The Dangers of Abusing Xanax

Unfortunately, despite being an extremely effective treatment for anxiety and a number of disorders and conditions, benzodiazepine drugs have become more famous for their abuse than anything else. The truth is, far more people abuse and misuse them than we realize; in fact, many people are abusing them without even knowing it. Prescription drug abuse is far more widespread in our culture than we realize on the whole. This is because people don't understand the risks and don't know how to use their medications properly.

Blame partly falls on the medical community, though it must be said that if people want to use recreational drugs nothing is going to stop them. However, anybody using prescription anxiety medication owes it to his or herself to make sure they are using it correctly.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the common types of abuse, the consequences, and how to avoid it.

Recreational Use

Benzodiazepines, or benzos as they are called in common parlance, makes you feel good. In higher doses and combined with drugs that breed anxiety, benzos create a euphoric feeling in the user. Furthermore, the consequences of taking them seem a lot less serious than taking dangerous street drugs. People using benzos for this reason realize they are doing it, but there are those who have no clue.

This second group of people take anxiety medication usually as needed rather than on a regular basis. Unfortunately, as we tend to form a habit or take a liking to the feeling, it becomes easier and easier to feel like we should pop a pill. It becomes harder to say that what we are feeling is not anxiety, but simply stress and that we do not need medicine to help us cope.

If there has not been a significantly stressful or frazzling period of anxiety for you, yet you are still taking the drug, you may be abusing it.

Here are the risks:

• Addiction
• Organ damage
• Tolerance
• Increased risk of side effects, both in number and severity

Overuse

There are two ways to overuse the drug: 1) Take more than your prescribed dose, and 2) Take it more often than you are supposed to.

The most common way that the first scenario comes about is when people feel anxiety, they take the medicine, and they don't feel any relief. Just because the anxiety doesn't go away does not mean you can take it again. Do this only if your doctor says to. You may be developing a tolerance, and treatment needs to change.

Taking medicine too frequently can be a problem if you are supposed to use your medicine for situational purposes. It might seem so, but if 10 stressful things come up in one day, you cannot take medicine all 10 times. Ask your doctor what the limit you can take in one day is, because overusing benzodiazepines carries health risks.

While Xanax is a very safe medicine, it is like any in that it is only safe if used correctly. Xanax is complex, so leave this decision to your doctor. If you suspect you may be overusing Xanax, talk to your doctor immediately.