# What affect should .75mg Alprazolam give?



## depressedavoidant (Dec 31, 2004)

I took .75mg Alprazolam before a presentation today (about an hour before).

I'm wondering what I should have been feeling. Mentally, I felt about as sharp as I usually am. I was calm during the presentation. I feel that I did a good job. 

I know that drugs affect people in different ways. But I've read that some people feel "drunk" on Alprazolam (xanax). I didn't feel drunk at all. 

If it matters, I had .25 mg circular pills from Mylan (generic). Could that have made a difference? I didn't ask for them over the name brand, although I think if I asked for name brand (Xanax) they would have given to me.


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## EgoLost (Feb 5, 2006)

You may have a biological tolerance which is natural, or it could possibly be attributed to weight. Also consider this, when I take a medium dose and engage myself mentally in something which is potentially highly stressful, I do not nessessarily feel the "drunkenness," but rather the amount of stress/anxiety is absolutely relative to the amount of Xanax I have ingested. SO, in other words if I were already pretty calm and laid back, and I took say .75mgs I may feel drunk. If you are overcome by panic on Xanax you may want to re-evaluate your dose. I am a fairly skinny guy, my tolerence naturally is fairly high, whereas my girlfriend is sedated by only .25mgs and she is about 20lbs heavier than I. Just some things to consider.


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## depressedavoidant (Dec 31, 2004)

Ok - well at 6'2 160 lbs I'm not exactly a big guy, so I don't think its that.

Either it was a placbeo effect or maybe what you said. either way, since the normal things that happent to me did not, i should be happy, right? 

I'll follow this up with my doc.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

depressedavoidant said:


> I took .75mg Alprazolam before a presentation today (about an hour before).
> 
> I'm wondering what I should have been feeling. Mentally, I felt about as sharp as I usually am. I was calm during the presentation. I feel that I did a good job.


You were feeling calm & still mentally sharp -- sounds like an ideal reaction to Xanax to me. Be happy it worked so well for you.



depressedavoidant said:


> I know that drugs affect people in different ways. But I've read that some people feel "drunk" on Alprazolam (xanax). I didn't feel drunk at all.


I've never felt "drunk" on Xanax nor any other benzo and I've gone to as high a dose as just about anyone here. I've used up to 6 mg at once and up to 14 mg within 24-hours under the most extreme circumstances. My prescribed dose is 10 mg daily, but I average around 7 mg in reality and generally take 2 mg per dose (as they are 2 mg pills, though they can easily be split if I feel the need for less).



depressedavoidant said:


> If it matters, I had .25 mg circular pills from Mylan (generic). Could that have made a difference? I didn't ask for them over the name brand, although I think if I asked for name brand (Xanax) they would have given to me.


I've used alprazolam from Mylan, Geneva, and now get Greenstone -- the 2 mg size in all cases. I'd say they're all the same in terms of efficacy. I just don't care for the fact that Mylan makes their 2 mg pills round, instead of the easy to break in half bar shape that every other company uses.

I've never used brand name Xanax, so I can't compare it to the generics. Given that the brand name costs a small fortune, which no insurance plan is going to cover when a cheap generic is available, I'm not aware of anyone who takes the brand name version. I can't imagine that any pharmacy would even stock the brand name, since there is basically zero demand for it. Here are price quotes I just looked up for comparison:

Generic alprazolam:
.25 mg x 90 = $14.97

Brand name Xanax:
.25 mg x90 =$83.98


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## depressedavoidant (Dec 31, 2004)

UltraShy said:


> You were feeling calm & still mentally sharp -- sounds like an ideal reaction to Xanax to me. Be happy it worked so well for you.


I didn't think about it that way. Rather I was worrying that it may just have been the placebo effect. But if that is the case, and it was the drug itself working, then the outcome would have been the desired one.



UltraShy said:


> I've never felt "drunk" on Xanax nor any other benzo and I've gone to as high a dose as just about anyone here.


Ok, I just wasn't sure. I thought I read that some people did expereience that. I don't want to feel drunk, I just want to act the way that I would if I didn't have these internal factors holding me back.

