A good friend had a xanax addiction. The weird thing is that she wouldnt take them long enough to get physically addicted, she would literally go through a bottle of 90-120 2mg xanax in a couple, three days. When you take that high of a dose, it does the exact opposite of what its intended. She was wire up, did things that she would normally never do (she shoplifed a flower, lol) she would have absolutley no memory of what she did or where she had been. Shes damned lucky that she never got into an accident and killed someone. When she ran out, she was fine til she got more.. So, she never went thru physical wd's. Like i said, everytime she would binge, she would shop, etc. shoplift. she was arrested several times and went to jail and had to complete an addiction type program. I honestly believe this saved her life. To this day, she cannot take any type of benzo because she FINALLY knows that she just cant take the chance. It took years and finally jail time for her to realize that she had a problem. Her friends and family just couldn't get through to her.. Even today, she will sometimes take a sleeping pill and even though they are not technically a benzo, they are very close structurely. I honestly believe that during the years that she abused the xanax (since she took so many) People will think that she took a benzo, so someone else has to control the sleeping pills for her.. I personally was physically dependent on benzos, i never abused them, the doctor had me on such a high dose, that when i decided i wanted off it took well over 6 months of taper, actually closer to a year and even after stopping my legs would kick and mentally i felt like shit for about a year.. So, it took me almost 2 years to be finally physically/mentally free from benzos.. Now, I still take them, but at much much lower doses. (Not the 14mg of daily xanax that i used to be on) I never take more than 2m\g of xanax a day and after a week i always take a few days off. I feel that i could do a small taper and be free in a month or so and be totally fine.. Yes, to the question about benzos being more difficult than opiates. While they are technically totally different animals, I would take a opiate wd, etc 10x before going through a benzo wd.. opiate wd/s are much more intense but much shorter acting. (everyones different, but thats the usual consensus)... Always be careful with those benzos, it can be a very slippery slope..