XANAX Test

I had a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago, but my regular doctor had a baby in December, so I got shuffled off to another guy in the practice who it turns out is way better than my regular doctor. I mean I really don't like women to start with, and my regular doctor was the least offensive of all the doctors I'd tried, but still she gave me that heeby-jeeby feeling whenever I saw her. This new guy was AMAZING.  He told me stories, let me tell stories, listened to me, teased my old doctor a little bit, and was overall a cool guy.

I'm just going to come out and say it. Men make better doctors that women. A man delivered my first two babies, and a woman the third, and the man had the better bedside manner. He listened better, and prescribed better drugs.

This brings me to the point of this post. I got this new guy to prescribe me some Xanax. He did it like it was no big deal. He did it like he understood my suffering and wanted to help relieve it. So crazy, I know, right. He was like try the Xanax and also try this other new thing I've been giving out... blood pressure medication for panic attacks. He let me try two different drugs at the same time! Prescriptions in hand I left a very happy camper.

I've written on this is the past about all the things I've heard about Xanax. I mean it's used all the time on TV and reality TV. I wanted to know what the big deal was. Is it really so amazing about calming down a panic attack? I had to know.

So I waited a couple of weeks to see if I had even the tiniest inkling of a panic attack to try the stuff. Things are going pretty damn well right now, so I'm pretty stress free, i.e. panic attack free. But last Friday I was really cranky and everything was setting me off and thought... it's now or never.

I took the pill on a full stomach around four in the afternoon. Probably about 20 minutes after I had taken the pill I started to feel a little bit woozy. It was different that a 2 glasses of wine buzz, and different than a Vicodin fog, but still woozy and warm. I just went and sat down on the couch and watched a little Say Yes to the Dress, and next thing I new it was 45 minutes later and I was waking up from a short, deep nap. I got up, resumed my evening as usual and that was it.

Was I less stressed? Well yeah. I had just taken a nap. Nothing nips stress in the bud like a nap. But is that what it's supposed to do? I have no idea. My first tests are inconclusive. I wasn't having a full blown panic attack when I took the pill, but it's alway good to test out a medication in a controlled environment first before needing to use it during a crisis. But it was definitely not what I had expected.
I think I wanted it to take over and whisk away my concerns and stressors with that infinite calm that we all occasionally feel. But I don't think a pill can do that.

I'll keep it in my arsenal, but I'm not convinced of its powers yet.