I have not been on in a bit. Been real busy with College Classes--what with keeping up on homework and various papers and tests to take have not had much time to be on.
The Real Big thing is ended having to go to the Doctor--been having trouble sleeping and having anxiety attacks. Gained a bunch of weight too--probably from having to be in front of the computer so much.
She put me on Celexa daily and Xanax for the attacks.
Anyone else been on either of these?
I will have 8 years Sober time come the end of June.
Does the Dr know you are an alcoholic in recovery with an addictive personality?
I have seen a large number of alcoholics relapse on Xanax, I am not familiar with the other medication
Have you spoken to your sponsor and support group about these meds? One of things I have to watch for is "Did I withhold information from the Dr.?" Am I being accountable to my sponsor and other sober people or am I withholding the information I am taking an addictive sedative like Valium from them? (Xanax)
Am I being accountable, or am I having "stinking thinking" and beginning to lie to myself and others?
I am not saying you are doing any of these things, I am saying these are the questions I ask myself when I have to take things like Pain pills etc.
I am not a Doctor
-- Edited by AGO on Friday 9th of April 2010 07:41:52 PM
__________________
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night, light a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
Nice to see you posting kid, and glad to hear about your continued sobriety and success in College. Very admirable. I don't know anything about meds though
Hi AGO--it is kld as in k, lower case L, d not k, i, d.
And, Yes this Doctor knows about me being a recovering alcoholic.
And NO I have not Relapsed at all.
She seems to think it is all the pressure form College, plus being Unemployed for 3 years with No Reportable Income. For both the State and Federal Taxes I am Considered Uncollectable from.
I barely make about $100.00 a month doing odd jobs for people.
If it was not for various family and friends I probably would be homeless.
Sorry AGO, meant for Dean the first part. Was relooking for who to correct and got it mixed up.
-- Edited by kld47 on Friday 9th of April 2010 08:37:11 PM
It has been my experience to be prescribed Xanax. It is a highly addictive narcotic. I found myself taking the pill instead of taking a drink. I figured it would be better to melt into the furniture and go off to la-la land than to get drunk, beat somebody up, go to jail, wreck the truck, fight with my husband and deal with hangovers.
I am not a doctor and dont claim to be one either. I do know that Xanax was NOT good for me and I stopped taking it.
All I need is God, the program of AA, along with the fellowship to stay sober and deal with any problems or issues I might face on this journey.
I went to my doctor as well because I was feeling depressed and couldn't sleep. I knew there were things I needed to do in order to start getting back to normal. Getting regular sleep probably being the most important, as well as excercise and eating right.
Shortly after going to the doctor the first time I also attended my first AA meeting. In the time since I would have to put continuing AA and working the program at or near the top of things I need to do to get back to normal or maybe it's more appropriate to say get a new normal.
In any event my doctor prescribed Celexa as well. This is the first time I have ever taken an antidepressant. The intent is that it will help lift the depression so that I can work on the other things I need to. She had also prescribed a 7 day supply of Xanax. The intent there was to help me sleep that first week until I started getting some benefit from the Celexa.
I only ended up taking the Xanax a couple nights. My first week taking the medications was pretty rough, don't know if it was the Xanax or not, but regardless I decided to stop taking it.
The second week on the Celexa I started seeing a bit of improvement in my mood. Although that was also the same time I starting in AA, which may have had a bigger impact.
Anyway, they say it takes 4-6 for the full effects of the Celexa to be realized. I just completed my 4th week on it. I have noticed that things seem to have leveled off for me pretty well. The depression has lifted tremendously.
I feel the Celexa has certainly helped, but so has the fellowship of AA, this forum, gettig more or less regular sleep, eating better and starting to get some excercise.
In summary I can't speak much to Xanax, but the Celexa seems to be working pretty well.
Some suggestions I took from others with more experience is to monitor your moods closely, maybe keep a journal. Keep regular communication with your doctor. Something that works for one person may not be the best for someone else. It sometimes taking switch medications a couple times to find the right thing for a particular person.
Hi AGO--it is kld as in k, lower case L, d not k, i, d.
And, Yes this Doctor knows about me being a recovering alcoholic.
And NO I have not Relapsed at all.
She seems to think it is all the pressure form College, plus being Unemployed for 3 years with No Reportable Income. For both the State and Federal Taxes I am Considered Uncollectable from.
I barely make about $100.00 a month doing odd jobs for people.
If it was not for various family and friends I probably would be homeless.
Sorry AGO, meant for Dean the first part. Was relooking for who to correct and got it mixed up.
-- Edited by kld47 on Friday 9th of April 2010 08:37:11 PM
No worries, yeah I didn't think you were a kid or that you had relapsed, although thats funny, I call everyone kid, even my mother, it's a form of endearment
Yeah, both my old GF and present GF keep/kept Vicodin in the house for chronic pain (the funny thing is I never even thought about it because it wasn't mine) but every few months they take one out cut it in half, and eat it for pain, and then only when the pain is unbearable (oh they are both sober, my ex has 23 years)
The times I have been injured and prescribed pain meds, narcotics, and Vicodin my mind is off to the races, all those thoughts race through my mind at the speed of light
So I tell on myself
thoughts crop up again, I tell on myself again
It's just been iffy for me taking addictive narcotics in sobriety especially when given permission, so that's why I make myself so accountable, I have slipped before and once we hit the part of the slippery slope where there is no turning back, there's no turning back, and there's no telling when or if I will even be able to make it back.
