack because I not only feel anxiety, but I SCREAM AT EVRYONE THAT IS WILLING TO LISTEN. I hate this drug. Thank God I never started taking the dose my doctor recommended. Please don't take this and drink, I also have a friend that contracted MAJOR DISEASE in college from taking xanax and losing judgement. worse part is, SHE NEVER REMEMBERED HAVING SEX, so she couldn't even figure out who gave it to her. This is why I never have taken even the low recommended dose. | F | 26 | 5 years | 2/3/2010 | 4 | anxiety bronchial spasms | too high of a dose causes terrible driving concentration. had to cut the dose in half. | I thought I had something terribly wrong with me. spent thousands of dollars in doctor and tests, felt like my throat was closing off all the time. I didn't want to believe, Ms. Self Control ME, was having anxiety even though, I live a very stressed life. I HATE pills. Plus, I was begining to swear and yell at people, That's NOT me! the Doctor put me on a low dose .25 when needed. after one pill, I nearly had a car accident, was too drifty, did not concentrate. Halved my pill, and take at least 2 hours before driving,in the AM. between that and my inhaler, I can get thru the day and esp sleep well, no up and down every hour, with the other half taken at bedtime! I used think I was gonna have to run to ER 3x's a week. I thought I was dying. Everything cleared up, in hours. I am amazed. NOT impressed I have to be on Drugs, but you know, we are only human, and our bodies can only take so much stress in life, before it shows up in physical and emotional ways. I usually have lots of side effects and discontinue meds right away. Years ago, I tried Welbutrin, Effexor, and Zoloft and had awful side effects, returned them after a week. So far, I am impressed, I am sure a higher dose would be trouble. My Dad is on Paxill and he is a Mess. my Mom was Prosac and she was Hideous. I think this Pill is a life saver, and just like any Drug will have to be gradually weaned off. | F | 51 | 7 days | 1/25/2010 | 5 | aniexty | It helps | It is not the only tranquilizer I take, but adding a small amount to my treatment, has helped me alot, with concentrating, interacting with people,still need need much improvement,but with stress and anxiety lifted, at least I can look back, and see where some things in my life could have worked out differently,and hopefully I'll make better decisions in the future, when you panic, and can't remember things you learned for a job, other info, and you should be able to,it is very frustrating, I'm glad I found out about this drug. | F | 52 | 1 years | 1/24/2010 | 2 | anxiety | All the side effect were wonderful, it was the withdrawal that was hell. | If you do research you'll find that Xanax is the most widely abused pharmaceuticals in the world, and for good reason. It's impossible to have a panic attack while on it. But I've found from taking normal doses myself, and observing other people who were also not abusing it, that it should simply be a short term drug. You really have to have a diagnosis of panic disorder to be on it. How many of the people on it do you think really have panic disorder? I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I used to have it. I'm just saying it is hyped up, which has made this drug very, very popular and unfortunately many people taking it for normal use have absolutely no idea how addicting it really is. When I discontinued use, I had to be hospitalized. Suddenly, in an office meeting I felt like I was driving down a steep mountain with no breaks. Felt like crawling out of my skin, while all my coworkers looked at me like they thought I was about to go postal. From the research I read, a tolerance to a normal dose can develop in as little as a week. If you're thinking about getting on this medication, do yourself a favor and don't take it very long. If you're getting on it just for kicks, you won't listen to anything I'm saying anyway. That being said, I think it is a wonderful medication for short term use. You sleep like an angel and you don't worry about a thing. There's really nothing that beats it. Caveat, be careful. | M | 34 | 6 months | 1/23/2010 | 5 | anxiety | relaxed, calm | F | 21 | 3 years | 1/22/2010 | 5 | Chronic anxious depression | Abrupt discontinuance is holy hell- Sometimes the physician's prescribing X. to me, get anxious, and tries to instead, ply me with the brutally toxic ssri's, and their ilk. Why? I am sure this is at the behest of big pharma representatives, pushing the latest ssri drugs. | I would become a total agoraphobic basket case without it- Before there was Xanax, I was on Valium for years, with unsatisfactory results. _All_ of the ssri class of substances are *highly toxic* to me. They induce paranoid psychosis, extreme disphoria, among a long laundry list of serious life threatening ailments. Every so often, My Dr. expresses concern, that X. is going harm me (after 20 years on the stuff,) and directs me to some sinfully expensive psychiatrist for validation. So for a little more then a week, I voluntarily stopped taking X.