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side effects of xanax

i took xanax for three weeks and it made my anxiety symptoms worse into rage, irritated, lost, confused, hands were heavy, suicidal ideation. Doc took me off xanax couple of days ago and i am xanax free for the last 5 days, I want to know how long does the it take to get rid of side effects of xanax from my body. i was taking 0.5mg xanax for three weeks. Also, my psychiatrist diagnosed me with OCD, whats the difference between OCD with fear of harming onself and other with suicidal dieation?
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Avatar universal
lat night was crazy. couldnt sleep much, i was waking up with scary thoughts, dont remember any dreams. one of thoughts when i woke up was, " its time to committ suicide" ... what the hell..... it was like my brain telling me to do it.. i got so upset at it last night.... i dont know what drives these thoughts... i am not depress but get down when i get these thoughts.. thanks xanax i love you for starting these crazy thoughts in my mind...  i wish i could turn back time and wont have taken it... i wish..
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Avatar universal
you are lucky my friend. i always have some sort of side effect of any medicine i have taken in my life...
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Avatar universal
Ive been on Xanax for probably 15 years. My dr now trusts that I will manage my dosing without over doing it, and I do. I have never had one single negative side effect from it. Ive also weaned myself off...then when times got tough, or anxiety really flared up...i went back on. Its in and out of your system completely within 5-6 hours. Certainly wouldnt be in a day later. I find its an excellent short-term anxiety reducer. For me, its ideal. Some days...I need quite a bit...others, I dont take anything. my dosage is low....025 mg, so I double up...at one point, my dr was having me take 2 pills in the morning, 1 at noon, and 2 at night. So...even that dose is not outrageous....
Good luck...I dont find Xanax scary in the least.
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Avatar universal
thanks for such a reassuring email. i am hoping that i will get back to normal. my suicidal thoughts have calmed down in a week. i dont have crazy images of how i will kill myself. now i have thoughts where it tells me that i will die of suicide. i sometimes see rope which scares me even more. i have bouts of these thoughts but not all the time. i get them for couple of hours in a day as of yesterday, 4 to 5 hours instead of 24 hours i had before. but i do have fears or scared on minute things. this started the first day i took medicine so i am thinking that it will end at the end. extreme thoughts a gone but a scared/fearful on small things is still there. i hope i will get better. i even get scared of looking at any medicine in my hous, lol !!
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Avatar universal
Paxiled how long did your withdrawal symptoms lasted after you had quit paxil ? it seems like u said three years ??? thats an awefully long time to suffer from withdrawal from a medicine.... and how long did u take it for?

i am off xanax for a week now and feel better living without it but i do have bouts of severe negative thoughts which i hope will go away, God willingly...
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756668 tn?1287225387
I can only say..I totally agree with what you are saying.  Perhaps since I Don't have any depression factors to deal with, I was not aware of Benzo's adding on to depression when someone already suffers from it.  

When I first found out about my anxiety and where and why it was happening....my primary care doctor stayed clear of all anti-depressants.  It was only when she thought that perhaps I should see a Physc..because I didn't want to take any meds...but I found that they were treating me like a lab rat!  try this med...nope..let's try this one..and then another!  I just said...NO!  I am not your experiment and I am going to do this differently.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! : )
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Avatar universal
Benzos can cause depression to worsen in depressed people.  And any med that affects the brain, and several that theoretically don't, can produce paradoxical reactions.  Xanax gave me greater anxiety.  This doesn't usually happen, but it isn't uncommon.  Whenever anyone takes a medication, they should always be alert for personality changes; what affects you one way will affect someone else another, so we can never generalize from our own experiences to what someone else might feel.  The brain is just too complicated, and we're the guinea pigs for these medications.  Hopefully, our suffering will help future generations.  Don't thing these drugs are well-researched -- if you look at the studies, very small samples are used, many people drop out due to side effects, part of the group will be on placebo, anyone with greater than moderate symptoms will not be allowed to take part in the trials, and pharmaceutical companies don't reveal negative information.  FDA does no research on its own, it just reviews pharmaceutical company studies.  By the time independent researchers get involved, the drug has usually already been on the market for ten years or more.  We're in an age of information gathering and experimentation in pursuit of profit, not knowledge.
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Avatar universal
I was damaged by the psychiatrist who took me off Paxil.  I asked to be taken off, and he did a taper, but he never mentioned the possibility of withdrawal and I had no idea it could happen.  I started to go nuts, and he still didn't mention it or do anything but recommend new drugs, which seemed odd at the time.  By the time I got the courage to go on the internet and learn what my psychiatrist either didn't know or didn't choose to tell me, it had been months, and no other psychiatrist has yet been able to help me get back.  That was three years ago.  That's why I always advise on here that people make sure their psychiatrists know what they're doing before they start a med, stop a med, or change the dosage.
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756668 tn?1287225387
I am so sorry you had to go through all of that!!!  It is awful to feel the fear of not knowing what is going on inside our bodies and minds.  I can relate.  

