Does Xanax make you feel like this?

[Veronica]

I took my first Xanax a couple weeks ago, I only was brave enough to take 1/4 of a .25 mg pill. It made me feel giddy and did lessen the anxiety. However it did not make me tired at all, in fact I was more tired before I took it and I was not able to sleep until it had worn off. Then a few days ago I tried another 1/4. This time I felt  jittery and the being unable to sleep was much worse , I was wide awake and it did not help at all with the anxiety, in fact I felt worse.

My question is, do you think that xanax does not work for me? Or do I need to take a larger dose? I read on the side effects that it says contact your doctor if you experience overstimulation or severe or persistent trouble sleeping. I was going to try to up the dose to see if it would help considering I took such a small dose before, but I am scared to take more if it is going to effect me that way.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this with xanax? I am experiencing bad anxiety and would like some help but don't know if I should try the xanax at a larger dose.

Are there any other meds that someone can reccommend? How about valium? Does that have a more calming effect? Any help would be appreciated.

[coops]

Veronica were you prescribed xanax to be used as needed or consistently? If consistent your doctor should have told you how to take it in a dosing pattern. If you are using it for as needed then you take it only when you really need it. With the dose you are taking it's not the Xanax that is giving you a problem know that the average dose of Xanax for anxiety treatment is 3 or 4 mg daily. Many take less with great results. I only use it situationally along with a anti depressant/anti anxiety I don't suffer from depression, but the Effexor I take did really good for the GAD, but not much for the social situational anxiety which is when i use the Xanax. I usually take .5 or 1 mg for these cases depending on the situation. One dose will get you threw any situation, but it really depends on how you were told to take it. You are taking such a small amount as to not get much benefit from it. I would say most take .5 at least for situational anxiety, but don't be scared of it Xanax has been around for many years and has a stigma, but it's safe to use responsibly. In fact I worry about the daily dose of the Effexor more than the occasional xanax i take.

[Veronica]

I was prescribed a few .25 Xanax to take "as needed", but it was not by my regular Dr. I have an appt. with a pdoc in about a month and will discuss all of this there but that is such a long time away:(

What has me freaked out now is that I posted this question on another site and someone replied that I should stop taking it because she said that to have this reaction means I am allergic to it. What? That's all I need, to be allergic to the one thing that can maybe help me! Jeez! That would be just my luck though. 

coops or anyone else- does Xanax make you tired? Energetic? Dizzy? Could you describe how it makes you feel? Does anyone get more energy from it? Is it bad if it doesn't make you tired and makes you unable to sleep? Does anyone also take sleeping pills along with Xanax?

I have decided to go ahead and take another the next time I am panicky and this time up the dose . Actually maybe I should try taking it again when I am NOT panicky so I don't freak myself out more after taking it.

[coops]

Yeah I mean I'm not a doctor nor can I give you any definite advice, but taking a dose under .25 would do absolutely nothing to me. I think if you ask many users of Xanax you will find that most who have bad anxiety need at least .5, but I usually need 1.0 using as needed once or twice a week for the situational social anxiety. It will make you tired usually for most users, and it should not make you more jumpy that is usually what the SSRI or SNRI like the Effexor I'm taking do when you first take them. The tired part will go away if you take it on daily dosage schedule. You will find that the tired works to your advantage if like me you have problems sleeping at night, but honestly I think you are just suffering from anxiety from being perhaps unsure of the medication so you are monitoring any little thing as being caused by the Xanax. I think most would tell you taking a 1/4 of a .25mg dose of Xanax would have little if any type of effect at all.

[coops]

I have taken ambien for sleeping, but it did little for me as my problem is staying asleep more than falling asleep. If you have a hard time falling asleep it probably will work for you but it has a short half life so it doesn't keep you asleep although they do have an extended release version ambien cr i believe, but insurance will most likely have your doctor do a step program start you on the generic ambien as there is no generic for the extended release. I didn't like it myself as stated, but depending on how you react with it could be helfpul.

[ocdengineer]

When I first started taking Xanax it made me very tired and any time I increased dose even a little I was out cold.  I never felt more nervous or jittery.  I think you should talk with your doctor about that.  What was your diagnosis?

Later,
OE

[Veronica]

OE-

I was diagnosed GAD, PTSD, with a bit of agoraphobia because of the aforementioned.

I do plan on speaking to my doctor about it. Maybe 1/4 was not enough to make me feel sleepy? And I felt energetic with the first dose because my anxiety had diminished? I never had problems sleeping with my anxiety before but after the Xanax and in the days since I have not been able to sleep at all, it is horrible! Who knows, the only way I guess I'll truly know is to give it another go at a larger dose.

[ocdengineer]

Did it work?

[Copper]

Am I imagining something or did my response get deleted?

[Veronica]

Cooper-

You're not imagining it - it's gone. ???

[AnxiouSteve]

I took my first Xanax a couple weeks ago, I only was brave enough to take 1/4 of a .25 mg pill.

Which means you took .0625 mg.

Assuming that people react to xanax the same way that rats do, and assuming you weigh a feather light 50kg, it could take about 110g of xanax to give you a 50/50 shot at lethal overdose (assuming no intervention, either).

To put it in perspective, you would have to take about 440 of those pills, or 1760 times the amount you took.

Xanax really does work miracles on anxiety for 99.9% of people.  You should give it an honest shot.

I understand if you don't want it to be a crutch.  It's not a permanent solution, but if your Doc recommends you take it regularly for a short period of time then you should.  Feeling 'normal' for two weeks might go a long way in and of itself.  Sometimes we forget what it's like to feel 'normal'.  I don't know your story but, it might give you time for a more long-term medical solution to kick in, or better yet, maybe you could use it with some CBT as a last resort.

I took 1mg after 36 hours of not sleeping and high anxiety and I was able to stay up, perfectly coherent, dealing with clients and all, until i laid down for a second at 7:00PM and fell asleep for 9 hours.

[Veronica]

Thank you for all your replies

You all are right. This anxiety makes me such a chicken, I miss the good old days when I didn't think twice about things. I am going to give it another go. The past week has been good for me with little anxiety so I have not had a need for xanax. But I am sure it will rear it's ugly head in the near future and I will try it then. Or maybe I should try it when I am doing well so I know how it makes me feel? Will it affect me differently if I am not having anxiety?

Anyways, thank you again for your replies! You too Cooper, even though yours is not here!

[Copper]

Cooper-

You're not imagining it - it's gone. ???

WTF, ocdengineer why did you delete my post? I basically said the same thing as coops...

[ocdengineer]

I don't have the ability to delete posts, so no.  The website database had to be restored and some posts were deleted.

Thanks,
OE

[lit1219]

Hi Veronica, I was on Xanax before being moved to Klonopin and it didn't make me sleepy at all either. Actually I have Insomnia and like i mentioned it didn't really help with sleep. I'm on Seroquel and that makes me sleep. But as far as I know Xanax can actually cause the opposite and cause you not to sleep. The best thing to do I believe would be to talk to your doctor.