A new report suggests that the abuse of Benzos, or anxiety medications mixed with alcohol, is rising at an alarming rate — and in many cases ends in death.

Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers, said Cary Quashen, of Action Family Counseling in Valencia. Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium are the most common.

“Benzos are the most prescribed drug in the United States,” Quashen said. “Many people get them prescribed while they go through a little crisis in their life.”

When people without prescriptions obtain and take these drugs for their sedating effects, like many drugs, the use turns into abuse, and has led to an increase in emergency room visits, according to a CNN article.

“The withdrawal from these drugs can be longer and much harder than one from opiates,” Quashen said.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report, in 81 percent of those emergency room cases, alprazolam (also known as Xanax) was mixed with another drug (including alcohol). 

“Alprazolam has been shown to be significantly more toxic than other benzodiazepines, if more than the prescribed amount is taken,” according to the report.

The impact — what leads patients to the emergency room — is the sedating effect of each of these drugs. When one sedative (Xanax) is added to another (alcohol or painkillers) there is what is called a synergistic effect, with each drug amplifying the other, said the article.

To use a mathematical analogy – instead of 1+1 equaling 2, 1+1 equals 5, said the article. The worst case scenario for a patient is that he or she stops breathing.

Between 2005 and 2011, according to the SAMHSA report, the age group most likely to show up in the ER as a result of alprazolam was 25 to 34 year olds. In 2005, about 12,731 visits were among that age group, but by 2011 that number had risen to 39,651.

“If you are having a crisis and need medication, you also need to seek help from a therapist so you can eventually wean yourself off the drug and truly heal,” Quashen said.

About Action Family Counseling

Action Family Counseling has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru, and Bakersfield; Intensive Drug and Alcohol Outpatient in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena, and Bakersfield, Action Family Counseling is here to help you.

Action Family Counseling’s primary goals are to maintain abstinence, stabilize co-occurring illnesses, and increase quality of life. We support and reinforce change in behavior patterns so that adolescents and adults, or clients and their families can fully indoctrinate the philosophies and principles needed to remain abstinent and stabilized for life.

Action Family Counseling accomplishes this by providing an effective treatment approach developed by the Department of Health and Human Services that includes a multi-disciplinarian personalized approach by a treatment team. Once a patient is identified, we provide an initial screening and assessment, which allows us to properly diagnose and place patients in the appropriate treatment setting.

Once a patient completes our intake process to our residential program he or she receives 24-hour crisis management, individual counseling, group therapy, family education and counseling, treatment planning, routine and random toxicology screening, pharmacotherapy and medication management, education about Alcohol and Other Drugs and mental health issues, self-help and support group orientation, case management services, and discharge service planning with a transitional service plan to our Intensive Outpatient treatment program to ensure a continuum of care.

CNN news contributed to this story.