Take Your Pills: Xanax

source: Take Your Pills: Xanax

Honestly, I have such a negative opinion of this "documentary" I'm not even sure I know where to start. First of all, there is almost zero digging into facts about Xanax or Benzodiazepines and the science behind them. The majority of the time was spent on mostly individuals who just wanted to throw themselves a pity party. I'm sorry, there is a way to have dignity when talking about your own mental health problems but almost none of these people had any. It almost seemed like it was just another victim card that they could pull out of their sleeve. I've met and dated many people like this; they can't wait to tell you about their mental health problems because they think there is some social cache in it. Well, it doesn't work on me. These people are, as another reviewer put it: IRRITATING. I've been through too much in my life to listen to a bunch of seemingly rich leftists complain about their first world problems. The documentary is propaganda on multiple levels. It pushes multiple left wing narratives about race and women (they are all victims didn't you know?), and it also apparently didn't get the memo about SSRI's not being effective. This documentary is essentially a glorified reading of a Wikipedia page. Save yourself some time and spend 5 or 10 minutes reading about benzos on the internet instead.

Firstly, I did not even realize I could write a review. I really hope it gets posted. Upon reading the featured review in which the person stated it infuriated them and why I was in whole-hearted agreement, I thought I want to express my thoughts here also. I suffer from debilitating anxiety, depression, PTSD, sleep paralysis, and panic attacks. I literally could not function without my medication. This film is absolutely one sided and very triggering to me personally. This documentary is designed to make you feel badly about yourself and your anxiety, or dependency on medication. Most of the "therapists" interviewed seem to have a "suck it up and deal with life" attitude, going as far as to state that life is supposed to be painful. I strongly disagree. I realize this is more personal than an actual assessment of the film. However, I really hope these few words aid anyone else who watches the film and feels lesser than - you are not.

On the positive side, this "documentary" does establish "Be careful what drugs you take and how you take them." Thanks for that bit of unique wisdom that everyone already knows. The film does try to present a balanced view of Xanax, displaying both beneficial and negative experiences in using the drug. But news flash: people are different. The guy that had to withdraw from Xanax over years using microdoses is an extremely rare case; most people can withdraw in a month or two, some even faster. People who take a prescribed maintenance dose may have no need to withdraw. They did discuss doctors over-prescribing these drugs and not doing proper follow-up. Their presentation of the medical community: not listening to patients and worrying more about their flow-through patient count and Yelp ratings... is quite accurate in regard to the "corporate doctor" situation we so so much today. Doctors are almost forced to join a corporate group to survive, and they are often booked solid, leaving them little time to care for patients individually. It does seem to be the rare doctor these days that cares as much about patients as their bank accounts, and those that do are simply not given enough time to treat those patients as they should. So yes, it's easy in such situations to allow meds to get out of balance. The young blonde who took a regulated dosage of Xanax daily due to serious panic attacks and properly balanced her life with that dosage-- that is more what the drug is intended for. Again, they touched on but didn't even name PTSD-- a condition in which is more common than most people realize, and which may absolutely require treatment with such drugs for the person to even survive... since their brain is totally out of sync with their body, heart, lungs and hormones. Clonazepam (another form of Xanax) is almost a miracle cure for such people-- and taking it is not an "option" if they want to live a normal life. Largely this film just touches the surface of issues but doesn't really establish anything. At the end, viewers are left knowing no more about the drug, its benefits, its dangers, and proper administration or use than they did when the documentary began. It's an hour and a half of non-accomplishment in which they discuss a wide variety of viewpoints, with no real solutions or even suggestions. Oh, except smoke weed. That can be a viable alternative. This is basically a non-helpful, uninformative non-documentary. A person can learn more by simply browsing the Internet and reading about Xanax. The only thing to take away from this is the obvious: Don't take Xanax recreationally or in excess. Don't "get hooked" on it. That's for those of us who need that "duh" kind of information.

This entire documentary is just a bunch of arrogant doctors who prescribed Xanax complaining about the Xanax problem, some claiming it's because "the system is broken." Then the documentary focuses on marginalized people who grew up in primarily healthy households (assumed, the documentary didn't say otherwise for most individuals) who complain in circles for as long as possible to make this a full length movie. One of them says they have anxiety because of those evil Christians (of course.) Others have more serious problems and Xanax is apparently working for them. I got about 45 minutes in and couldn't listen to another sob story before I turned it off. I would rather waste my time elsewhere. Would have rather watched a documentary about the science and potential dangers of Xanax. Unfortunately, that's not what this was. There was practically no science or logic involved at all. It was all emotion based, as usual. So tired of it.

