Completely cured my anxiety, but now I have another problem!!

Well, about 2 years ago I suffered a death in the family.. my brother who I grew up with my whole life died of cancer at the young age of only 35... after this happend I became what I like to call "Terminally depressed" .. I ended up losing my job because I didn't want to leave my bed and be out in the world, I just wanted my brother to come back... Sooner or later I started forcing myself to get up out of bed and by this time I was still very depressed but not enough anymore to make me completely immobilized, I also found myself to be INCREDIBLY anxious dealing with severe anxiety all throughout my days dealing with CONSTANT panic attacks.  Especially in social situations...  So a friend of mine convinced me to go see a psychologist who eventually referred me to a pyschiatrist who I began to see regularly...This doctor must have put me on and I must have tried every drug out there from zoloft to paxil, prozac, celexa, buspar, klonopin, and most recently xanax which I'm still on. 

NONE of these meds worked for me... the depression, anxiety, and worst of all-panic attacks continued.  Eventually, desperate, I began scouring the web for answers and I eventually came across this site .. http://www.anxiety.pcti-system.com .. which is this program to cure anxiety/panic attacks for good all naturally.. To make a long story short, it worked incredibly for me.. my anxiety is gone, depression as well almost all but gone, and I haven't had a panic attack in over a month.  I do though from time to time still feel sorrow over my brother.  However, this is my problem:  I'm still taking my xanax because I'm completely ADDICTED.. when I try to stop taking it I start going through incredible withdrawls mentally and physically... If I would have known of this addiction problem I would have never allowed my doctor to put me on them.  Has anyone else suffered from benzo addiction and if so, know how to safely get off it with minimal side effects??  Please any advice/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

P.s- For those of you on SSRI antidepressants, I would really recommend taking a look at this site: http://ssristories.com/ .. From what I can tell looking in hindsight, these are potentially very unhealthy dangerous drugs.

Hey Jacky.. I'm sorry to hear about your brother.  Congradulations on overcoming your anxiety and panic attacks... It's always good to hear positive stories from people.  I also for the most part am over my anxiety.. coincidently as a result of the same program from the very site that you mentioned.  It has worked very well for me as well... As far as your addiction problem, I'm not sure but I would say the way to do it would be to probably slowly ween off of it just like you would with any other drug.. Have you told your doctor about this problem???

Hi there,
I can empathize with your loss.  My younger brother died three years ago of blood clots, and he was 40.  Then, a little more than a year later, my older brother died of the same thing at 56. 

I am familiar with xanax, as I was on it when I first got sober.  I had to go off of it, and can only take Buspar these days for my anxiety.

If you want to get off the Xanax, talk to your doctor and discuss your options for tapering off of it.  OR, check into a rehab and detox off them there.  Addiction to benzos is nothing new to rehabs.  There are plenty of decent people in my treatment program who became addicted to something by accident, either painkillers because of surgery, or tranquilizers the way you did. 

You can also attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings for help as well.  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using the drug.

Trish

My brother was 22 yo when he died.  His death certificate says suicide, but the family feels it was a car accident (resulting from a police chase).  It seems I am the only one who could deal with it.  I miss him a lot but he is at peace now.  He was so troubled.  I have bipolar so I have had my share of meds.  One med I cannot get off of is my effexor.  I have bad withdrawals.  My psychiatrist is trying to wean me off yet again.  I do take lithium still.  I was on so many psych meds (6) pre-surgery.  Now it's just the one.  Some are horrible coming off!  I have been doing good emotionally right now.  I am experiencing a lot of anger though.  This is new to me.  I did post about it on the RNY board and feel better.  Hang in there.  Jimi