- The results are devastating- I stopped being able to sleep at all for a week or more- I have been sleepless for over 10 days in a row in the past- And what did the expensive psychiatrist have to say about that? "I dont believe you"(!) And then he tries to bully me into taking (gasp!) Trazodone! Besides total insomnia, I become extremely fearful, and full of muscle cramps and spasms, boarding on full blown convulsive seizures. My body stopped digesting food, to the extent I couldn't even hold water down- My blood pressure soared to 180 over 110 w. a 110bpm pounding pulse rate- hallucinations, neuralgia, migraines, soaking sweats, tremors, and my feet stank ferociously. Sharp dental pain, where I haven't had teeth for years. Screeching tinnitus, feelings of having thorns behind my eyes, sever chills, vomiting, urinary retention, involuntary anorexia, back spasms, and leg spasms so pronounced, to almost completely prev | M | 62 | 20 years | 1/17/2010 | 1 | my husband does for anxiety | When not taking Xanax on a very regular basis, the side effects are unbelievable at least from an observer of so much bizarre behavior. This is a short lived drug and apparently some people cannot take it as a PRN. My husband when home often just skips the dose for reasons I do not understand and turns from a person with a flat affect into a man that is filled with rage and anger. So far no physical abuse but tremendous psychological abuse is tossed my way. Wondered if I was a trigger but 3 shrinks have said no. He has been on that medication for over 20 years and obviously is addicted but not respectful of that fact. | His thinking can get very warped. He had blackouts and memory loss and after he finally explodes verbally, seems to need 24 hours sleep. He seems to a great extent unaware of what happens and while he has a therapist he sees once every six weeks to get an Rx, after 3 or 4 years I have never been allowed to even speak with her. I doubt sincerely if she has any idea of what is going on. My husband also adds liquor to the Xanax at times and I suspect that isn't helpful. Based on reading things here it is apparent that this drug operates differently on different people but given that, I do believe psychiatrists have an obligation to check with relatives and to do any testing that might indicate other problems. My husband is in my mind mentally ill and because I wouldn't leave him if he had a physical disease I have tried very hard to learn about this benzo and to try to find coping skills to help me. We may be close to reaching the end of the line and while I know he loves me and it would break his heart (different though it is), it is finally taking a physical toll on me that is serious. This drug has altered his personality and while he is somewhat aware of it, he won't deal with it because the obvious losses of memory and a sense of shame have him hooked to the point where he can't admit the truth. Psychiatry can be very dangerous. My husband is just really paying to get a prescription: no therapy is involved at all. It's a business. | F | 68 | 20 years | 1/17/2010 | 5 | anxiety | I get tired after taking it. | I was on the medication one other time for a year. I like this drug, because of the anxiety I have daily. I gave the drug back to the doctor the first time. I cold turkey it, it was not that bad of a reaction. However, I was 21 at the time. Now some years later, I do believe it is going to take me sometime to come off of them now... | F | 33 | 6 months | 1/3/2010 | 5 | Social anxiety | Sometimes it makes me tired. | Have been sober for 25 years and when I got into my 50's I began having anxiety when in crowds, such as weddings, Christmas parties, dinner parties,etc. I take .5mg about an hour before the event and it does the job, I feel relaxed and comfortable around people. I am very careful to take this pill only when necessary as I have heard many horror stories about how addictive it is.It can be a life saver if used with caution. | M | 56 | | 12/26/2009 |