Studying the long term affects of benzodiazepines is a really important topic and this documentary started out with a focus on this. Sadly though the movie devolves into looking at a few neurotic people who have issues much bigger than Xanax could ever address. Sadly too many of the people who they spoke to ended up saying they still take it and it works for them. Very little time was spent on the idea that being human has always required juggling stressful situations and that we as a species need to figure out how to get back to where we do that without pharmaceuticals. Instead we have been medicating children with Adderall and other behavior drugs so kids never have to learn how to cope with stressful situations. We're making it worse, not better and this movie is part of the problem not the solution.

A simple minded presentation of a very serious, complex problem that completely ignores the decades of research.into the biological basis of anxiety disorders of former head of the Psychiatry Department of Columbia University, the late Donald F. Klein, generally considered the 'father of biological psychiatry'. The director of the documentary has no scientific credentials, and is known for making documentaries on Frank Sinatra, James Brown, and various political topics. This is not to deny that Xanax addiction is not a serious problem, and that the drug should only be prescribed as a last resort in the treatment of anxiety disorders, but there is a huge difference in clinical anxiety disorders, and many of the cases presented in this documentary. Towards the end of the doc, the clueless psychiatrists present antidotes such as 'communing with nature, meditation, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy (which has a large failure rate in the treatment of clinical anxiety disorders, though is effective in milder cases, and educating patients in simple facts about their illness), and other ways of dealing with their problems, which is perfectly fine with dealing with stress. But the only reason Xanax should be prescribed is for the treatment of Panic Disorder, which is something completely different than stress. The fact that doctors are prescribing Xanax for stress, is part of the problem. Of course it's extremely effective in alleviating stress, but that is not what it is approved for by the medical field. Using Xanax for stress is like prescribing a powerful opioid for simple back pain. Sure, it works, but it's overkill, because of the addictive nature of opioids and benzodiazepines. The statement one of the doctors makes, that Xanax is the same thing as alcohol is erroneous,, because while alcohol works on some of the same receptors as Xanax (GABA), it also acts on other receptors, and Xanax is much more selective, and only acts on GABA. Therefore , alcohol is what's known as a 'sloppy' drug, with dangerous side effects, while the benzodiazepines.are 'cleaner' drugs without the side effects of alcohol The other problem with benzodiazepines is overdose, but that only occurs in using them with any other CNS depressant like alcohol, opiates,etc. In adults, and in huge doses with young people, who probably shouldn't be prescribed drugs like Xanax to begin with. Unfortunately, many young people use Xanax as a recreational drug, and combine it with alcohol and other CNS depressants and wind up overdosing also..

A look at the story of Xanax, a well known name, and a medication that many people relied on. I didn't particularly enjoy this, not the content, but the tone, delivery, input, it felt to me as though they were trivialising a hugely serious topic. Some of the interviews, was it me, or were some a little obnoxious. It infuriates me so much that anyone believes in this day and age, that you can sort out everyone and anyone's problems with a pill. Does anyone truly believe that popping a chemical concoction will remove all of someone's problems? It's a pity that some of the so called experts couldn't have looked for alternative ways of dealing with people with mild anxiety issues, prescribing stuff like Xanax, just awful. As a Brit, I was left speechless to learn that the pharmaceutical companies are allowed to advertise, unscrupulous. One thing this pretty poor documentary did, was to remind me not to watch the news, or limit it to a few times a week only. Didn't enjoy it, 3/10.

Omg I don't know but I didn't watch that with full attention. Something wrong but I don't know what is the problem. Last years Netflix documentaries are very nice, I watched many of them and I loved them but this one really boring. Some people talking about side effects and bla bla.. No conclusion and a little meaningless. Why all ladies have green necklace on this documentary? It is too long also. I finished but I didn't learn anything and didn't give me new horizon. Actually my review finished here but I have to write something more for 600 characters. Final words : boring and unnecessary documentary. If you have a time you can watch but I don't recommend. Sorry Netflix, not good this time.

Seems too unfocused and jumping around between different issues. There seemed to be no conclusions to the people's stories who were taking part of the documentary. Started out not bad, but eventually as a viewer you had no idea where you were. No story arc. No clear journey for each of the film's characters. Every time they hit on something that might make the viewer question the Xanax drug they came back to reassure us that these drugs were a good thing. And at the end they slip in positive information about SSRI's without mentioning the mountains of critical information on those. The trials for many of these pills were conducted only on the short term, which to me makes the drug companies criminals. You should not be legally be allowed to prescribe a person a brain altering mainstream medical drug long term if said was never studied long term. I also question how the companies who make the profit from the drug are allowed to be the one who tests the drug for themselves. That's not how safety testing works in the motor industry. How this is set up is ripe for cutting corners and lying with statistics. I mean, we're talking about companies here who've been fined billions many times. If you want to watch a better anti-psych tablets documentary watch Medicating Normal. It's a proper documentary.