Veritas1

Bevin

Does the doctor that gives you xanax know that you are in recovery from alcoholism?

I have been told that people in recovery with alcoholism shouldn't be taking xanax. It hits the same receptors in the brain as alcohol.

It's like the same as alcohol to the brain.

I have been told that taking xanax can lead to an alcohol relapse because they both work on the same gaba receptor in brain. At some point, taking xanax, leads to physical craving, just the same as if you were drinking, because it acts on the brain the same as alcohol, so the brain doesn't know the difference between alcohol or xanax...same thing to brain.

It wears off, or you don't take enough, and brain asks for alcohol...could lead to relapse.

I have been told many people relapse on alcohol taking xanax instead of drinking, or in place of drinking, or for anxiety while sober.

That...people in recovery from alcoholism, should be taking other anti-anxiety meds, other than xanax.

Check with your doctor, and be honest.

There are other anti anxiety medications that are safer for a recovering alcoholic than the benzo xanax/alprazolam.

I have had members of AA tell me that they don't even consider a person taking xanax sober as it is the same to the brain as alcohol.

I wonder if this is true or just opinions I have heard. Best to ask your doctor to be safe. I would just hate for it to be true, and the very medicine is leading to physical craving for alcohol.

OklaBH

My alcoholic brain loves to mess with me. Anytime I am doing something good it creeps in. Last weekend on my way to an AA meeting i had these thoughts of "ok you've proved your point, you dont need alcohol" its a sick disease and will eventually kill us if we dont stop it.

ste

I'm waiting for that little sheet, it can be like the hammer the pop up gopher on the head game at the carnival. BAM!

I'm gonna use it. Thanks folks!

TotoBidule

This is patently good advice. I'm not so impressed with the other musings though...

I think this is very unfair. Xanax is clearly a very strong benzo, and very probably not the best option - Bevin, I strongly recommend you talk honestly to your doctor about it. However, my understanding is that benzos ARE prescribed for treating anxiety in alcohol withdrawal. My doctor prescribed me something that acts on the same/similar receptors - meprobamate. The notice is clear "This medication is an anxiolytic. It is recommended to help with withdrawal in alcohol dependant subjects" (sorry, terrible translation).

I have finally accepted that I am an alcoholic, and that no matter how much I don't like it (at the moment :-)), I will never be able to drink again. I made the conscious decision to choose life. I AM sober, and will stay that way. For those for whom hospitalisation for 2-3 mths is an option, who won't have their lives or careers affected by it, then sure, no meds is an attractive option. For the rest of us, I firmly believe that we should take our DOCTORS' advice, and if there are some AA prats that tell you otherwise then you should tell them to go get ******!

Sorry for the emotion, I need food :-).

Pete55

Firstly, no member ought to offer opinions on another member's prescriptions, it is very controversial territory. Not even doctors are supposed to offer opinions on another doctor's prescritions to their patients. I have heard shares where some are on medications, I simply say, "vote with my feet.

An ideal however, is to not have alcohol or any medication, but not as a rule.
If it's pitched as an ideal, then it's something to look forward to.
So the question really is, what does one consider the ideal sober way of living once having found 12 step sobriety?

MIBluebird

Bevin - from your post, it sounds like you are weaning youself off of the Xanax and I totally understand what you are going through. I have been taking Xanax for 17 years for panic disorder. I was taking it twice a day and then it would wear off so I was drinking every night to take away my anxiety. So, many of the people here are correct about the correlation between Xanax and Alcohol and I had no idea until I talked to an addiction therapist. My internist agreed but of course she never knew that I was an alcoholic so she wasn't concerned about prescribing it for anxiety disorder. Again though, only your doctor can tell you what is right for you.

So now we don't have the drinks to look forward to and it's very hard. I'm angry too and I don't want to go out of the house because I'm anxious at the same time. But, I'm on day 40 and it's getting easier and it will for you too. Spend alot of time here - the posts from others have been the best thing in my recovery and it's helping me to take one day at a time to stay sober.

Chris2011

I had terrible anxiety after drinking. I took Atenolol, which slows the heart rate down. I would suggest this for SURE as an anti-anxiety drug, and it is non-addicting. I am off it now...weaned myself off two weeks ago and doing ok.

Eddie2

I've been talking about Tolle a lot lately. Sorry if it is annoying, but it has helped me a lot.

Tolle talks about "watching the thinker". Consider this. That voice in your head that says "you get to drink". Who is that? Is that you?

The mind voice may be in you, but it is not the essential you. If there is a voice in your head, it is talking, but who is listening? Listen to the voice and become aware of it. Then realize that you are not the voice, you are the listener, and the voice in your head doesn't control you.

It's not so different from seeing a "crazy" person on the street, talking to them self. We would look at them and say "they should see a doctor". But all of us "normal" people do exactly the same thing, we just don't do it out loud. If that is "crazy" then we should really work at understanding and gaining control of that voice.

Don't know if I explained that well at all or if it helps any. Just thought I'd share some ideas that are helping me quite a lot. Every day that passes with no alcohol, I'm more able to practice these ideas.

Take care,

Eddie

wpainterw

Toto: I concur in the post which says that the best thing to do is to consult your doctor and not listen to what some of the AA "experts" may be saying. But make sure that he or she is a skillful doctor and well informed about alcoholism. Some of the old timers may have been good in their day but they may not have kept up with the recent literature.
As to the little "alcoholic" voice, which sometimes sounds like a two year old kid, I think that this is a pretty good description, since there is evidence that impulses like this may originate from the more primitive and childlike part of of the brain. Some have described it as like trying to put a "crocodile" on a leash. Look at it this way- you've fed your body alcohol for maybe years and years (it varies of course with the patient). In effect you've been putting booze in the kid's bottle. Now the kid's whining for his bottle. Can't blame the little guy in a way. He had such a time getting used to the stuff, switching his metabolism all around to accomodate it and now it's taken away and he has to switch himself back to where he was before. He's upset and it's going to take some time to calm him down.

W.

bevin

Whew...where do I start? How about here:
Yes.

That's possible, but Xanax doesn't make me 'high' the same way alcohol does. I don't enjoy taking it...I just take it because it's the only thing I've tried that actually works. I also don't take it every day - yesterday was the first time I've had any in 4 or 5 days and 1 mg is really not a lot. I'm using it as a medication, not as a drug.

I'm all too aware of that. Nuff said.


Yes - that's the idea. I hope that in time my anxiety will become more manageable if I stay away from alcohol and I'll be able to ditch the Xanax. I realize that you guys haven't read every single thread I've started, but there's one on the anxiety forum about my GREAT BUS ADVENTURE, which chronicles the results of an attempt to do something I haven't done before without any meds or alcohol. I think it's titled 'feeling like I did something wrong'.

I wish I knew who that was...my own voice has been awfully quiet lately.

That's what I'm banking on.

How true - I had a horrible vision the other day where I pictured making a kid go through the day on just caffeine and a little food, then forcing him to drink a ton of sugar water and expecting him to be normal. That kind of visualization works for me - I would never do that to a kid, so why is it OK to do those things to myself? Maybe it's best to take more of a Supernanny approach with that kid!