[Young_frogger]

Hi all,
So my story is this: My father has severe depression so I may be genetically inclined to that. When I was in college I got a prescription for Adderall not because I felt that I had ADD necessarily but because I just wanted it for convenience sake to be able to do better in school. I didn't 'abuse' the drug and I did my best not to take it daily, at first just taking it sporadically but slowly but surely I began to take more and more and now I find myself taking 10-20 mgs almost daily for the past couple of months. During stressful time periods such as finals I get into more abusive patterns of adderall where I take 30-40 mg which lead to severe anxiety due to insomnia etc

My roommate got a xanax perscription and over the past week or so I began taking it, I understood the dangers of if but it was nice to be able to unwind after a day of adderall binging, so for the past couple of weeks I've been taking a quarter of a bar (.5 mg) about every other day to help with insomnia and just to have a chill night. Then recently over the past few days I've noticed myself subconsciously taking more and more because I 'might as well' and I'd say for the past few days I've taken 1mg of xanax in total every day. Today Im taking adderall because I have a big final paper to write, but I heard that because xanax triggers your dopamine receptors when you're off of it adderall also triggers your dopamine I found myself completely overwhemed with anxiety, and I had to take .5 mg of Xanax just to calm myself down.

At this point do you think its safe to say that I am at least slightly physically dependant on xanax? Do you think it would be best for me to taper off (take .5 mg every other day or .25 or something like that) or do you think im still at an early enough of a stage to quit cold turkey. Also any advice on adderall withdrawal would be greatly appreciated, since I've been taking way more adderall than xanax. I may be in a bit of a tough spot since I've been taking both drugs more than regularly, but I've decided that after college I'm going to do my best to deal with depression, concentration issues, and anxiety, through more wholistic non-drug related methods such as meditation and such.

TMDR: any advice you guys have with your experiences with xanax and/or adderall dependencies, getting off of those drugs anxiety, depression and dealing with those things would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ChipperMonkey]

Uhm, I understand that there is a bit of denial that comes with drug abuse/misuse, but at the same time, getting a prescription for a drug that treats a disorder you do not have and taking said drug just so you can do better in school.....well, that is indeed misusing/abusing the drug. And taking a controlled substance prescribed for someone else is illegal... I think that if you want to truly move forward, it would help if you came clean and admitted to yourself that you're not using either drug in the right way.

[Angelique67]

I agree with ChipperMonkey. Yes, you're setting yourself up for serious addiction problems and I'm sure your roommate doesn't appreciate you using his/her prescription.

[Want to feel normal]

Originally Posted by Young_frogger

Hi all,
So my story is this: My father has severe depression so I may be genetically inclined to that. When I was in college I got a prescription for Adderall not because I felt that I had ADD necessarily but because I just wanted it for convenience sake to be able to do better in school. I didn't 'abuse' the drug and I did my best not to take it daily, at first just taking it sporadically but slowly but surely I began to take more and more and now I find myself taking 10-20 mgs almost daily for the past couple of months. During stressful time periods such as finals I get into more abusive patterns of adderall where I take 30-40 mg which lead to severe anxiety due to insomnia etc

My roommate got a xanax perscription and over the past week or so I began taking it, I understood the dangers of if but it was nice to be able to unwind after a day of adderall binging, so for the past couple of weeks I've been taking a quarter of a bar (.5 mg) about every other day to help with insomnia and just to have a chill night. Then recently over the past few days I've noticed myself subconsciously taking more and more because I 'might as well' and I'd say for the past few days I've taken 1mg of xanax in total every day. Today Im taking adderall because I have a big final paper to write, but I heard that because xanax triggers your dopamine receptors when you're off of it adderall also triggers your dopamine I found myself completely overwhemed with anxiety, and I had to take .5 mg of Xanax just to calm myself down.

At this point do you think its safe to say that I am at least slightly physically dependant on xanax? Do you think it would be best for me to taper off (take .5 mg every other day or .25 or something like that) or do you think im still at an early enough of a stage to quit cold turkey. Also any advice on adderall withdrawal would be greatly appreciated, since I've been taking way more adderall than xanax. I may be in a bit of a tough spot since I've been taking both drugs more than regularly, but I've decided that after college I'm going to do my best to deal with depression, concentration issues, and anxiety, through more wholistic non-drug related methods such as meditation and such.

TMDR: any advice you guys have with your experiences with xanax and/or adderall dependencies, getting off of those drugs anxiety, depression and dealing with those things would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Do not quit either "cold turkey" I've taken xanax and a drug in the same family of adderall and on the bottle it clearly states do not quit taking this medication without consulting a doctor. i moved to another state for many years and was prescribed xanax but when I moved back to my home state I couldn't find a doctor to continue my prescription and was forced to go cold turkey. I am not a doctor of any kind, but I've taken meds for years and I can say from experience cold turkey even for the short period of time you've been taking xanax can be very uncomfortable, please cut it back gradually and over a good period of time.
And please under no circumstances should you ever take a prescription drug that was not prescribed to you, I have seen what it can do to the person taking it, and the person it was prescribed to. Please understand I'm not trying to frighten you. Good luck

[wiretwister]

the xanex can be a real bear to quit..... been there done that... good luck..

[raspberrytorte]

Yeah, xanax is a *****. It's evil. And withdrawal from it is the scariest/most uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced (tried stopping it cold turkey once because I didn't want to be on it anymore and lasted little over 24 hours before I gave in and took one. I gave in after I started having muscle spasms and twitches and couldn't feel my toes).

But I was taking it for three years, up to 4mg a day (I had a prescription).

My advice is STOP TAKING IT NOW. Before you're really addicted/dependant.