Most of the people that drink (or more to the point drank) while taking xanax or other benzodiazapems can be visited regularly at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

DON'T DRINK ON XANAX!

this site is not about getting "high". there are other forums for that.

They consultant believed that a fit young man would could take 300mg of indomethacin daily and not be damaged by it. When the symptoms began, it was too late.

If I take benzodiazepines I don't feel the need anymore to drink beer. It's one or the other. Only on occasion I might drink some, but I know when to stop.

I've heard that before about 1000 times. Famous last words.

no sh!t ! ! !

oh, sorry, did not see your correction, was going from the post above that.

i still say be careful with the booze and benzos...

not a good mix as many have said.

be safe...

I think that if you get stabilised on one benzo, with no other drugs, you have a good basis for contemplating the next step. But please, unless you have genuine pain issues, don't order that oxycodone.

Even if you are stable on high doses of one benzo, taken many times per day, it's better than polydrug use. But still try to remember: the less you use them the more effective they will be for you.

Sorry to hear about what happened to you as a kid. I may have ended up on more drugs that you had that happened to me.

Find someone you either know well, or don't know at all, and tell them your story. A problem shared is a problem halved, so they say, and it's amazing how some people prefer to talk to a total stranger about such things, especially on the internet.

Hope you get sorted.

Bamone, nephro is right. It may very well help you if you join a support group online. You can talk about it but no one knows you.

I understand you. I had a few terrible things happen. My fiance died and within 6 months 3 close friends died, two in the same car. I married a few years later and he died. After he died, I had a stillborn child. Then my father who was my hero, died. I started thinking "who cares?", we all die, some early some later but no one gets out alive. And you will reach for anything to kill that pain just a bit.

It was easy to quit. I did it thousands of times. There was a late 90s obscure band with a line from one of the songs. "You can't count the number of pills I've taken." That was me along with other stuff and I even included that song in my own set list.

I went to rehab and it was a waste of time. I just can't believe the higher power stuff. I'm the one who makes decisions. No matter how much I tried to ask my higher power and give it up, no one took it from me. I commend anyone who has been successful in 12 step programs though. However, the success rate is pretty low, like 25%. What about the rest?

It's a myth that an addict stays an addict forever. I went to one appt with a counselor when I found myself crying while driving, in stores, at work, etc. I told him my story. He said I am grieving, that grieving can be over anything, not just death but anything that was taken from you. And he said there is no timeline for grief but I had the power over my own emotions. No one or nothing can make me happy. I have to do it. I have to choose. Then he told me to go out and find something to make myself happy with. I found it but everyone has their own. And it took me 3 years to find it.

Only once have I taken it all the way down again. It wasn't the same. I had fear too. That I would kill myself right when I was happy and that I may end up in jail without having done my laundry. No clean underwear.

Now I have physical pain and I was scared to take any meds but I have gone over the dose once or twice and immediately told my PM doc. He was cool. I have never told him my story though. So I don't think I am an addict with drugs. I was addicted to killing my mental pain.

Just don't give up, bamone. You'll find the answer but you have to be searching.

Edit: No offense to anyone here but it's hard to think about what you are doing to your family when using. You don't feel anything and don't care about yourself, let alone anyone else. Only when you are clean you realize how it affected other people. My mother nor my father when he was alive knew though. They did think I got a lot of "flus" though as I was always vomiting or shaking when visiting them. I told my mother afterwards and she said "It couldn't have been that bad. You always worked." I decided not to hurt her.

Fireaway. Good reference. "The Refreshments". I think the song was White Collar Suicide or something. Excellant band/album!

Wow! I didn't even name the band because not many know them. It was blue collar suicide but what about Banditos. "Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people." They were one of the greats.

well i OD;d on Halcion and alcohol last year--and i was referred to my current DR after that and he knows my whole drug abuse history--cas i told him---and currently taking vicodiene Soma and xanax ---all prescribed so theres still quacks out there---keep looking--- i called him a quack but really i have failed back surgery chronic back pain and panic and anxiety attacks and insomnia so---is he a good DR or a quack?

No, except the occasional remarkable patient; medicine is not an exact science. It is not worth the risk of assuming you just might be one of those remarkable patients.

If you overdosed again, then questions about his prescribing would be asked, to say the least.

you are lucky. 99.999% of docs would not touch a person with an OD under their belt. documented pain or not

Halcion is alot stronger than xanax and i dont drink anymore

Bamone, you asked about staying on benzos long term. My sister-in-law has some issues similar to yours. Her social anxiety progressed to agoraphobia once she hit 25. She has been on Xanax ever since then and I think she is 38 now. I don't know her dose but I remember her telling me about 8 years ago that they raised the dose but that was it, she was not going to let them raise it again because she was sleeping until noon and then not doing much of anything after that. They knocked it down a notch because those symptoms would not go away after several months. So now she has been on a dose that was between what she started on and what they tried to increase to.

