Pharmacy Fail

Until today, I never realized how much I need real Xanax not to be anxious.  Last week the pharmacy substituted the current brand of Xanax with a different generic when they filled my script.  I thought nothing of and figured all would be peachy keen.  Then while talking to my mom on Saturday, she said to be careful because some of our family have problems with generics not working properly.  They may work for a few days but their affect diminishes and it's like cutting the meds cold turkey.  The only generic not to cause a problem is that made by Greenstone.  Why?  Because Greenstone Pharmaceuticals is a subsidiary of Pfiser so it's Xanax is basically the real stuff at generic pricing.

At first I didn't notice any difference.  I felt myself getting slightly more anxious but just assumed it was wedding stress getting to me.  Then yesterday I noticed myself going on a rant about something that I really didn't need to be anxious or rant about.  And today...well that's when the shit hit the fan.  I started to notice the same tightness in my chest, nervousness, near panic attack anxiety like I had two falls ago when I had anxiety induced depression.  But this time the panic attacks were for no good reason.  There wasn't anything much I had to worry about that would make me this upset.  It got to the point that by 3pm, I wanted to cry my eyes out for no good reason.  Only then I knew and was willing to accept that it had to be the meds.  I called my mom who told me what I planned on doing all along which was to call my doc and the pharmacy.  I left a message for the doc and made an appointment...  Then I called the pharmacy to see if they could order in the Greenstone brand of Xanax I had before as this generic felt like I was on nothing at all.  They put in an order for the Greenstone and told me to call after 11am tomorrow to see if they have it in yet...  there was no guarantee it could be ordered but they attempted to.  In the meantime I went digging through my bag and found my pill case.  Sure enough, I had stowed away 1 and a half of the real Xanax.  I took the half and sure enough I started to feel a lovely calming effect about 30 min later.

Now I'm not 100% but I'm not about to cry my eyes out again for no reason.  The odd thing is that the generics failed to work...  As generics are different variations on the original with changes that should not affect is functionality, it is assumed that they should all work.  But as generics are only required by the FDA to be at least 80% similar to the original drug, within that 20% difference there might exist enough alteration that some people will process the drug differently.  Basically I think my family is the type who's body breaks down the drug faster.  This being that the functional part of the drug has to be the same...  So because we process it faster, the same amount as the original lasts a shorter time in our system.  It took a week for me to hit rock bottom as the original xanax was still built up in my system and I only take a small dose but once it was gone it was like I stopped cold turkey.  I've weened myself off of it before so I know it can be done when I'm not anxious but a complete lack of it in my system left me all sorts of nervous.  I even picked some of my cuticles raw.  For you that haven't had this experience, a work friend likened it to quitting smoking cold turkey...  it's not pleasant.  I'm so glad this all will be worked out tomorrow because today after it was out of my system was awful.