I'm about to give you my honest thoughts on benzodiazepines these are medications
like Xanax and Valium and this might upset a few people what is up everybody
this is Chris from the rewired soul where we talk about the problem but
focus on the solution and welcome back to another video where we are diving
deep into the topic of anxiety and today I am focusing on some of the most
commonly prescribed medications for anxiety now do me a favor and please
please please share this video I'm gonna be talking about some very very
important information regarding these medications that people often take to
help with their anxiety or their panic disorders alright so first let's talk
about how these medications actually work before I dive into that let's
actually talk about how anxiety works so anxiety is caused by an overactive
amygdala that is the part of your brain responsible for fight flight or freeze
when your anxiety kicks in it is releasing a lot of stress hormones in
your body you get a rush of adrenaline you can have a beating heart
you'd have racing thoughts you could be sweating dilated pupils all sorts of
things okay now the way that these benzodiazepines work like Xanax and
Valium is that they goes straight to the amygdala and they tranquilize it okay
they calm it down one of the reasons why these are prescribed so so so much is
because they are fast-acting but the issue is that they come with a price
these are narcotic medications okay any medication that is labeled a narcotic
means that it has the potential of becoming addictive and the problem is is
that the way that we're prescribing these medications has risen insanely
insanely over the last couple decades like I was just reading some articles on
this and this was a study from 2015 now one of the reasons why people develop an
addiction to these medications is because they're given for long-term use
okay the longer that you're all these medications you build up a tolerance as
well as a dependence this means that you need to take more in order
or to calm your anxiety but you also get more anxious when you don't have the
medication so one of the issues is is that when we prescribe these medications
people aren't often doing these in conjunction with another form of
treatment like therapy and things like that
if these medications are ever prescribed in my opinion it should be a short term
solution this should not be long term especially especially because almost
10,000 people per year die from benzodiazepine overdoses and most of
them are accidental most of the people who die from these overdoses had no idea
how much they were taking these are depressant medications okay when you
overdose on it it depresses the nervous system you can't breathe you can die
from this so one of the things that I say that's kind of polarizing is that
these medications are lazy they're very lazy and I know that seems kind of harsh
but just about any doctor can prescribe these medications and it's just to get
you in and out of their office not even thinking about the fact that you might
develop an addiction to these things and you might as well you might die too and
that is insane to me there are so many other alternatives
like I get people in my drug and alcohol rehab all the time who are taking these
medications for their anxiety and they're like I don't know what I'm gonna
do now how am I gonna calm down my anxiety right
the problem is is that nobody has educated you on all of the alternatives
there are so many alternative medications that are non narcotics I've
talked about it in my other videos the video I just did yesterday was about
lexapro and how that helps me with my generalized anxiety disorder there are
so many other medications but like I said the reason why a lot of people
don't turn these medications is because they're not as fast acting they're not
as powerful and also whether people want to admit it or not they're not releasing
the dopamine in your brain they're not giving you all that pleasure that you
get from taking these benzodiazepines so please please please do me a favor and
research all of the other alternatives ask your doctor what else can I take do
you have any non narcotics like it makes me sick
it makes me sick how most doctors that I've experienced goes straight to the
narcotics rather than making those the last resort narcotic medications
especially especially with the addiction epidemic going on narcotic medications
should be the absolute last resort you should be researching and going through
every other option do you know how many people I talk to on a regular basis with
anxiety they're dependent to these medications they want to go get off of
them and they don't know another way and I asked him have you tried meditating no
why not I can't stop my thoughts well welcome to the human experience I've
talked about this a million times in my mindfulness meditation videos meditation
is not about stopping your thoughts if you are trying to stop your thoughts you
are running a fool's errand the human brain on average has fifty to
seventy thousand thoughts per day and they even have the idea that you're
gonna stop them is like it's never going to happen it is impossible to do that
what meditation does it allows you to watch your thoughts and experience your
thoughts without latching onto them and falling into that state of a panic with
all the worry about the future or the worry about the things that you did in
the past this is why meditation is so beneficial so there are a million
million million different ways that you can manage your anxiety and a lot of it
has to do with rearranging the way that your life is and I might do some videos
on that I only got so many days this week but like there's so many changes
that you can make in your life that will begin to reduce your anxiety for example
your relationships not just boyfriend/girlfriend husband/wife but
who you're hanging out with your work okay your financial situation there's so
many little baby steps that you could take to start reducing your anxiety that
a lot of these other non-narcotic medications and holistic methods of
treatment will actually work but anyways this is a rant that I needed to go on
there are so many people dying from these medications and it's crazy because
we keep prescribing them all willy-nilly and whatnot so again please please
please do me a favor share this video share this video for people who are
thinking about using this medication or even people who are on this medication
so they know there are many other options to treat
their anxiety all right but anyways if you like this video please give it a
thumbs up and if you are new here I'm always making videos to help you out
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alright thank you so so much for watching
research alternatives to treat your anxiety and I will see you next time