[PA Engineer]

Trying to drug yourself into some kind of anesthesia instead of coping as best you can is not a good idea.

I will disagree with one situation where medication is important and that is sleep, especially for the elderly. Zanax is valuable as a sleeping aid.

[steve86]

You took my statement out of context — it was referring to antidepressants not sedatives or anxiety-reducing drugs. Personally, I use Kava Kava (Piper Methysticum) for anxiety relief (thereby allowing sleep) although one has to be certain it is the root and not the stem or leafy part you are ingesting (possibility of liver damage). If that doesn’t work to allow sleep I go for the Benedryl (diphenhydramine), although the dosing in the elderly is tricky, but no worse than the benzodiazapines!