Posted by JohnL on January 17, 2001, at 2:47:17
In reply to AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 18:45:41
> I take 20 mg of Prozac now which works well for depression/irritation, etc. I also take .5 Xanax for the last few months about 30 or 40 minutes before bedtime for insomnia. My pdoc wants me to take Trazadone; he says it's not addicting like Xanax. My fdoc gave me Ambien [5 mg doesn't do it; 10 mg I wake up in 4 hours; I don't like it.]. Also, I understand some prople use a small dose of Remeron. My question: Are docs over-exaggerating addiction of Xanax? What's .5 once at nighttime? Would Trazadone really be better? Remeron? Or should I insist of my Xanax which works very well for me??? Thanks. I'm confused.
> JoyHi Joy,
I've tried both of these meds. Some people prefer one, some people prefer the other. Personally I thought Xanax was by far superior. Trazodone is a dirty drug and has multiple mechanisms to just confuse things. Xanax is straight forward and clean. Trazodone gave me headaches, nightmares, restless sleep, and a hangover, even at half the minimum dose. I think Trazodone is the worst medicine anyone ever invented.Xanax is leaps and bounds ahead of Trazodone, in my sole opinion. So let's assume two years down the road you realize you can't live without Xanax. So what? As long as the quality of your life has vastly improved, then that seems like a fair tradeoff to me. I mean, others trade away their sleep, their sex lives, their body weight, or whatever, to stay well on a certain med. Actually, it's usually an unfair trade...that is, they trade away things that are dear to them, yet the partial benefits are not always worth it. So being minorly addicted to a small dose of Xanax seems trivial to me. Besides, how exactly do we define addicted? I mean, I've been taking Remeron for sleep for years. I can't live without it. So in a lot of ways, I'm addicted to it. I can't skip a night without encountering very unpleasantness. Sure, the craving for a dose increase doesn't exist, so it's not a true addiction, but for all practical purposes it might as well be. Same with everyone else here who relies on their medicine day to day. The dose increase component is missing, so it's not a true addiction, yet for all practical purposes, we can't function without these meds. What's the difference with Xanax? Not much as I see it.
If you are happy with your current meds, then you could easily be justified in telling your doc you don't want to rock the boat right now. You just want to keep things going as they are and let improvement continue. No interruptions. No changes. Not now. Maybe later. And you might as him if in a couple years you are addicted to low-dose Xanax, so what? There's always a risk/benefit decision. It just seems to me that in this case the benefits far outweigh the risks.
If over time you were creeping up into the 3, 4, or 5mg range of Xanax, instead of .5mg, well, that's a different story.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:51821
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010111/msgs/51843.html