The 3 Stages You Go Through on Xanax

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Stevie Nicks hated benzodiazepines so much that she said, "It's lucky I don't have a driver's license because if I saw my doctor driving in the street, I would just run him down."

[00:00:09]>> [snorts] >> This surprises a lot of people because there's so many different opinions about these medications because one person will say benzodiazepines completely destroyed their lives while another person will swear by them saying they essentially saved their life. And so you may be wondering why so many different opinions on these things because after all, they're not different drugs. And that's what we're going to talk about today because what I believe is happening is that they are actually in different stages of being on the same drug.

[00:00:37]And so if you take a benzo for anxiety or sleep, it is very likely that you're in one of those stages right now. So let's jump in. But quickly for those of you who don't know me, I'm Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring. I used to work at the FDA and I'm a drug safety expert.

[00:00:50]Okay, so stage one is the relief phase.

[00:00:53]This is the phase of the medication where everyone feels like it really works. You take it, the volume gets turned down, you feel calmer, less overwhelmed, less physically keyed up.

[00:01:03]Maybe you finally sleep and this is gosh, amazing because you haven't slept for weeks right by now and you're able to get through work, travel, meetings, family stress, all of the stuff that has been getting impacted by your insomnia or your panic attacks or whatever that is. And at this stage, the drug can feel like it's exactly what you needed. It doesn't feel dangerous. You're not having any nasty side effects or anything like that and it genuinely feels like it's helped a massive problem in your life. And generally what I see is that this stage may last a few months though for some people it can last longer, but you're going to want to avoid what is slowly approaching you because stage two is when you slip out of this one. And this is what I call the tolerance and dependence phase. This is where the medication starts to change from something that is helping you into something that your brain and nervous system is adapting to and reorganizing itself around. Now for those of you who don't know, benzodiazepines act on the GABA system in the brain. This is the neurotransmitter system which slows things down. It's responsible for staying calm and helping you sleep. And that's why these drugs help people. But the thing most people don't understand is that, you know, these benzos, they don't just work on the GABA system in that area that helps you sleep or helps with anxiety. It's global. And what that means is it has a global slowing down effects across the whole body. Now, these neurotransmitters they're involved in your heart, your digestive tract, all of these things. And so these other systems are just like, "Wow, I'm constantly being bombarded by this signal telling me to slow down." And that's pushing me outside of my normal homeostatic balance. And so I'm going to send signals back up into the brain saying, "Hey, there's a problem here. We need to readjust things." And that's what happens over time. The brain starts to downregulate GABA receptors so it can get back to that normal state. And that's why people who have been on these drugs for more than a couple of months, they start to notice the drug doesn't quite work as well. They start to notice they need to have a higher and higher amount of it. And so what generally happens is, you know, this less anxiety protection, the sleep is less deep, and people start to say, "Well, maybe I just need to take another half. Or maybe I just need to take another quarter of this medication."

[00:03:06]And they're doing that because they're trying to chase the same initial effect that they originally got on the drug.

[00:03:12]Now, you might be wondering at this point, "Why don't people realize that they're about to get stuck in a trap and just try and come off?" Well, this is actually a lot harder to realize than a lot of people think because the strange shift starts to take place. Even though the drugs aren't working as well as they used to because the effect has diminished, what they actually start to notice and what they actually start to become more afraid of is what happens in the absence of drug. Because once you've taken these drugs for quite some time, you may notice, "Oh, you know, I forgot to take this medication this one time and then I felt absolutely terrible."

[00:03:43]And then that reinforces the belief that you actually just need to keep on taking this medication. And it's not because the drug is like really helping you that much cuz the effects of Xanax is that the absence of it is now felt as something to be associated with really bad insomnia and anxiety. And what this essentially means now is that the drug isn't helping you, but you've become dependent on it essentially to stave off withdrawal symptoms. That's right. The drug that once helped you to function has now become the drug that you just need to take to avoid falling apart. And this leads us into stage three. Now, I have to say this, not everyone gets to stage three. In fact, most people I talk to are kind of stuck in stage two where the drug really isn't doing much and they're just kind of stuck on it. And that is a very good thing because stage three is rough.

[00:04:27]Now, this is when you start becoming dependent on the drug and the drug actually starts to harm you. And this can kind of build up in a very slow way.

[00:04:35]And so many people, you know, families of the afflicted, also included, they don't notice any problems because on the outside you still look fine. You're closing the deals, you're still running meetings, you're still the go-to person on your team that people rely on. You're still the parent that shows up, all of that. But you start to notice that something is off. You start to notice that you are slower than you used to be.

[00:04:55]You lose the thread in conversations you would have owned five years ago. You read the same paragraph three times. You walk into a room, you forget why. And that presentation that used to take you 45 minutes to do is now taking you hours. And you slowly start to notice that something's going on. You're just not as sharp. You feel like you're losing your mind. You know, if things just don't feel good and you try and compensate for it as long as you can, but you can just tell that things are getting worse. Now, what I described there is what we call in the literature bind or benzodiazepine induced neurological dysfunction. And there have been several medical articles that have been published on this topic in the last couple of years. It is a real, recognized, and increasingly discussed problem. And it typically starts with those cognitive changes I shared, but then gradually it builds into intrusive thoughts, higher and higher anxiety, and eventually neurological symptoms like muscle tightness, tingling, and noise sensitivity. And this is a really severe side effect because once you are here and the drugs have actually started turning on you, coming off the drug is no longer optional. This medication is actually harmful. And what I've seen in my practice is that even once you get people off this drug, it can sometimes take several months or even several years for people to fully recover from this. And it is brutal. And this has happened to a lot of people. For instance, Eddie Van Halen, the legendary guitarist, was disabled for over a year coming off benzos. Jordan Peterson also told Joe Rogan that it took him 2 years to recover when he came off these meds.

[00:06:21]And these are not fragile people. These are tough people. These are people who had resources, teams, could see the best doctors. They had every advantage possible. And it still took them years to recover from this. And so if you are watching this and you recognize that you are in stage three, I need you to hear me on two things. First, you are not getting a new psychiatric illness and you're not losing your mind. It's quite possible that the drug is doing this and you need to start putting together a plan to come off it safely. The second thing is, whatever you do, do not stop this drug suddenly. Do not check into a detox facility. People who already have bind, their nervous systems are really sensitive and they are more sensitive to withdrawal than even a normal person.

[00:07:00]They They will find that even slight reductions can be very harmful. What you need to do is to taper off in a very controlled, structured manner. It'll still be uncomfortable, but it will be a lot more comfortable than doing the alternative and it'll ultimately be safer and faster and you will get out of this mess quicker. And so you might be asking, how do you do this? Well, I've got two options for you. The first thing is you can check out below this video our free tapering guide. It's what we've put together helping hundreds of people come off benzodiazepines over the last 6 years. And it essentially includes like the number one strategy that I would give to someone to get off these drugs safely.

[00:07:36]And [snorts] another thing is if you are in the United States and you simply want to work with a a that sees a lot of this, they know all the problems, and they can take you by the hand and simply solve this problem with you. Uh you can check out www.taperclinic.com, and you can see if our clinic is potentially a good fit for you. And finally, before I end, what I want to ask listeners to do is to drop a comment below this video telling me what your experience has been like on benzodiazepines, whether it was positive or negative. I find that a lot of listeners to this channel love to read those comments below. I do, too. And they love to learn from you and and see what everyone else has gone through.

[00:08:11]Thanks.