Looking for an Alternative to Xanax

I only have anxiety sometimes so i asked my doctor for a medication as needed. I could tell he was very hesitant about Xanax and i asked why. He said because people can get very addicted to it. So i think doctors are scared to prescribe it for this reason. He ended up prescribing Buspirone for me.

Another question I have to ask is, are you not taking any other daily medication for your anxiety? Usually they’ll start a patient off with an antidepressant or buspirone daily to help with general anxiety and then give Xanax as a supplement as needed. I could check the dsm5, but I’m pretty sure doctors are supposed to wait and use Xanax or benzos in general as an “in case of emergency break glass” type thing. I would just make sure she understands how long you’ve been on it and how important it is. Taking a Xanax prescription away from a patient out of the blue is kind of a sh:tty thing to do lol

Xanax is something I also take for my anxiety, and it is definitely something they shouldn’t just take you off of cold turkey. Even if you aren’t “addicted” your body kind of gets used to having it around. Especially if you take it every day. Benzodiazepines are supposed to be prescribed “as needed” and not every day because they’re finding most people who take them daily have withdrawals if they stop, and using them for a prolonged period of time without breaks can cause some really crappy side effects. If you were prescribed them daily as a child that’s fine, it was normal practice at that point, but because of how addicting they can be and because people are abusing benzos now more than ever they are trying to be more wary when writing prescriptions. Usually now doctors will only write a script for daily benzos if the anxiety is extremely severe. They’re pretty much the strongest drugs we have for anxiety right now too, so if you gain any sort of tolerance after taking them for a while the doctor can’t exactly just write for something stronger either. Its honestly probably one of my biggest pains in the butt prescription-wise though too, so I know where you’re coming from.