Take Your Pills: Xanax

They did try to show a motley group of people with different experiences with the drug. The results ranged from great success to driving a person to suicide.

It seems the person who fared the best was the woman who tries to take it ONLY a few times a month when she is feeling at her worst.

What I didn't like was offering SSRIs as an alternative. I took Paxil for a while and the side effects were unbearable and getting off them was no picnic. They might not be technically addictive but you cannot stop cold turkey.

A few of the people they profiled were unbelievably IRRITATING. You couldn't help but wonder of THAT was their real problem in life.

My sympathies to anyone dealing with depression and anxiety. The world is a tough place for anyone intelligent and sensitive. Now if we could really make the world an easier place, we wouldn't have to dope ourselves, would we?

I've taken Xanax for over 25 years and I know exactly what these people have experienced. I started taking it when I came down with Meniere's Disease which caused severe attacks of vertigo that could last 8 to 10 hours. The need for help was very real and Xanax allowed me to continue working and carry on a fairly normal life. Three inner ear surgeries in about four years time resolved the worst of my symptoms which was the vertigo. Unfortunately I kept on taking 1MG a day for many years when I should have stopped taking them altogether. My experience was similar to that of several of the people in this documentary. I no longer take a daily Xanax but I have a few small doses in case I'm having a really bad day and start to feel dizzy. I don't think the people who gave this documentary low reviews understand the situation very clearly, this was well done and contains useful information. It's worth watching!

This documentary has the message of a '90s after school special. I expected to see Nancy Regan as the director in the credits. As just one example of the blind fear-mongering and rejection of science advancements that can truly help people and change their lives for their better, this documentary conflates SSRIs with BENZOS. Those are two entirely separate drugs with significantly different risk factors. SSRIs like Zoloft have been life saviors for countless people with no side effects. These are the same people who were forced to suffer in silence for decades unnecessarily because of tragic messages like this documentary.

Well balanced history and overview of Xanax, the pros and the cons. I'm unclear why so many reviewers are angry about this. It in no way villifies benzos or patients. The stories / case studies represented a broad demographic of patients. The clinicians from the mental health community were very careful and succinct in their language. The only segment discussed that did not fare well was the medical community (regarding the patient who was misdiagnosed at Mayo Clinic). It doesnt go terribly deep but it does cover a lot in an hour. I also appreciated the history of anxiety treatment as well as the advertising that was discussed.

Studying the long term affects of benzodiazepines is a really important topic and this documentary started out with a focus on this. Sadly though the movie devolves into looking at a few neurotic people who have issues much bigger than Xanax could ever address. Sadly too many of the people who they spoke to ended up saying they still take it and it works for them. Very little time was spent on the idea that being human has always required juggling stressful situations and that we as a species need to figure out how to get back to where we do that without pharmaceuticals. Instead we have been medicating children with Adderall and other behavior drugs so kids never have to learn how to cope with stressful situations. We're making it worse, not better and this movie is part of the problem not the solution.