She didn't go beyond a few blocks from her house for years. But I convinced her to meet me in Atlanta about 5 years ago and now she even travels alone. I doubt if she is ever going to function without the Xanax. But here is the thing. She refuses to go to counseling and she refuses to mention what happened. Her father is in prison for molesting over 30 children.

Sometimes, man, you just have to jump. I know you're a risk taker. Most of us here are. Otherwise we would have never taken chances with meds in the first place. Use what you have inside you. People like us have incredible strength. Do you think a wuss is going to do what we did? Do you think they could have survived what we went through? You're here, you're a survivor!

Travelman, love the lyric line. Ramble On was one of the first songs I played, then I went through most of Zepplin's songs. Cool, that Celtic sh*t.

People expect too much from modern medicine. In the grand scheme of things, some meds are just not that good. No med has been able to cure anxiety, but plenty of people have done it by other methods.

I would recommend joining a gym, and setting yourself targets. The sense of achievement is so great that you will walk down the street with your head held high, thinking how much progress you have made, and how much fitter and stronger you are compared to most of the other people who walk down the same street.

If you can't face a public gym straight away, you can get yourself in respectable shape at home. I used to run a gym, so let me know if you want any tips.

It did wonders for me when I was younger, and it can literally flip personalities. You can beat anxiety with sport and exercise, and consider drugs something you don't need.

I'm sure nephro knows this but studies have shown that the majority of those who feel the need to self-medicate for a variety of reasons unrelated to physical pain, do not release enough dopamine when they sleep. Most is released between 2p-4p with a smattering the rest of the time. These people have very little to none being released at night. He{{, I never was in bed at that time anyhow.

So we don't have the endorphins that others have. Have you ever wondered about people who had horrific things happen and yet they just carry on and are successful? Endorphins is one reason. When you're down, you're down. You have to find ways to get on the up.

But we can program our body to produce more. Exercise is a good one. Some people actually get addicted to the endorphin rush from exercise but of course it is healthy unless you go extreme. Nephro can help you on how to achieve that. You can't do some sit ups for 15 minutes and expect the flash so he can explain what you need to do to get there. The good thing is that your body will retain those steadily for quite a while.

I hope you are okay and things work out for you. I feel bad for you. While all this advice is good, you have to figure out what will work for you and with therapy, how to resolve those issues that have brought this on. But you are absolutely right, the SSRI's do stop working after you take them for awhile and you experience side effects. The good thing is, there are different classes of antidepressants and if you find the SSRI's aren't working anymore, then try a Tricyclic, etc..And Buspar, well it simply does not work. Although, I have seen some poeple who say it does, I think it is basically like a placebo and they are willing to take anything to help alleviate their anxiety.

The problem is, people count on the "anti-anxiety drugs" as a quick fix for immediate gratification. You have to come up with better coping skills to deal with your anxiety and not rely on medication. I do not condone the benzos in any way. I personally, think it is the worst drug a dr. can prescribe! I took it briefly within a six month period and then stopped taking them. This was over a year ago. The first month, I had tremendous anxiety, to the point to where my head felt like it was shaking if it was against the wall! All in all, it took about four months for me to feel normal again. Generally, it takes about six months to get off of any benzo. I said after that, NEVER AGAIN! And absolutely, exercise, and walking/whatever, to help with any anxiety helps. You feel so much better afterwards. Sometimes if you have too much time on your hands, to where you are thinking and/or consuming yourself with it, may be the problem. Staying busy, will keep you feeling satisfied and keep your mind off of things that are bringing this anxiety on. And like the other poster said, the sense of feeling accomplishments will reverse it. I know easier said then done, but if you want to get better then you have to think about these suggestions and talk to your dr about what is going on. Good luck to you and feel better soon, Am.

[quote=Fireaway]I'm sure nephro knows this but studies have shown that the majority of those who feel the need to self-medicate for a variety of reasons unrelated to physical pain, do not release enough dopamine when they sleep. Most is released between 2p-4p with a smattering the rest of the time. These people have very little to none being released at night. He{{, I never was in bed at that time anyhow.[quote}

Error alert: That was supposed to be 2am-4am. While you are in deep REM.

hang in there.

sooner or later there will come a day when you have some sort of breakthru and you realize that your thoughts helped get you there.
Your mind is more powerful than ANY drug and as long as you adopt some positive, simple thought and talk yourself into believing it, that thought will become your reality, just as negative thoughts can often become someone elses reality....


