My neurologist told me to stay away from xanax for my PCS. It is bad for the brain and especially the healing brain. Talk to your doctor about possibly an antidepressant to help with anxiety. My Dr suggested zoloft.

Antidepressants do work well for the headaches, nausea, pain, anxiety, etc. It basically calms your nerves and brain down. I am on a combo of Strattera and Paxil.

Early in my PCS, I had a combo of Mirt for insomnia, and Paxil for anxiety. Now the insomnia, dizziness and nausea are gone, so I use Paxil. The Strattera is for the spaghetti brain I have had for years since childhood due to ADHD.

My brain is clear, relaxed, and I can focus at work without issues. Like you, I used to take Xanax but was wary of it, I only had it twice in my PCS duration.

I also was in therapy to talk about my PCS issues. After the visits, my brain would simply let go and relax. It was nice the mornings after the appointment.

I could remember my anxiety being so bad that depersonalization would strike, I would have to touch something to get a feel of being "here".

I felt also that the pressure in my head didn't help much at all, which adds more anxiety to the mix. Pain + anxiety = more anxiety.

My anxiety ended up mostly being physical symptoms to which my doctor found out all these years, my anxiety also caused my Acid Reflux I have had since childhood. As a child, I felt as if I couldn't swallow after a meal or something was in my throat.

I didn't understand it, and neither did my doctors until I got better from the antidepressants. I never used Nexium again.

Today, more and more research is being put into the brain. Especially with ADHD with co-occurring disorders. 70% of ADHD patients end up with Bipolar, Depression or Anxiety Disorders, which apparently I had.

As children, we can't tell what is anxiety. All we can tell is we are scared, nauseous, "our tummy hurts", sad, and we want Mom or Dad. We want to stay home from school, and we do, only to notice we feel 30 minutes later. And we don't why it happens. It just happens. Fight or Fright, oops I mean flight.

I wished so much back then, someone noticed it, and a lot of children lose out on treatment all because their parents say it's "normal". My ADHD was "normal". Me being talkative was normal, "it's a girl thing" they said, until I stopped paying attention and doing my homework, then they noticed. Uh-oh.

But the anxiety thing was slipped and my psych missed out on it. In the 90's, ADHD was misunderstood. Anxiety was misunderstood. Not enough research was done, even anxiety slipped past the fingers of parents. Children couldn't speak out. And forget about mood disorders.

We were hushed as children about it all. It was a shame to have a psych diagnosis. And ADHD, to other children, meant you were "stupid", "lazy", and way too "annoying". And anxiety was just to other beings was "Oh, Johnny will get over it. He's going through a rough patch."

Today, I am 23 years old, and recognize that it's real. Johnny's not getting over it, Sue can't stop talking and fidgeting, but the difference is real. Parents are now recognizing psychiatric disorders and ADHD. Dr. Amen has an article about anxiety and ADHD. And behold, brain injuries.

The standard line of treatment for PCS is caring for the pain and anxiety. But Xanax is not the way to go. I would say find an antidepressant, Mark's Vitamin Regimen, and relaxation techniques. Find ways to get your brain to simply "let go". You can do it. I know you can.

If I knew what all this stuff was back then, I would have gotten treatment. I just feel better then I have all these years.

A lot of great responses to your question. I thought I would add in a few comments of my own. Xanax (alprazolam) is one of the later benzodiazepines that came to market. There are many others (lorazepam, oxazepam, diazepam) but they all do the same thing by binding to a specific brain receptors (GABA) in different parts of the brain. Increased GABA activity seems to inhibit brain cell excitability. The effect on brain function depends on the dose and ultimately how much of the drug is bound to these receptors. At lower doses, they relax us. At moderate doses, they sedate us. At high doses they cause amnesia and respiratory depression (not good).

Xanax was marketed as a "fast acting" benzo which targeted those with panic attacks. In reality, their onset of action is similar to lorazepam (Ativan). Xanax also has a shorter elimination period from the body ("half-life"). The only problem with benzos with fast elimination time is that the withdrawal symptoms following prolonged use can appear within 24 hours. Then the challenge becomes trying to figure out which symptoms are from underlying anxiety and which are due to withdrawal. The only way is gradually reduce the dose (under medical supervision) until you're off completely.

There are other suitable alternatives to the pharmacological treatment of anxiety (regardless of the cause). The family of SSRIs (ie Citalopram) and SNRIs (ie Venlafaxine) can work extremely well. Of course, many non-pharmacological approaches have also been helpful.

In summary, some of your "next day" symptoms may in fact be withdrawal symptoms from a short acting benzodiazepine.

I forgot to mention one other point in my previous comment. Used properly, benzodiazepines (including Xanax) can be pivotal in allowing someone, disabled with anxiety, to regain function. They are generally a well tolerated family of medications with a low potential for adverse effects when used at recommended dosages. In the treatment of anxiety spectrum disorders, they usually are used however as an adjunct to other meds such as SSRIs and SNRI to name a few. Ideally they are used on a "as needed" basis during heightened periods of anxiety. Benzos do not damage the brain. However they can impair cognition, aggravate depression, cause dizziness and even cause paradoxical agitation in some people. People suffering from PCS need to be cautious about worsening symptoms when using these drugs. Seniors are especially vulnerable to the cognitive side-effects and are best to avoid them altogether if possible.

If you are using Xanax by itself to control your anxiety, you would do well to discuss with your MD about introducing a safer "daily" medication. Once established on the latter, you could then consider gradually lowering the dose of Xanax to avoid the unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal.

If your headaches improve with Xanax, I wonder if your anxiety may be triggering them. Thus by controlling your anxiety you are less likely to experience headache. Alternately, as mentioned in the last post, if you use Xanax fairly consistently, headaches could possibly be as a result of sudden withdrawal (kind of like what happens to some of us when we don't get our coffee). Good luck

I have used Klonopin (clonazepam) successfully. It is a bit slower acting and stays in your blood twice as long as Xanax so one can take smaller doses. I took it for 30 days while waiting for Celexa to take effect. I find Celexa much easier to handle side-effect wise than Paxil. I have 14 years experience with Paxil. My doc added Zyprexa to the Celexa after I went off the Klonopin and I am doing great on the combo.