Is Xanax prescribed too often?

Who prescribed you xanax? Do you believe you actually needed xanax? Has it alleviated your symptoms or only made them worse?
Xanax is a very powerful drug that can potentially have significant side effects. Should it be so widely available?

Not me, but rather my mother - she was prescribed Xanax by her doctor for anxiety and depression. She was not referred to a psychologist for talk therapy, despite the fact that she probably would have benefited greatly from it. She became dependent on it very quickly, and though it did reduce her anxiety, she was not very coordinated while on it and fell down a few times due to vertigo. Her tolerance for it rose and her psychiatrist continued to up her dose. She tried to reduce it on her own but got severe "rebound anxiety" - worse panic attacks and loss of emotional control than even before she was on it.

It took her many years to correct her dependency on Xanax, and I'm happy to say that she is now completely drug free (prescription or otherwise). She saw a psychologist and started working through her issues with herself, and she returned to being the functional and loving mother we'd been missing for so long.

I feel that ultimately Xanax was not what she needed, and only made her journey to happiness longer and more difficult, so I have to say that I don't think it should be widely available. I also think that if it's prescribed to a patient for anxiety or depression, they should be going through talk therapy and have psychological support through the whole process.

The doctors I have been in contact with (including psychiatrists) are very hesitant to prescribe pills that are known to be addictive, and Xanax is one of the worst. I only know one person who is currently on Xanax, and it is because he had no history of drug abuse and has been on it for many years, and wishes to stay on it.

In the area I live in, Xanax is prescribed like candy. Though I have used the medication for it's intended purpose, and it has worked wonders when on the verge of an anxiety attack, it is too widely abused here. The county I live in, in the "great" state of Tennessee has one of the highest prescription drug abuse rates in the country. Hardly a week goes by that I don't get offered to buy Xanax or other prescriptions by people I hardly know. It's scary. If these people hardly know me and want to illegally sell me drugs, what are the kids at the high school down the street being offered? Kids tried selling me dimebags back in school, which could be worse. Now kids are being offered Xanax? Horrible.

I believe that pretty much any federally scheduled drug is prescribed way too often. This is offered as a quick-fix, when I feel it would be much more beneficial to teach these people how to deal with their emotions. I understand it has it's uses. I've used it. But we shouldn't be so reliant on it.

I honestly believe that Xanax is prescribed too much. I know that there are at least two people in my family who abuse Xanax very frequently. They will take this medication whenever they feel even the slightest bit stressed, and within the month, they're going to the doctor to go get more.
Yeah they're all mellowed out, but it's slightly disgusting to see how often they believe they have to use this dug as an escape.

I have family just like that. What I've also seen among the youth in my area (but not really that much younger than me) is taking Xanax to relax themselves before shop lifting... really? Is this being widely used to take the nervousness from committing crimes?

It's either too often prescribed, or it's too easy for people to get access to the drug. I feel like there are so many people who I know who pop xanax like candy whenever they need it, whenever they feel too stressed out or too anxious or whatever the case may be. Is it that somehow there are drug dealers who have such high supplies of xanax and that people are going to these dealers so frequently to get it, or are friends who were rightfully prescribed sharing with other friends, or is it that doctors are just more freely and more frequently prescribing it?

Yes, definitely. If you can just lie and say that you "sometimes get nervous" (like I know some people personally have) than you don't really need a pill. I have severe anxiety and I refuse to take xanax.

I feel like I should add my input, even though I've never personally been addicted to Xanax. I live in Croatia, a European country and the first time I've ever heard of Xanax is from friends who've been prescribed it on their first or second visit to the psychiatrist.

Some 2 or 3 years ago I experienced, for the first time in my life an unnatural amount of stress and boy did it hit me like a train! All that stress, that hit me so suddenly unfortunately led to me having a panic attack, but hey what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? Anyway, me having thos panic attacks and extreme anxiety I decided to get some proffesional help and the first time I came to the psychiatrist I'm prescribed Xanax! Naturally, and thankfully, I did some research and found some very unsettling information about the drug. I decided not to go with that treatment and the psychiatrist agreed, even though he wasn't quite satisfied.

