How Recreational Xanax Use Begins
What started as primarily abuse-related prescriptions has become a much bigger issue involving patients taking the drug recreationally and coping with stress and anxiety.
When Xanax Starts Being a Problem
In the most severe cases, Xanax can produce problems urinating and weight changes.
Psychotic episodes, substantial cognitive loss, chronic depression, impulsive, aggressive behavior, and delirium are among the long-term effects of Xanax.
These are sometimes irreversible. Some people have to deal with them forever.
Some people don’t seem to realize that Xanax can be about 15 times stronger than Valium (Diazepam).
Xanax Addiction Among Teens
Teen drug use during the summer often goes unnoticed. When school starts and students nod off in class, exchange pills in the restrooms, and fail tests, the problem becomes visible.
Some teens view Xanax as a safer alternative to prescription opioids and heroin with almost the same euphoric effects.
The pills kids take, often found in their parents’ or grandparents’ bedrooms, can be as deadly as opioids such as heroin, especially when mixed with other drugs or alcohol.
Like opioids prescribed for pain, benzodiazepines for anxiety eventually stop working, forcing users to take higher and higher doses to get the same effect.
Three FDA-approved medicines are available to treat the symptoms of opioid addiction: buprenorphine (Suboxone), methadone, and Vivitrol, a long-acting injectable drug that blocks the euphoric effects of opioids and alcohol.
But no medicines exist to blunt the withdrawal symptoms and cravings caused by benzodiazepine addiction. Instead, patients typically enter residential treatment, where a specialist gradually tapers them off the medication so benzodiazepine withdrawal doesn’t result in seizures and death.
As more adults are prescribed Xanax, Valium, Ativan, and other benzodiazepines calm their nerves and fight insomnia, these pills are more available for teenagers.
Fentanyl today is replacing much of the street heroin and is a problem in itself. Some of them claim that heroin and Xanax are made for each other. Xanax’s high lasts longer than the dope’s (heroin), hence its increasing popularity. Learn more about our Fentanyl rehab.