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Xanax Addiction: Can Xanax be potentially addictive?
People taking Xanax to treat their anxiety disorders or panic attacks should keep in mind its potency to cause addiction. Yes, Xanax is an addictive medicine that can lead to withdrawal symptoms, abuse, and misuse. Users usually perceive that medicines are only for good and cannot do any bad to them.
Moreover, prescription medications like Xanax are considered safer as certified doctors prescribe them to patients with genuine conditions. However, in general, things are much different. Medications like Xanax that act on the brain to treat psychiatric disorders can actually have long-term reactions on users. Even if you are taking them prescribed, they can form dependence, leading to Xanax addiction.
How does Xanax addiction form?
Most of the medicines helpful in treating brain disorders have addictive features. Xanax pills are also one of them. They help people get over anxiety and panic by acting on their brain functions. Eventually, this may develop a habit of reliance on Xanax bars in a person, and they will prefer to have this medicine to act normally. Hence, this situation increases the dependency of the person on Xanax and will end up causing adverse results for them.
Firstly, most people start using Xanax bars as a prescription medicine from their doctor for treating their anxiety or panic disorders. Gradually, their minds become dependent on Xanax, and they start needing more and more of it to feel the same effects. This is called tolerance to the medication. When the person stops using this medicine, the tolerance leads to Xanax withdrawal symptoms. These can be moderate to severe depending upon the level of tolerance a person has developed.
The tolerance to Xanax pills usually converts into dependence and leads to Xanax bars addiction. A person dependent on Xanax needs to take the pills despite the consequences. Eventually, it causes addiction to Xanax.
How to avoid Xanax addiction?
Everybody taking the pills doesn’t need to get addicted to Xanax. With the help of some simple precautions, you can just avoid the dependence or addiction to Xanax:
- Use it as prescribed for the shortest time duration
- Take Xanax pills only when required under severe conditions
- Do not take this medicine for everyday anxiety or instantly when you feel anxious
- Try some behavioral, cognitive, or lifestyle therapies for treating your anxiety and panic instead of medication
Xanax addiction signs and symptoms
Some common Xanax addiction symptoms include:
- Slurred speech
- Drowsiness
- Blurred vision
- Poor motor coordination
Above are the physical symptoms of Xanax addiction. Other general Xanax addiction signs that people may notice in addicts include:
- Inability to reduce Xanax intake
- Frequent doctor shopping to get extra pills
- Asking friends, family, or others for their Xanax tablets
- Buying Xanax, sometimes with other sedatives, from the streets
- Spending a lot of time getting a fake prescription, using, or recovering from Xanax abuse
- Engaging in potentially dangerous behaviors after Xanax abuse, such as drugged driving
These signs of Xanax addiction are prevalent in people abusing the medication. If you notice them in yourself or some closed one, look for help from a certified doctor.
Xanax withdrawal after sustained use can be very dangerous. Experts recommend that a person addicted to Xanax should get help from some certified professional and engage in Xanax addiction treatment programs such as medical detox.
What are the side effects of Xanax addiction?
Addiction to any medication can be dangerous and cause severe side effects. Doctors categorize these effects as short-term and long-term. In the case of Xanax, there are many short and long-term effects of addiction and abuse, as mentioned below.
Some frequent short-term Xanax addiction side effects include:
- Irritability
- Headache
- Dry mouth
- Increased salivation
- Talkativeness
- Memory problems
- Difficulty breathing
- Nausea or vomiting
- Decreased libido
- Joint pain
- Difficulty urination
- Weight changes
Dependence on Xanax can develop in just a couple of weeks. The risk and severity of the dependence are greater for people who take more than four milligrams dosage of Xanax per day for more than 3 months.
One of the major long-term side effects of Xanax addiction is the relapse of the original problem. For instance, if a person is taking Xanax bars for anxiety disorder, they will notice a return of more severe symptoms than they had initially. These are rebound effects.
Xanax addiction withdrawal
A person addicted to Xanax for a long time will have changes in their brain chemistry and will not be able to function normally without the medication. As a result, when quitting the medication, they will experience Xanax addiction withdrawal symptoms. These include:
- Rebound anxiety and panic
- Difficulty sleeping
- Impaired concentration
- Tingling sensations
- Heightened sensory perception
- Blurred vision
- Diarrhea
- Weight loss
- Diminished libido
- Loss of appetite
- Muscle cramps and twitching
Importance of getting a medical detox
Up to 30% of humans that don’t acquire professional clinical treatment for Xanax withdrawal can have grand mal seizures.11 Due to this and different health risks, medical detox is the safest choice for Xanax withdrawal.
Detoxification is a set of strategies and scientific interventions used to soundly and successfully allow the body to rid itself of pollution.
Medical detox consists of commentary from medical specialists and management of medicines as needed to relieve signs.
There are numerous strategies via which Xanax may be effectively cleared from the system:
- Ending all Xanax use and treating Xanax withdrawal symptoms with anticonvulsants (carbamazepine, valproate) and sedating antidepressants (trazodone).
- Gradually tapering the modern dose of Xanax through the years.
- Switching to a longer-performing benzodiazepine like diazepam (Valium) or a barbiturate like phenobarbital and then gradually weaning the dose.
How to get off Xanax addiction?
Your first step in getting easy from Xanax will preferably be a 24-hour medical detox. We say this is the first step because, while it’s miles a vital factor of remedy, as a standalone remedy, it is hardly ever enough to keep a drug-free lifestyle; it does now not address the psychological and behavioral factors of drug use.
The spectrum of expert Xanax addiction treatment is without problems separated into two categories: inpatient and outpatient. However, there are various degrees of intensity within both of these classes.
Inpatient/Residential Xanax addiction treatments
If the issuer calls for you to leave your private home and stay at the facility at some stage in remedy, it is an inpatient/residential remedy. These options provide an in-depth focus on your recovery and plenty of 24-hour medical staffing. Inpatient treatments will provide a number of remedies and medicine services. Settings include:
- Inpatient medical institutions: These are secured devices in hospitals or standalone facilities that offer the highest depth of physical and intellectual balance offerings. These tend to be shorter in length, with treatment lasting a few days or perhaps weeks.
- Long-term residential: This putting will extra closely resemble a home than a medical institution. One kind of lengthy-term residential treatment is the therapeutic network (TC) that may last up to 12 months, with an exceptionally based environment in which a team of workers and other citizens assist you to modify maladaptive ideas and behaviors.
- Short-term residential: These treatment programs share many similarities with lengthy-time period programs but don’t last pretty as long—most ultimately between 3 and 6 weeks—short-time residential applications consciousness on stopping relapse before transitioning to ongoing, outpatient care.
Outpatient Xanax addiction treatments
If an addiction treatment allows you to return home after treatment hours and attend therapy in the course of the day, it is an outpatient application. Like inpatient options, these treatments provide a spectrum of intensities and durations, which include:
- Partial hospitalization programs (PHP): PHPs can also contain 30 hours of remedy each week with a combination of character and institution remedy offerings.
- Intensive outpatient packages (IOP): IOPs are a step-down from PHPs, supplying a mean of 6-9 hours of remedy according to week.
- Standard outpatient: You’ll attend hour-long character, group, or circle of relatives periods, the frequency of as a way to be primarily based on your needs on time.