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?
Question posted by sncdoc on 10 July 2010
Last updated on 20 February 2021 by mpvt
18 Answers Page 2
This is not a side effect I have ever heard of especially with a short acting benzodiazapine like xanax. Like the poster said above, 6 hrs max for xanax and then the effects are gone.
Is she taking Adderall or any opiates...
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
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.
Related topics
anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, alprazolam, hyperactivity
Further information
- Alprazolam uses and safety info
- Alprazolam prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Alprazolam (detailed)
Similar questions
Search for questions
Still looking for answers? Try searching for what you seek or ask your own question.