Quote from mjewell:

v0-5, this is off topic, but how long have you been addicted to Xanax? have you had side effects of being on it long term? (not including withdrawal symptoms). I think i will probably have to take it for the rest of my life as it seems to be the only thing that helps me, I'm just nervous there will be side effects down the road.

I think I've been addicted for about 6 months now. I've been taking it for a year now. It is supposed to be a "short term use only" drug. The thing with Xanax is that people start needing more and more as time goes on. I started out with .25 mg and now I am up to 3.0 mg. I know I'm addicted because I started trying to get off it (slowly by .25 mg. a week) and I felt horrible, like I have the flu. My shrink said that was classic withdrawl. Addiction is the only side effect. What most shrinks do eventually is put you on anti-seizure medication and try to wean you off. If you stop taking it suddenly you will have seizures. That happened to a friend of mine. My shrink now has me on Trileptal (an anti-seizure med) so I think the weaning is coming. He's mentioned cutting it down several times. :(