Completely cured my anxiety, but now I have another problem!!

[ChRoNoxThexDon]

Well, about 2 years ago I suffered a death in the family.. my brother who I grew up with my whole life died of cancer at the young age of only 35... after this happend I became what I like to call "Terminally depressed" .. I ended up losing my job because I didn't want to leave my bed and be out in the world, I just wanted my brother to come back... Sooner or later I started forcing myself to get up out of bed and by this time I was still very depressed but not enough anymore to make me completely immobilized, I also found myself to be INCREDIBLY anxious dealing with severe anxiety all throughout my days dealing with CONSTANT panic attacks. Especially in social situations... So a friend of mine convinced me to go see a psychologist who eventually referred me to a pyschiatrist who I began to see regularly...

This doctor must have put me on and I must have tried every drug out there from zoloft to paxil, prozac, celexa, buspar, klonopin, and most recently xanax which I'm still on. NONE of these meds worked for me... the depression, anxiety, and worst of all-panic attacks continued. Eventually, desperate, I began scouring the web for answers and I eventually came across this site .. anxiety.pcti-system. com .. which is this program to cure anxiety/panic attacks for good all naturally.. To make a long story short, it worked incredibly for me.. my anxiety is gone, depression as well almost all but gone, and I haven't had a panic attack in over a month. I do though from time to time still feel sorrow over my brother. However, this is my problem: I'm still taking my xanax because I'm completely ADDICTED.. when I try to stop taking it I start going through incredible withdrawls mentally and physically... If I would have known of this addiction problem I would have never allowed my doctor to put me on them. Has anyone else suffered from benzo addiction and if so, know how to safely get off it with minimal side effects?? Please any advice/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

[ChaosControl]

Hi there,
I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. It sounds like you've been through a lot and I really sympathise. You're strong to make it this far and get through it all, so well done.
I remember learning that benzodiazapines are really addictive. I haven't experienced it myself, but it sounds like your doctor's done completely the wrong thing as they should have understood that you might get addicted. So my advice is go and see a different doctor (no offence but the one who put you on all those meds sounds like bad news!) and see if they can help cure your side effects, dependency and so on.
I'm sorry I can't do much to help, but I hope you feel better soon! Let us know how you get on. Take care

[Thirteen]

Well, although I've never had the addiction myself, I've heard the best way to ween off of any medication is slowly. My boyfriend used to take anti-depressants, and well, when he tried quitting abruptly, it didn't go well. But withdrawing, little by little, but reducing your dosage over a course of weeks, or even months, should prove to take away the shock from your system.