she can certainly recognise the onset and pull over and stop.

Actually, that's what happens with Panic Anxiety too, I feel my heart start to race, the shaking start, my breathing quicken, or my skin flushing, which are all signs of an onset, and I pull over at the first safe place.

I take Xanax, but only when I'm not having to be functional. Half a pill of Xanax, 0.5mg knocks me out and I sleep about 10 hours. An entire one, (which I almost never take unless I have a "grand mal" attack, knocks me out for almost 20 or so. So I only take the Xanax to stop the building up of anxiety, (in other words to offset the internal build up), and only when I can sleep it off in the morning.

We've yet to find much medication that works while I'm active for me, as I'm very weird with medication, 9 out of 10 kinds won't do what they are supposed to do for me, or do the opposite. So I've spent years and years in therapy (started therapy in high school even before this was diagnosed), learning all the non-medicated tools like slowing my breathing, stilling the shaking, how to catch it coming on, etc. Sometimes there's is no option but to knock me out with the Xanax if it can't be stopped by other means. But like I said, that last happened in 1996, and the paramedics were called. (That was before I knew John). :) So I guess that's major progress to be proud of!

Brenda