Two years after she started taking Xanax, Dana Bare began having panic attacks like never before. Her memory started slipping. Her husband had to remind her how to make a sandwich. Bare’s ailments cycled her through emergency rooms and puzzled specialists, some of whom thought she was mentally ill or had cancer. No one knew what to do other than up her Xanax dose, to 2 milligrams a day at one point.

The Wall Street Journal spoke to nearly four dozen doctors, researchers, and patients or family members of patients who had been prescribed benzodiazepines. The patients ranged from doctors to mail carriers, veterans to tech workers, business executives to new mothers, all of whom say their lives were turned upside down by crippling effects of the drug.

"Doctors are only now coming to grips with harmful effects stretching back decade."

Many doctors say the drugs are too often prescribed for conditions they aren’t effective at treating, and often for too long. Studies dating back decades have shown that they have no clear advantage over a placebo for better sleep, one of the most common reasons they are prescribed

"There is this huge difference between physical dependence and addiction,” he said. 'I’m not taking it because I’m getting a high off of it.'"