Xanax Blackouts Anyone?

[GottaHaveHope]

I had a really bad, mixed mania episode this week (I'm still in it), but this experience really terrified me. I have been addicted to almost every drug illegal or otherwise at some point in my life, but have only ever blacked out with alcohol.

I had a fight with my SIL and this is what happened:

I research ways to kill myself and decide to take 2 mg Xanax to calm me down (abandoning the suicide plan) and then pop a third (3 mg total) and jump in my bed to shut out the world for a while.

Next thing I know, it is the following morning. I had a very strange dream or deja vu ( I couldn't tell which) about having had a pizza the night before and an ice cream cone to boot! I chuckle at the thought, because I haven't had real ice cream in almost 4 years. I go play bocce with my friend and am having a blast laughing and giggling and such. Then we parted ways and I headed to Whole Foods for coffee on my way home. I realize in line that my wallet is missing. I don't freak out because sometimes I have it out by my laptop to empty receipts to write off. I head home, only somewhat worried. I'm driving home and now I start to panic. I forgot to mail my eBay packages the day before! I must have slept all afternoon from the Xanax. I get home and thank God my wallet is in my tote bag, but with a menu from the pizza parlor that I had dreamed about. I head downstairs and tell my dad that I had a dream about eating pizza the night before. He says I did. I start to freak and dread opening my wallet. I open my wallet and HOLY FUCKIN SHIT! There is a receipt for PIZZA! There are also 3 postal delivery confirmations, proof that I had gone to the post office. It finally slams me with full force that I had been in a full-fledged blackout. I'm scared shitless and try to downplay to my family what I now knew had to have happened.

I've been addicted to the whole lot of them a few years back (I had Xanax, Ativan, Klonipin, Ritallin and Ambien) and used to take them in all combinations. I have fainted due to low blood pressure, I've collapsed because my whole body has turned to mush, but never knew an honest to God blackout was possible.

Anyone else experience this?

[Velvet Elvis]

Xanax is pretty short acting. How many total hours were you out? It's not xanax-xl, or whatever it's called is it?

One possibility is that after the xanax wore off you had a seizure which can be a symptom of benzo withdrawl.

Is it possible you kept taking more xanax while you were blacked out? Have you counted how many pills you have left?

3mgs is not that large a dose. If you were blacked out but awake for that long, something else was most likely going on.

Did you mix it with any other sedatives, including alcohol?

[mcjimjam]

I have only taken Xanax once, but I did black out. Sort of. It was in high school. I was drinking and took ecstasy for the first time and the dealer gave me a Xanax as well. I think I took that once the night was over. I think only one 2mg pill. I took it with a beer and went to bed. I don't remember the next morning or how I got home. There was a photo of me passed out at a Mcdonalds but I didn't remember how I got there. I don't think it was the booze because I didn't drink that much and have never blacked out from alcohol or any drug other than a benzo/ambien.

So yeah I think it's very possible. Especially if you're not really used to taking that amount. It's strange how you managed to go to the post-office and be functional enough to do that, without remembering. Weird feeling huh?

[GottaHaveHope]

Other than Xanax and the very infrequent Perc for menstrual pain, I stopped drinking and doing drugs years ago. So I know I definitely took Xanax and Xanax alone. I take the regular kind, the first one that came out not the XR. I wish I had counted them, but I stopped counting them as my supply grew in excess of 150 1 mg pills. 2 mg is a dose that my body is very used to, so the possibilty that I continued to pop them during my blackout could very well be plausible (and extremely troubling). I took it about 2 PM and blacked out til the following morning.

I'm seeing my friend at the post office today. I'll play it cool and see if she mentions anything. I sure as he'll am not going back to the pizza joint anytime soon. Thanks!

[Anna]

pill boxes to prevent this type of stuff and locks on med drawers if you have a lot of it around. You could easily have kept popping more, i've done this on occasion (unintentionally). Just mention to pdoc an gdoc as well just in case something weird is going on..

Anna

[crazynotstupid]

I wish I had counted them, but I stopped counting them as my supply grew in excess of 150 1 mg pills.

