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Anxiety and Xanax
Hi all I'm new to here(not literally), i been roaming around here for a long time already but never registered or anything. I want to know what could be wrong with me as I have not been feeling good at all. I have been constantly dizzy for 4 months and it doesn't want to go away. I also am withdrawing from xanax and it messed me up worse. It made me more dizzy, anxiety x999, muscle twitchyness, can't seem to stand still, and just alot more other symptoms. I want to know what I can do to fix this, i just started taking Lexapro 5mg for 1 week and a half, and it hasn't helped much. But everytime i take a lil bit of xanax (.125) my anxiety goes down, and my dizzyness as well. My xanax dose was (.25mg twice a day) and i only took for 1 month and a half. I want to get my life back, it feels like im disabled, I can't do anything cause im dizzy. I've had all kinds of bloodwork done and everything came back normal. So what can i do? Im stuck in this life....
Xanax is a wonder drug for anxiety really is but not to be abused. I only use it when anxiety levels get really bad. I also take 20mg lexapro.
Thanks for your input! I stopped taking xanax cold turkey because my doctor TOLD me to do it. And to start with 5mg of lexapro for two weeks then to 10mg after 2 weeks. I told him i wanted to feel better because my next semester of colelge is coming up, but now that im going through all this, I have yet to sign up for classes cause im not ok, and i don't want to sign up and drop the classes, i have dropped so many classes because of this same problem with anxiety. I didn't know all this bad stuff would happen from withdrawal. The doc told me i wasn't going to have withdrawal cause i was only taking it for 1 month, but idk if this has anything to do with it, but before xanax i was taking valium 10mg, at night which is a benzo for 3 months, so idk if this has anything to do with it. But i had withdrawal type symptoms right away, the same day i stopped taking xanax, BAM i instantly fell, it felt like i was in hell. Also when i wake up in the morning i wake up panicing, like where the hell am i? Am i alive? And just confused as to where i am, and i get hot and cold sensations in my body. And Absolutely no appetite, although my stomach is roaring that im hungry, I cant eat anything in the morning cause i wake up so nauseus. But i do get super hungry at night. I jsut want to be my old self again.. =( Also maybe im going through a hard part in my life in which i have to become independent, im 21 and im like stuck on the stage to become detached from my parents, but i have no idea how to live life without them. And i dont have a girlfriend, havent had one in years. And im just constantly worring about my health..... ='(
Well........you are in a bit of a pickle with your meds, but it can be fixed, so try to calm down. As cj told you, stopping a benzo like Xanax cold turkey is a really, really bad idea. I put about 99% of the blame on your doctor for not making it extremely clear to you that you have to taper off Xanax, even though your dose was relatively small and you weren't on it for very long, this is a really powerful med and you needed to be tapered by your doctor.
That your symptoms pretty much go away when you take some Xanax is proof positive that you're in withdrawal. Rebound anxiety is always much worse than the anxiety you began with. That's a fun little factoid of benzo use.
Now you are starting an antidepressant, which carries it's own set of side effects, add in the Xanax w/d and you've got a pretty good chance of ending up in that pickle I mentioned earlier.
I would strongly suggest you go back to whomever prescribed the Lexapro and have a discussion about how......and why, you're feeling like you are. Lexapro can take anywhere from 1-4 weeks to reach therapeutic levels, so it's possible right now that the Lexapro hasn't kicked in and your Xanax dose is too low to control the anxiety, so basically you aren't "covered" at all. You don't have adequate meds in your system to help with any of your symptoms. Until you see your doctor, DO NOT INCREASE ANY OF YOUR MEDS ON YOUR OWN!
You can't play Beer Pong with psychotropics.
Once your doctor gets you back on an even keel, if the dizziness does not abate, you may want to see either a neurologist and/or an EENT. Also to be discussed with your doctor.
I wish you the very best and know you'll be OK.
Peace
Greenlydia
That your symptoms pretty much go away when you take some Xanax is proof positive that you're in withdrawal. Rebound anxiety is always much worse than the anxiety you began with. That's a fun little factoid of benzo use.
Now you are starting an antidepressant, which carries it's own set of side effects, add in the Xanax w/d and you've got a pretty good chance of ending up in that pickle I mentioned earlier.
I would strongly suggest you go back to whomever prescribed the Lexapro and have a discussion about how......and why, you're feeling like you are. Lexapro can take anywhere from 1-4 weeks to reach therapeutic levels, so it's possible right now that the Lexapro hasn't kicked in and your Xanax dose is too low to control the anxiety, so basically you aren't "covered" at all. You don't have adequate meds in your system to help with any of your symptoms. Until you see your doctor, DO NOT INCREASE ANY OF YOUR MEDS ON YOUR OWN!
You can't play Beer Pong with psychotropics.
Once your doctor gets you back on an even keel, if the dizziness does not abate, you may want to see either a neurologist and/or an EENT. Also to be discussed with your doctor.
I wish you the very best and know you'll be OK.
Peace
Greenlydia
It seems i got a rebound anxiety from the xanax, cause i never felt like that before, i would never think like that. I would think about having a panic attack in public and getting scared, but for some reason i feel better on that, other than the dizzyness does present itself when i go out in public and makes me get panicy, and very anxious. Now im having a different kind of anxiety, as to like being lost in this world feeling.
It seems you benefit from an combination of Lexapro and Xanax. This is frequently the way it works. In my opinion you are taking a low dose of Xanax to ease anxiety. And it is true that Lexapro or any SSRI will take time to work. During this time, therapy is invaluable.
From your description of how you are thinking....therapy would be beneficial. I don't know of any psychiatrist who wouldn't agree. Have you asked your doctor for names of a therapist. Many offices have psychologist available to patients. I used to see my psychiatrist, then spend 50 minutes with therapist.
Hope you feel better soon.
From your description of how you are thinking....therapy would be beneficial. I don't know of any psychiatrist who wouldn't agree. Have you asked your doctor for names of a therapist. Many offices have psychologist available to patients. I used to see my psychiatrist, then spend 50 minutes with therapist.
Hope you feel better soon.
Ho thanks for your reply, yes i stoped.xanax cold turkey at first, but i.got really sick, my whole body was numb chills,etc, so now im taking just a fourth of a .50mg pill a day. It helps but i still have alot of anxiety. I feel like im dreaming i feel like im just looking at my body move also i am forgetting things like names and stuff. I keep thinking i have a brain tumor or something. Also i start asking myself retorical questions like what is life? Why am i doing this? Why am i working, and things like that and that triggers a panic attack. But i just overall feel brain fog and like i feel like im on a boat rocking around and when i walk i feel like im walking on mud like the floor is uneven as if im falling to one side. I havent done therapy, never tried, i do see my psychiatrist every month though but that really isnt helping me cause he just says ok take this med or take that and yea it doesnt really help =(
I am sorry that you are going through this right now. When you started coming off of the Xanax, did you stop it 'cold turkey?' In my experience, you can definitely have withdrawals from a benzo like this, but if you slowly come off of it, it can really help with the symptoms in my opinion...just do it under your doctor's supervision of course. As far as Lexapro, remember SSRIs can take a while for you to start to feel the benefit of them. It took about 3 to 4 weeks before I noticed a difference with them. Are you currently in therapy right now? I ask this because, while I am a proponent of medication like Lexapro, I also believe that counseling is important in that it will give you the knowledge to confront your anxiety. For me, the combination of the SSRI and counseling proved to be the best way forward when I intially went through my experience with anxiety....keep us posted!
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