Alot has to do with our mindsets when we start any new medication.  My daughter takes Zoloft and when she started she felt funny, very funny.  She wanted to stop taking it, but under careful surpervision she continued to go forth and give it more time to get into her system.  I can testify that she is a completely different person.  Works wonders for her.  She was very angry and nothing seemed to make her happy.  Now she is full of life.  But see...for me Zoloft was like a train wreck...I had all sorts of thoughts going through my head. but once I was off it, all those thoughts vanished. I am fine now...so for those who lose hope and think they will never feel normal...they will.  You have to continue to fight..no matter what!  

I have never had suicidal thoughts....so I feel bad for those who go through that.  But like I mentioned there are so many different levels of anxiety and why one person has it.  I like you will never touch an anti-depressant again.  One because I am not down...ever!  but I am not against them for those who need it ( like my daughter ) and there are no other alternatives.  I find things that calm me down...and go with the flow!  You would never even know I had an anxiety issues if you met me.  My friends when they found out..didn't even believe me.  But I do!  

I know the feeling when you said.." I wish I had never taken these meds..". They say xanax is addictive..yes it is..but heck I wonder what isn't these days!!!!

I truly hope you find what works for you...anmd know we are all here to help you in any way!

Moira
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
my fears about my life started the first night i took xanax and zoloft..... before that i never had any issue like that.... i woke up in middle of night scared that i might do something to myself.... and on fourth day i ended up in ER very aggravated and in delusional state....they took me off zoloft and xanax only but still the thought process was crazy....

for me it all started after xanax/zoloft when i first got into docs office complaining about isomnia.. i wish i had never taken these meds.... :S
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Avatar universal
all of the above fears or disorders i have mentioned started happening after i took xanax and now i am xanax free for a week, but still sufffer from its side effects from time to time.. i do feel better over time and then do not feel better..... it will take weeks before i will fully recover... i dont like psychiatrists myself... ......
Helpful - 0
756668 tn?1287225387
I am not a pro by any means...just another individual suffering from anxiety without ...thank the lord above depression!  I was diagnosed with it,, nit because of any OCD or anything like that...doctor found it after running every single test and it was my thyroid.  Had that removed and put on 1 medication..after trying numerous ones. I am doing fine....I have my days, but they have been since far few and in between.  We are not all the same. I personally don't think xanax could contribute to suicidal thoughts unless the person is also having other issues.  Also depending on the amount one person is taking, and hopefully isn't taking anything else along with it.  The one med I found freaked me out, and made me act weird..was EFFEXOR. Never again!  I understand alot of these meds help people...but in the end my doctor found that not suffering from depression would only enhance it and bring my anxiety levels up, when taking an anti-depressant.  I just think it is strange when someone says .5mg...1 a day can make them act strange.  

Don't kill me..this is just me talking and thinking!  : )   I just hope you find the right dosage of meds for you that work.  Even though we may all have anxiety doesn't mean it is the same for everyone.  Some are far worse off than others!  

But I wish you the best....find a really good doctor..they do care, I must have been blessed..because I cannot remember the last time, I didn't sleep..I cannot remember the last time I had an attack.  
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190673 tn?1259203266
I thought they have something that they call Pure O, which means obsessions without compulsions. But some disagree.

