Hello Pausers,

So I brought up Xanax withdrawal. Thought I could touch upon that a bit today since it pertains to the information I found last night. About two months ago, I went through a health scare. It actually felt more like a crisis. What started as leg weakness and pain turned into a cancer scare and a benign growth on my brain. I know sounds unbelievable but it happened. I had a couple of MRI’s to get to the bottom of my pain. They incidentally found a growth on my thyroid and a “benign tumor’ on my brain. As you may imagine this sent me on a downward spiral. I began having severe panic attacks and taking Xanax regularly to control them. I was on a pretty low dose, .25, 2 times a day. During this month of endless tests, biopsies and waiting Xanax kept me sane! My doctor was aware and approved this dose for the short term. If I knew then what I know now I would have found another way to deal. Or who knows maybe not…I was desperate for relief. Anyhow, all tests came back clear. I will have to have follow up brain MRI’s once a year to make sure the size doesn’t change. So….I got off Xanax. I will only say that quitting drinking was a walk in the park compared to Xanax withdrawal. I was crawling out of my skin.
I am now 8 weeks out and my withdrawals have subsided, for the most part. But during this time, I did a bit of research. I just could not understand how one month of Xanax could wreak such havoc on my system. I know its a powerful drug but really ONE MONTH. Well it turns out that its possible that it awoke the receptors of my alcohol withdrawal. That’s the dummy version of what I read. It makes sense. SO…maybe, just maybe, I’m not going crazy.