Hi all. Just a little background about my situation. In July of this I was traveling alone and all of a sudden I started to get shaky, my body felt very unusual and my vision seemed to be narrowing. I was taken my ambulance to the er and they ran a lot of tests, all of which came back normal. The doctor said is was just anxiety. I wasn't too sure about the diagnosis because I have never had anxiety in my life. Since that incident I have gone to the er numerous times, I would just be sitting at home watching tv or browsing the internet and all of a sudden I would get shaky and it felt like my heart was pounding out of my check. Again, at the er they ran lots of test and came to the same conclusion, it was just an anxiety attack. In August, during one of my trips to the er they drew labs and I discovered my TSH levels were elevated, they weren't super high, but they were higher than what they had been in June when I went to see my endocrinologist. My doctors quickly changed my dose of thyroid medication to see if that would help. Long story short on that, I'm currently on my 3rd dose change since then. I don't know my current level are as I don't get them rechecked until January. But since the thyroid issue and what happened in July, my PCM decided to start me on a low dose of Xanax (.5 mg) Well I didn't feel comfortable taking a whole pill so I started taking 1/2 the tablet twice a day. I was instructed to take it as needed up to 3 times a day. I've been doing great with just the 1/2 tablet twice a day. I had started to feel better so I stopped taking the Xanax for several weeks, but in October I started having issues again so I restarted it and have been taking 1/2 tablet twice a day, (so only getting the full .5 a day)
Well since the around the 23rd of October, I've had constant lightheadedness/dizziness accompanied by nausea. No other symptoms, I feel good just can't shake this feeling. Since I didn't have anxious feelings anymore I stopped taking the Xanax for 2 days, but on the 3rd day out of the blue I got extremely shaky, my eyes got weird and it felt like my heart was racing so I took 1/2 of one of my tablets. Yesterday the same thing happened, I was feeling good when I woke up so I didn't take one, but around 10 I got the same feeling so I took another 1/2 tablet.
Have I become dependent on this medication? I don't think I've taken enough to really have any side effects of coming off of it suddenly. Could this just be anxiety from over thinking about the lightheaded/dizzy feeling I'm having? I also have constant pain in right side of my next down in to my shoulders. I really want to be free of the Xanax, but I'm afraid to stop taking them again. Should I contact my PCM to help me stop taking them, or go to the er? Will they put me in the hospital to monitor me for a few days while I go through the process of discontinuing them? I'm at a loss, I just want all of this to go away and to get back to my normal self.
Please help