Also, could you tell me how you got damaged by psychiatrists? I am not a big fan of them nor medications either but I doubt I will ever be able to be med-free despite trying hard to cope with my anxiety without meds.
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Avatar universal
thanks again. the latest phobia i have is that i cannot watch scary characters in movies and even in cartoons.... i get scared or tremble at sudden loud music. i never had these issues before and started having them with xanax....i am not sure what i am going through....

i am confused....
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Avatar universal
Look, I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm just a long-time anxiety sufferer who has been badly damaged by psychiatrists.  Again, though, obsessive thinking without compulsive behavior isn't OCD, it's just severe anxiety.  Not a big deal, really, since the same drugs tend to treat both conditions,  but important in therapy and in certain meds.  I've had some crazy obsessive thoughts over the years, too, but that doesn't make me OCD.  Lose the labels and try to focus on healing.
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Avatar universal
my craziest of side effect which has started with xanax were the nightmares and suicidal thoughts... i will be sitting but my mind will race to my kitchen me holding a knife and stabbing my stomach... some really frightful experiences with xanax. ever since i have stopped xanax i am going through the truama of what i had experienced. i have run away thoughts sometimes but they are not fixated on one way of hurting me but multiple different types... all of them increasing my anxiety and eventually making me so irritated with my thought process. according to my psychaitraist it is a typical OCD behaviour, where u get these racy thoughts of hurting yourself and sometimes these thoughts seems to be so compelling that this is the right things to do and scares u even more...
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Avatar universal
very good answer. i agree with you what u have said. ive started therapy along with that meditation. Remembering GOD has helped me a lot with my anxiety. finally after 2 months i was able to sleep at night without waking up. however, my compulsive thoughts drive me a little insance somtimes. I guess as you said, my obsessive complusive thoughts will go away once my anxiety levels go down. but as of now they **** me off and irritate me a lot.
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Avatar universal
Could skipping the daily dose of .25 of Xanax cause yawning to cease ? Today I didnt medicate and everytime my body ywans, it stops short..yet, me deep breat problem is not that bad today, best day in four months....

Geoffrey
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Avatar universal
Not until I went on Paxil, but when I went off Paxil I suffered a terrible withdrawal that my psychiatrist failed to diagnose or treat.  So now I'm a complete mess.  But the worst effects of the Xanax went away as soon as I stopped taking it.  The problem isn't really the Xanax, it's the underlying condition that makes those of us who suffer anxiety project one experience onto other experiences, conditioning ourselves to suffer more anxiety.  Until you learn to overcome that conditioning and the avoidance, the disease stays.  Only therapy can do that, though it hasn't worked for me it has for many.  That's your best bet.
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Avatar universal
i agree with you. It all happened after xanax. I have so many phobias now that i get scared of myself. but then i tell myself, its my OCD to wade them away... Xanax had a terrible effect on me. I wish now i had never taken it... I am hoping that these phobias will go away..

Paxiled how long did it take for you to get rid of your phobias once u stopped taking xanax....
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Avatar universal
First, make sure you actually have OCD.  This is one of the most abused diagnoses psychiatrists use, along with bipolar 2, which probably doesn't exist.  True OCD involves not just obsessive thoughts, which everyone suffering from depression and anxiety have, but also obsessive action, the compulsive part, such as the stereotypical repeated washing of hands.  If you just have obsessive thoughts, which is what it sounds like, but no compulsive actions, you're not OCD, you just suffer from anxiety.  You might also be suffering a mild withdrawal from quitting the Xanax.  Xanax really mess me up when I tried it; I had a paradoxical reaction and ended up with new phobias, and it made me feel really strange.  Every med affects an individual differently.
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672514 tn?1265655141
it's your OCD, you may want to check yourself in for a couple of days, to relieve the stress.
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Avatar universal
thanks silver, then why am i having headaches and a little bit of confusion. also, i do admit that my OCD has gone done after i have stopped taking xanax, it is almost like something is popping up in my head but it vanishes. however, my last fear of suicide ideation has a huge impact on the way i am now. i am still distressed at the fact that i was contemplating suicide or should i say i was fearing that i might committ suicide.... these crazy thoughts are still there sometimes. i wonder why i am still thinking about it even though xanax is out of my system...
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672514 tn?1265655141
the half life is short, xanax is not even in your body anymore
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