So yeah, I have seen many alcoholics slip on prescribed xanax, but I have seen others take meds as directed, just never xanax quite frankly, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I don't announce stuff at group level all the time either, like being on percodan because my index finger was ripped off then sewn back on, because some maroon is bound to lecture me, but what they aren't there to see is me rocking back and forth crying helplessly after eating 7 vicodin because it didn't help the pain even a tiny bit.
However my friends and support group know me well enough to know when I am lying, or if I really need this thing
I make no judgments, and would just like to see you get through this time without relapsing.
By the way, I understand the $$$ thing, I am an independent contractor that works for a day rate, sometimes I go weeks without work or a call back, and no matter how much I job hunt, everyone is slow, those times are incredibly difficult
As we speak, I have 10 dollars and am eating fried rice I made by taking everything left in fridge and frying it with rice, learned it from an old japanese GF, it's a great trick and was a great meal, and have been living on money from a job 3 weeks ago, since 2 weeks ago I put a sizable portion of a tree in someones living room and thus worked for free, and then the following week didn't work a single day.
I have a "5 to midnight" kind of God though, who never drops me, I have the next whole week booked including both Saturdays, so I will make scads of cash and give it to other people (rent, bills etc) and be broke again
I haven't starved, but it gets stressful on occasion, especially a few months ago when my car blew up and I had to but a new one and I had no money and without a car was unable to work.
God came through again, it was 3 of the worst months in my life with everyone I knew screaming at me for money as I struggled to juggle car payments, rent, and bills, and not a single one of them saying anything but "it's not my problem, pay me or - I will turn off your phone - kick you out of your house - take back the car" with my landlord frequently coming by my house to literally scream in my face.
/shrug
I know how hard it can be, it passes, it always does, in the mean time it's a mean time, and whenever people spout platitudes when i am going through it I want to kick them in the shin, but I know they mean well, they are just clueless
I do however get through these periods without taking drugs that have the same effects on me as alcohol although sometimes that means I have an occasional sleepless or nearly sleepless night, usually the night before I return to work after a long absence because in addition to stressing about $$$ I risk my life for a living, I have the 2nd most dangerous job in America, and I am an independent contractor because I get hired mainly to do the jobs too large and dangerous for "normal climbers", so I have sleepless nights from stress as well.
I am just not going to risk my sobriety by taking a drug stronger then valium that I have seen waaay too many friends relapse on though, but as I said earlier, I am not a Dr and I am not your sponsor, and thats only what I do, not what you should do. I have gotten in too much trouble by playing Doctor in AA as it is, and NO not that kind of "doctor"
I swear straight to the gutter these people......
/hugs kid
I mean kLd lol hee hee
-- Edited by AGO on Friday 9th of April 2010 10:23:49 PM
__________________
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night, light a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
The first one you mentioned is an antidepressant. right. All you have to do is go to Medline Plus, through NIH. gov. This site give you the complete info you might be seeking.
Another called Xanax a narcotic, but i believe it falls into the Benzodiazimin family, some call it powdered alcohol.
I was cross addicted to Valium for many years with alcohol, and probably the biggest reason, biologically that i could not get sober.
So if you have strong reservations, I would highly suggest you not take either one til you feel completely and utterly safe in doing so. You mentioned you told your Doc, you were alcoholic, that made me really scratch my head, with why the Xanax then......and on the other the antidepressant, you are not suffering from depression ? right.
Ok no doctor here as well, but puzzled that you did not ask more questions when in his/ her office. about these drugs.
I have bouts of a lot of anxiety at times, and it of course effects my decent nights sleep, but they come and they go, any sleep aide, not at all, and try to do healthy things to improve the situation til it passes and it always....passes...
Wishing you the best and so happy you are in classes and enjoying them.
I have been on a ton of different meds.... Celexa should be harmless, an SSRI. Those have 0.00000000000% addiction potential.
Xanax? Well, who knows but your doctor and sponsor. Have you talked to your sponsor about it?
I had to be on narcotic pain killers for awhile last fall. It did not cause me to relapse. I was in better shape then than I am now, having just relapsed over the past few weeks. My doctor never said pick up a drink or smoke some dope. I did that against medical advice. When I took the medical advice given to me for other substances all was well.
Not the answer you were probably looking for, but hey we are all just a bunch of drunks here with different medical problems and these decisions are better left to good doctors who are in the loop about our recovery. We make crappy doctors and we give crappy medical advice. All recovering alcoholics really know how to do is not pick up a drink one day at a time. You might want to recheck with your doctor.
Take care, Joni
__________________
~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
I am on Xanax for panic attacks and anxiety. I'm early in my recovery (14 days) and have been taking Xanax periodically for about 3 years. I haven't found that I have gone to the Xanax to replace drinking, but that is just me. I do know it can be an addictive drug. If you're concerned I would suggest talking to your doctor, IMHO.
Obviously this is not meant to be advice-but I will share that I have been on Celexa for years, recommended for me BECAUSE I am a recovering alcoholic/addict and there are properties of the medication that are better suited for some people with addictive disease, because of the particular neurotransmitters it affects. Xanax is used best for short term anxiety relief, but as an addiction counselor who has worked a lot of detox and seen the horrible withdrawal after people are addicted to it, I personally would not chance it for myself, or certainly not for very long. For me, I ALWAYS make sure my medical/mental health providers have education/training in the science of addiction and know something about relapse prevention, as well as their specialties.
Heya. I take the exact same cocktail for the exact same stuff. No problems yet. Tell your Doc that you're an alkie in recovery, and they'll keep your Xanax dosage reasonable.