Um, can I ask why your supply grew so big? Is it still growing? How much do you take on a regular basis now?

Def. yes to the finding a way to control how much you take at a time/day. Constant benzo popping=bad.

[crtclms]

I know you didn't direct this at me CNS, but I just wanted to tell you how I accumulate Xanax: I am prescribed 2mg, with 1mg PRN. If I only use my PRN every other day, I am left with 15mg at the end of the month. After a several months, I have a couple of extra months supply. At this point, I probably have dropped back to 40 extra mg (I had a bad month, so some times I used two PRNs). Still, that is a fair amount.

[saveyoursanity]

Yep, that's basically how I used to accumulate klonopin.

Since my last suicide attempt used my stockpile ... holy shit, that was 3 years ago? . . . anyway, since then, my doc prescribes slightly less than I think I'll need and we have a standing agreement that I can ask for more if necessary.

Strangely, so far it hasn't been necessary. I usually use up all my meds by the end of the month but I don't have to panic about running out either. I'm in a good place in that sense.

[llama44]

I took almost a full bottle of xanax (not sure of the mg sorry) with some alcohol and blacked out while trying to drive to a psych hospital. BAD BAD BAD I know. I ended up circling the block and parking the car back in my parents' garage and turned the car off (luckily) and shut the garage and passed out in the car. My mom found me and I don't know how but I was able to blow it off like, oh I had a few drinks last night and it must not have mixed well with my zoloft hmmm...? You know, and just totally played innocent like that. She didn't suspect anything I guess "luckily" even though I guess I did belong in a psych ward at the time. Denial is a powerful thing I tell ya. But man I lucked out. What if I passed out and shut the garage with the car still running? I'd be dead right now. So yeah, xanax and alcohol = blackout and death or near death experience. Not good, not good at all. I think that was the first or second time I tried to kill myself. The xanax was my mom's. I think I was 18. Definitely not the first time I had been suicidal though.

Be careful with that stuff. And be sure to tell your pdoc what happened. I know it may be hard, but it's something that needs to be discussed with a professional.

[AnneMarie]

Hey folks,

Let's not turn this in to a How to OD thread.

The Mgt, heh

[crazynotstupid]

I know you didn't direct this at me CNS, but I just wanted to tell you how I accumulate Xanax: I am prescribed 2mg, with 1mg PRN. If I only use my PRN every other day, I am left with 15mg at the end of the month. After a several months, I have a couple of extra months supply. At this point, I probably have dropped back to 40 extra mg (I had a bad month, so some times I used two PRNs). Still, that is a fair amount.

Yeah, I tend to do that with my diabetes meds, make sure the doc scripts me more thasn I'm likely to use then order as scripted...shit I still have test strips that i was getting free from my work program that ended last June. And I just got a different meter...guess I better start testing more often!

[GottaHaveHope]

Ok, here's the typical addict behavior that I still possess. My pdoc refuses and would probably dump me if she knew I still had benzos. She won't write them (once an addict, always an addict, right?), so I get them from my GP. He writes 1 mg TID for 90 pills. I am really responsible with them and really only take them in extreme circumstances. I can go 4 months at a stretch w/o one benzo. They are supposedly known to make depression worse and since I'm bipolar, I don't need anything extra to depress me, lol. But I do get the refills even though I have a ton. I did confess that I had a script to her once, but I refused to say where I got it, just that it was a legal script. Now it's really a don't ask and I won't tell situation.

[steves]

ive been an addict since teenage years, I was getting 120 klons and 120 ativans 1mg over the past weekend 1 took 120 ativans drank a case and woke up in jail. Ive finally been honest with my doc again so no more benzos for me i guess. 4 days in city lockup sucked.

[pooh bear]

Several years ago I had severe anxiety, and found a nice ole doc who gave me a script for 100 1mg xanax a month, he said take 3 a day...well several weeks later I am taking 7 a day then next I know it weeks go By I dont remember.I finally snap to consciousness in a resteraunt with my wife and i had been on auto pilot for 2 days and have no idea what i was doing. stuff can seriously give you amnesia. unfortunately, if abused will make anxiety worse. as withdrawals are the worst thing i have ever felt.