Xanax The Medicine

I have suffered from anxiety and panic for 45 years. It started one year after I was sexually assaulted in the Navy. Summing up my E.R. visits and hospitalizations: Numerous.
I am disturbed that the only thing that has helped is Valium, Ativan or Xanax, and the abuse of them by others, is making doctors shy about prescribing them. These, which I consider medicines, not drugs, in my case, have throughout the years, slowed down and stopped attacks, lowered my blood pressure, but most of all kept me out of E.R.'s.

Currently, my VA psychiatrist is lowering me from .5mg 2d to .25mg 3d, with a goal of getting me off of them completely, citing "mid manager" pressure. Oh thanks mid managers, live my frickin life for one day and then decide!

I am pissed. I do meditation, breathing techniques, and I do need that medicine to achieve stability in my life. Is .75mg a day so bad?

Hi,

I take 1mg for Social anxiety as and when required. I don't think it's a bad thing if it helps you.

Thanks for the reply, it's reassuring to here from you. Sometimes I get the feeling Doctors think too much about these being drugs and not medicines. Yes, I'm dependent on them, as needed, am not an addict, and wish their prescription paranoia didn't include me or others like me. I will say that law enforcement plays a big role in that. So clear us, give us a card, and if we abuse it, bye bye permission. There has to be a better way.