All in all I just wanted to point out that there are other places in which Xanax is prescribed a lot, maybe even too much.

I am not sure that I believe that it is prescribed too much, but I do, however, feel as though it is provided to patients for too long of a period. I have family members on it who have been on it for almost 30 years. I just don't see how that is productive. I understand using it as a crutch until you find other coping mechanisms, but to be on it that long DOES build up a dependency no matter what, and I think it takes away from the patient learning permanent coping skills.

I don't know whether or not it's prescribed too often, but I think they're prescribed improperly. As a teen with prior addiction issues, they didn't seem to see a problem with prescribing them for anxiety for whatever reason. It was simply take one whenever you feel like **** and you'll be fine. What they don't tell you is these drugs are arguably the most addictive ones out there. Luckily I stopped taking them for irellevant reasons.

The doctor usually prescribes Xanax for patients prone to anxiety attacks or nerve problems (those who easily get nervous over the simplest of things). People who've undergone chemotherapy are often prescribed Xanax to help them cope with the feeling of nausea. I haven't even tried Xanax for the life of me - nor would I want to. I couldn't even recall whether I've ever had panic attacks in my life. I've read though that the effect of this drug is potent but only short-lived. If I were a doctor, I'd recommend something else. Maybe a sedative. Sleeping helps the person better cope up with the pain.

I think that, Xanax is not a good drug and it can put a person to sleep for along time and also will cause the person to have bad side affects. I think it can, be addictive and sometimes the person does not need it and also it can be wrongly used or misused by people. Xanax can be addictive, and can lead some to just taking more and more and not caring about themselves and cause issues to the health.

Most drugs are easily prescribed in my opinion, doctors get steady customers like that. But we need to pay attention to one detail, being sedated is not the same as being cured.

I've seen cases in which xanax (or similar antidepressants) were prescribed that made absolutely no sense, I think that it is unquestionable sometimes prescribed on very little basis, and definitely too quickly considering the strength of the drug, it's something I think doctors should be way more careful with. It's pretty scary overall, its reminiscent of the 50s where women who were behaving "hysterical" would often be prescribed heavy emotion-suppressing medicine on no basis, my own grandmother developed schizophrenia due to that kind of medication...

Xanax is an anti-depressant now? Oh god...

My mistake, I was under the impression Xanax was not just prescribed as an anti-depressant as well, I realise that that is a faulty assumption now. I just got kind of caught up in my want to tell the story of how unreasonably prescribed medicine caused my grandmother to develop schizophrenia, I'll revise my point: In cases of much medicine prescription during the years, it has caused adverse side effects, so while Xanax is not an antidepressant, but rather anti-anxiety medicine, the point still stands that it should be tighter regulated if it is prescribed too often

Ah, gotcha. Good point though. The problem with Xanax as opposed to opiates is not only is it prescribed too often, but patients aren't usually made aware of the potential consequences so using such medication. Everyone has a "Better trust the doctor" mentality. But in reality, we should all be doing research on any drug before we put it in our body, prescribed or otherwise.

I agree with this sentiment, but at the same time, the 'research' available to most people is doing simple searches on the internet, and you can find a plethora of horror stories about any kind of medication on the internet, some true, some not. I believe that we should be able to trust our doctors, but not enough to rely blindly on their advice. Consulting more than one doctor about medication with potential side effects as severe as this might be an alternative that most people should aim for

I feel like everything is prescribed too often. It seems like doctors are quick to jump to what can I shove down this patients mouth to make the problem go away without taking into account (often times) it creates more problems of a different natures. Maybe they should start taking a look at things like what their patients eat or their patients lifestyle choices. How much does my patient exercise? How is my patients emotional well-being? Of course that would be asking too much. You wouldn't be able to walk in & out of your doctor's office like a revolving door. It's getting to be ridiculous.