Sporadic nerve pain from Xanax

Hello,

 

I’m joining BenzoBuddies because I’m curious if others are going through what I’m going through. I take Xanax 1 mg for flying, which I do frequently for work. I hate heights so it helps relax me. Overall, I take about 4 mg a month, so it’s really not much compared to others here.

 

However, I deal with a lot of bizarre nerve pain and sensations with absolutely no diagnosis from doctors for 2 years now; every test is normal, so they think I’m just anxious or crazy. I get tingling, stabbing, burning like pains just about all over. Some days it’s worse, some days it’s unnoticeable for a while.

 

I’m curious if anybody else here has dealt with nervous systems issues, even on such a low dose. I’m not sure if a taper is necessary since I never take anything long term.

Hi Sk141

 

Welcome to BenzoBuddies!

 

I am sorry to hear about your nerve pain. We are not in the business of diagnosing medical conditions, but if you want to know whether it's possible the Xanax can cause it, then yes, I do believe it's possible even taking it as needed. I have seen many people end up here who used benzo's sporadically who ended up with these type of reactions and/or becoming dependent. We also don't believe there is such a thing as a low dose benzo's. Are you considering stopping using Xanax completely? If so, I do just want to confirm that you were only taking 4 tablets of 1mg per month before we discuss a taper and a way forward?

 

Here are some links to get you started:

 

Withdrawal Support (during your taper)

 

Chapter 3 Ashton manual, list of symptoms

 

Please look around and start posting when you're ready!

Yes I am considering stopping it, but I would have to talk to my doctor about increasing my prescription because I only get a refill when I call in. And yeah, I am only at 4 mg a month max, sometimes it’s only 2 mg if I don’t have as many trips.

 

The other downside is I’m not sure what else I can take in place of it for flying. I took Gabapentin for the nerve pain for a while but it didn’t help with the panic attacks at all. Hydroxyzine also didn’t do anything but knock me out if I took too much.

If you only took 4mg a month I don't think you should taper. I think you should just stop if you want to stop. If this pain is indeed caused by the Xanax it should slowly resolve over time. However it could take quite a bit of time before it goes away completely. Since most of us have been severely injured by benzo's we do try and manage our anxiety in more natural ways. We're not anti-medicine, but our natural instinct is to grab a pill when a lot of our conditions can be managed better in a natural way.

 

I want to strongly urge you to consider ceasing the use of benzo's. I was talking to someone yesterday who used it for sleep twice a week and is now physically dependent and in a lot of pain. You just don't know how susceptible you are when you might reach that threshold into physical dependence.

Oh, and we do have a dedicated board for Anxiety. You could have a look there, and post there to see what others are doing.