From what I've read and also seen others comment on from personal experiences, is that benzos are not very good for bipolar disorder. So you can wind up with an addiction problem, and where the medication isn't really even helping.

My primary physician once phrased it to me (not verbatim, probably, since it's been years, but to the point), "We don't think people want to be addicts, we just know the power of that drug (Xanax, in that conversation) and know that desperate people are vulnerable."

She never doubted that something was amiss with my mind, in fact she was usually pressuring me to see an official psychiatrist. She was trying to protect me.