Xanax’ Nation? My Anti-Anxiety Meds Give Me Enough to Worry About

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kaitlin-bell/anti-anxiety_b_1377061.html

She's describing her own tolerance/interdose withdrawal - without realising what's going on... We were all here:

 

"...In contrast, here is what I do experience: When I arrive at the psychiatrist for a “med check,” I won’t have slept a solid eight hours in weeks. I will have awoken early every morning with a jolt, my heart racing at some threat I can’t place. It will continue that way all day until I go to bed. My stomach will churn and the room will spin and I’ll be unable to eat. My thoughts will race from one unarticulated worry to another. I will feel desperate for companionship yet unable to listen or focus on conversation. I will feel constantly on the verge of tears. But I would have to tell my doctor all of this. She is not likely to go offering me a benzodiazepine prescription on the basis of some dark circles and a little hurried speech.

 

Once procured, such a prescription usually works magic, however. During the three periods of sustained anxiety I’ve suffered, I have taken a small dose of Klonopin, a long-lasting benzo, every few hours, as a way of keeping a steady level in my system. I’ve also taken it many other times when I’ve felt my anxiety flare on isolated occasions..."

Exactly, Nightwatch. It's very clear to any of us reading this that this is what's going on. It's like adding gas to fire.

Yes, a nice portrayal of the complicated relationship between the anxiety and anti-anxiety meds and how they feed off of each other.

Very well put, Loraz. They keep feeding off one another, back and forth, until the light bulb finally comes on.

Yes, she's clearly in tolerance and going in the wrong direction:

 

"After my last psychiatrist’s appointment, during which my doctor upped the dosage of my antidepressant to deal with a creeping recurrence of my depression..."

 

What a mess, I feel sorry for her.

"After my last psychiatrist’s appointment, during which my doctor upped the dosage of my antidepressant to deal with a creeping recurrence of my depression, she ended the appointment by asking what I was doing for the rest of the day. I told her I was working on a column responding to the apparent news that benzodiazepines were the hot new drugs. She rolled her eyes as though this were the height of ridiculousness. “Benzodiazepines are the hot new drugs? Since when?”

 

Enough said. The history keeps perpetuating itself, unfortunately.