Liquid Xanax

Can essential oils ever replace prescription meds?

- Dana Wood

The following fall into the category of “emergencies” for which I might tap the trusty Xanax stash I’ve kept in my medicine cabinet for decades: turbulence at 40,000 feet, a heated dustup with a loved one or co-worker, insomnia, “monkey mind” triggered by deadline stress. I consider myself a hyperproductive product of an unstable childhood that has never quite left my consciousness, which means that I can be happily trucking along through life and—bam!—suddenly get sideswiped by the same torrent of anxiety and uncertainty I felt as a kid. The recent news cycle doesn’t exactly help matters.

My new general practitioner in St. Petersburg, Florida, is not amused by my current coping mechanism of trusty chill pills. After all, Xanax is an addictive Schedule IV prescription drug. “What do you even need it for?” she asked during my last annual physical. “Call me when you’re down to your last pill, and we’ll decide what to do.”

Chances are a lot of patients are hearing something similar from their doctors. Though the opioid epidemic in the U.S. has reached crisis levels, an uptick in the use of Xanax and other benzodiazepines is also sounding alarms in the medical community. According to the American Psychiatric Association, the number of adults filling a “benzo” prescription jumped from 8.1 million to 13.5 million between 1996 and 2013. Additionally, the APA says, one of the sharpest increases has been in the age group I fall into, 44 to 65 years old.