When they say "think about it".....

theres a good reason !

Bamone, you have excellent insight. I think addicts are some of the smartest and most creative people I know. Re: so many artists, musicians, authors, etc, have been addicted. Or what they call addicted. Self-medicating, enhancers, mood elevators, whatever.

Yeah, life isn't linear, it's circular. Sometimes its spinning and sometimes it jumps across the circle. You can make it jump. The dopamine may be reduced but you can find ways to force it out. Squeezing that last drop. We're good at getting the absolute most out of a product, aren't we? Use that same ability on your body. If you can't exercise out, do it at home. You can do resistance training without any special equipment, you can use big cans or something as weights, there are all kinds of things. Have to unload the dishwasher? Stand back and bend over so you stretch those muscles and tighten your abs. Mix it up. Tom Cruise (horrors that you should even think of him) danced in his socks and underwear in Risky Business. Turn it up and go crazy. Let them burn their eyes on you moving.

Positive energy draws positive and negative energy draws more negative energy. We can prove that if we still remembered any of our physics classes. But if you look at most of the world's religions and philosophies, they all promote positive energy. Such as praying for someone who is sick and then they get better despite the odds. You can send positive energy to anyone, including yourself. Awesome, right? Man, I think I'll just send myself this kickin package of positive energy today. Then do it.

More complicated is Tao but deep into it is the premise that the universe has a pattern. Even randomness is a pattern. Think of picking up a handful of sand then removing one grain from that pile. Slowly or quickly, all of the grains are going to shift in some way. The grains near where you removed the one grain will be more affected while those far away will only be slightly affected. So are our actions and behaviors. Some will affect us and other people, animals, or nature more than others. If you're going to live in this, you might as well let yourself be felt. Affect the rest with how powerful your positive energy is.

You have to believe in something. Start with yourself first. You are already on your way with the insight you have into how life has affected you and how you contributed to blocking your own strength. You locked it down. Now take it up.

I have an old Frank and Ernie comic on my frig. It says, "Long ago I decided my life would be a success if I could make one person happy. I pick me." Pick YOU!

I almost mentioned that DVD, it explains a lot in simple terms instead of psycho babble sh*t that melts your eyes. I spent a lot of time (trying to keep my mind off stuff too) in ways that might help my mental state. Just like the Beatles traveled the world looking for their own beliefs but I did it from my computer.

I thought no way that stuff really works but it does, if you find one that you can believe in. One that makes sense to you personally. I remember the first time I felt my own power over myself. There was an incredible euphoric rush, like Wow, I can actually do this all by myself, for myself! It was there the whole time and doesn't even cost anything. You want to yell, OK, I understand now, I get it.

You are already putting out this energy now, you just need to lasso it and rein it in. Look at the posts. Others can feel you doing it too. If you ever need to talk you can PM me anytime. And find the creative side of you (I know it's there) so you can use that too. I thought I would never be able to perform without drugs but like others found, it was easier. Didn't have to struggle to remember lyrics and no idiotic moments of making up words because my brain left the room.

offtopic

carefully

Any drug in that category or actually any narcotic intensifys the effects of the drug. Many people have died doing that. Of course it depends on the condition of your body, dosage, amount of alcohol and and any other drugs you may be taking. From what I have been told many times. Don't do it!! Just my opinion

It is really unfortunate that a question involving the combo of alcohol and benzodiazapines can actually run for five pages.
I wonder if a similar question like "anyone here play with a loaded pistol when they are drunk?" would engender five pages of posts.
I can imagine the array of answers.
"Ya, I do it all the time and nothing bad has happened yet."
"I only do it on week-ends."
"Been playing with a loaded gun drunk for years and I can stop anytime I want."

What's the difference?

I was thinking the same thing as this thing went on and on.

I've read and read and decided I just didn't have time to read 3 more pages. Sorry.
One suggestion (sorry if it's already been said).
Go to a different Dr. and don't admit to drug abuse. See what they say.
You obviously are going to continue down this road so you might as well have it monitored if not you will die.
From what I've read about Xanax it can kill you, period!
I have a friend who has high anxiety and will not attend social events even for her childrens behalf. She reqrets these decisions everyday and it makes the anxiety worse. It's a cycle that needs to be broken.
If I push her and make a date she will go out. Maybe you need to find a friend that will help you with that. Trust is first I know but you should open up to a good friend or mentor and see how they can guide you.
To hide this way of life is another way your are causing your anxiety. I huge weight will come off your shoulders if you just let it out to someone you know and trust.
K