I guess I should experiment a bit more with doses and different situations to find out what works. I also have beta blockers, and maybe they may work better for the situations I face.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

depressedavoidant said:


> UltraShy said:
> 
> 
> > You were feeling calm & still mentally sharp -- sounds like an ideal reaction to Xanax to me. Be happy it worked so well for you.
> ...


It could be a placebo effect. Anybody who's looked at drug trial data can't help but notice that you often see 30% who report feeling so much better on a sugar pill.

You didn't take a huge dose, but 0.75 mg is a reasonable sized dose, especially for somebody not used to benzos. It could very well be real and not just placebo effect.

As for feeling drunk, I've rarely come across people that report that sort of feeling from benzos and I've been a regular on anxiety/panic boards for the last 6 years. Generally, the typical reaction is just drowsiness. You don't often hear about anxiety patients getting a "buzz" from benzos. If there is a buzz I sure missed it. I find benzos to be a very subtle drug. They don't hit me like a ton of bricks where I really feel drugged. In fact, there is no sensation of being drugged at all for me. Just a bit calmer. There is none of the tipsy, woozy feeling I'd get if I drank enough liquor.


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## lei (Nov 11, 2004)

sounds like it worked great.

.75 would make me too sleepy but .5 would give me the results you got. i'm a lightweight, both in weight and in just having low tolerance for any drug.

i don't get a "drunk" effect. maybe some people do, or maybe they call it that because they're finally feeling less inhibited and not so SA.

congratulations on a calm presentation!


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## Want to be me (Mar 26, 2015)

Didn't no where to start or anything so I'm starting here. Just wondering if this is anxiety or not. I'm a shift worker in an underground mine. There is a span in my schedule where I am off for seven days, and I go back on the graveyard shift. I always wake up super early the day of the shift. As soon as I open my eyes I have an intense feeling of adrenaline or I'm in trouble or something. Some days I can make it through and start my shift at 7 pm others it's bad enough where I will get sick, dry heaves most of the day. Feel real weak, and it's not uncommon to actually vomit right before I leave. This was the case on my last one I missed two days of work. Before once I got through the first shift, I would be just fine. But that was a week ago and still feel "scared?" And I don't want to feel this way anymore. It's really taking its toll! Any opinions from people who may feel this way would really help. Thank you


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

UltraShy said:


> I've used alprazolam from Mylan, Geneva, and now get Greenstone -- the 2 mg size in all cases. I'd say they're all the same in terms of efficacy. I just don't care for the fact that Mylan makes their 2 mg pills round, instead of the easy to break in half bar shape that every other company uses.
> 
> I've never used brand name Xanax, so I can't compare it to the generics. Given that the brand name costs a small fortune, which no insurance plan is going to cover when a cheap generic is available, I'm not aware of anyone who takes the brand name version. I can't imagine that any pharmacy would even stock the brand name, since there is basically zero demand for it. Here are price quotes I just looked up


How's Niravam? You had just received some recently IIRC.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

jim_morrison said:


> How's Niravam? You had just received some recently IIRC.


The generic ODT is a delicious orange flavor. Not sure if it really works any better than the regular oral tablets that taste so much worse, but are so much cheaper.

I wish they made a sublingual tablet -- like Saphris -- where the absorption really is sublingual. With Xanax ODT, you largely end up swallowing it as it doesn't just instantly disappear the way Saphris does.

I can't find the following on my formulary:
http://www.medicinenet.com/lorazepam-sublingual/article.htm


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

UltraShy said:


> The generic ODT is a delicious orange flavor. Not sure if it really works any better than the regular oral tablets that taste so much worse, but are so much cheaper.
> 
> I wish they made a sublingual tablet -- like Saphris -- where the absorption really is sublingual. With Xanax ODT, you largely end up swallowing it as it doesn't just instantly disappear the way Saphris does.
> 
> ...


How did you respond to ativan? It's broken down by a different liver enzyme pathway so I'd be curious if your overall response to it differed.


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