My wife was prescribed alprazolam about 2 weeks ago. They were for anxiety relief. The Dr. prescribed 1 mg twice a day but she takes them only once per day at night. It does help her sleep all night but when she wakes up she is wired like she is on "speed". She talks non-stop and is easily irritated with a short temper. She can work 18-20 hours straight and says she's not tired. All that I've read about Xanax is that it make a person drowsy, which is the exact opposite of her reaction. Is this a common reaction to the medication? It did relieve her anxiety though.
Can a person get "wired" while taking alprazolam?
- Posted:
- 10 Jul 2010 by sncdoc
- Topics:
- anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, alprazolam, hyperactivity
Details:
Responses (6)
grey_cypr...10 Jul 2010
No that is a very very odd reaction. What xanax does is it basically puts your amygdala (which is one if the parts of the brain that is tied to our emotions and reaction to those emotions) to 'sleep' while the rest of your brain is still awake. So, to break it down into very basic terms, xanax turns off the part of the brain that causes anxiety. Its a pretty short acting drug (id say 6 hours would be the absolute longest ammount of time shed feel the effects of it), so if she takes it before she goes to bed and has a regular nights sleep the drug wont be effecting her by the time she wakes up.
It sounds like she just got a good night of sleep and thats why she has so much energy, haha. None of the things you said that she does seem too bad except for the irritability, and i would bet if she took her dose during the day as well as the one at night the irritability would go away.
Anonymous 10 Jul 2010
sncdoc, I agree with grey-cypress. Sounds like your wife needs to take her other dose of Xanax! Irritability comes with panic attacks/nervousness, encourage her to take her dose at night and in the morning.
Unfortunately, irritability is just as awful for her as it is for you!
Hope she feels better soon, for her and for YOU!
sweetlemon
mpvtAnonymous 10 Jul 2010
She has to be secretly taking something else or doing something else take it from us with people with many many years experience with xanax. This is unheard of i got to tell you i have never heard of anyone getting wired from a xanax pill. Does your wife take any other medications? maybe the medication along with this one is giving her this odd reaction and im saying odd cause this is truely an odd case. Really this is all i can think of when it comes to hearing something as zany as this. Now we are not saying jump to conclusions and ask her what is she on this very well could be just an odd case of a reverse reaction from a medication. If this continues have her see the doctor immediatly to adjust her meds cause this is not safe for you or her.
11 Jul 2010
She has been taking Prozac and trazodone for many years now. The reaction seems to be directly related to her taking the alprazolam though. She failed to take a dose one night and was much calmer, less talkative, and not as irritable the next day. I've convinced her to try half a tablet (which would be 0.5mg) for a couple or three nights and the wired symptoms were definitely not as pronounced. I'm wondering if she is one of those who reacts the opposite from normal with this med. For some people, uppers do make them calmer (Adderall for example). I'm wondering if she is one of these individuals. She doesn't have access to other drugs since we live way out in the sticks, I'm retired and here all the time, and have custody of the cars anyway. She is also retired and in her upper 60's and even has an aversion to alcohol.
16 Jul 2010
My wife of 39 years has always been a very mild and meek person. Yesterday she finally completely lost control and we are trying to get her into a psychiatric hospital. ( think that she forgot that she had taken her Alprazolam tablet and took a second before going to bed. Unfortunately she had gone 1000 miles away and was staying with a friend. She called me at 5:30 am and demanded that I get her psychiatrist to call her. When I wasn't moving fast enough she yelled at me and hung up. She then called some of our friends here and rambled and got mad at them too. When the friend that she was staying with got up, she ranted at her and the friend demanded that she leave. (she was planning a 2 week stay). Fortunately our daughter had a summer job nearby and she started the 2 hour drive to her place about 10 am. She got there at 7 pm after having wandering around the freeways all afternoon trying to find the place.
Anonymous 16 Jul 2010
Dear sncdoc, What a night you had!!! Let us know how she, and you are doing! Is your wife going through menopause? That can sure make a woman feel pretty scary! (I went through it real early)
Sounds like she is ever so irritable?
Please post again.
sweetlemon
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sncdoc, so glad she is feeling better!
Hmmmm when you say she taking trazodone as well that makes it even more odd, because thats a downer as well, and youd think that the two put together would knock her out... For some people when they take uppers they SEEM more calm, but its not that theyre more mellow, its that when their on the drug they can focus better, sit still, etc etc. I know this because i am one of those people. I used to buy adderall xr in high school from people during finals week to help me study and concentrate during tests and stuff. I first started taking 20mgs at a time, didnt do much. 30mgs, same thing, not too much help. 60mgs, ehh starting to feel the effects but still not content. 90mgs (yeah i know thats ALOT of adderall) made me WANT to sit down and take tests. I wish i would have been scripted the stuff, cause whenever i took it before and during test days i would get much better scores cause i simply concentrated better.
Expand this post...
My point is that drugs do effect people differently EMOTIONALLY or "on the outside", but whats happening IN peoples brains is pretty much the same thing from person to person. What im saying is i dont really see how it could be possible to have a reverse reaction to a tranquilizer.