On the Abuse of Xanax

In the NY Times of Sept 14, 2011, there is a front page piece on Xanax and its abuse. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/in-louisville-a-centers-doctors-cut-off-xanax-prescriptions.html

It is an effective medication for anxiety. And it can be addictive. Indeed, any drug that reaches down deep to suppress pain and terror will be addictive, by definition. It is addictive if it works. 
So what do the chiefs want to do? Eliminate it; not exactly eliminate it, but not write scripts for it. And they want to do that because there is a great clamor for it. In short, it helps. So of course, they want to stop it. 
 In the accompanying photo is a woman who has debilitating anxiety attacks. For those whose defenses work, they cannot imagine what that is. But it is terrifying and no one seems to know what to do, except push it down. But what it if we finally know what it is, and instead of pushing it down we let it up in small doses and be done with it? We can do it and we do do it. And it is pure imprinted terror set down in the first months of life, and by that I mean during gestation and at birth. Once we know what “it” is we can start to find a cure. We have done exactly that, and it is no longer a mystery. 
 The earlier and deeper the imprint, the more pain, and the stronger the pain medication needed to quell it. Of course, it is addictive, meaning sufferers want more and more. Why not? If you had leaky gates, you would want it too. The original terror and pain weakened the gates holding it back and when that pain and terror was compounded later in life by a tyrannical shrieking mother, for example, then the gates are under assault. The results are panic attacks and bouts of anxiety (the same thing) that seem to come out of nowhere. It seems like nowhere, because the origins are so deep and so remote. It is not an abuse of xanax. It is the proper use of it, given the level of pain and terror involved. If you’re the chief doctor and your gates are solid as a rock then of course you cannot sympathize with all this.

If we are so worried about all this why not try to find out what “it” is and find ways to deal with it; maybe put it under some kind of control so that the users can be watched and helped. Then we don’t have to waste time pushing back all of those forces in the unconscious. Dr. Scott Hedges seems to think we don’t need Xanax at all. He thinks there is trouble in paradise because the patient habituates to it and needs more and more. Of course it needs to be supervised, but no eliminated. The chiefs are worried about withdrawal, which is a legitimate concern, but here again we can control withdrawal with so many new drugs (have they looked into oxytocin spray?). Let’s not stop the pain killers that ease the suffering of so many. Let’s work around it in order to control adverse reactions. If we learn what “it” is we will have a better handle on it. Making it an opprobrium to take something that eases hurt seems to have it all backwards. Let’s get it straight.