I am treated like an addict or ridiculous when I tell doctors I'd rather not "try SSRIs" or a series of strange sedating substances because they're all so afraid of prescribing something with addiction potential (and the regulators trying to stop them).
If you’re willing to take Xanax but you’re not willing to try SSRIs, you have probably been severely misled about the relative risks of each.
Seriously, the internet misinformation machine is terrible for SSRIs.
One thing to keep in mind when reading online reports of drugs is that they tend to correlate quite heavily with the liking effect of a drug. Patients will rate drugs with rewarding effects significantly higher because they literally trigger the neurons in your brain that say “this is good and you want it now”.
I've always been fervently anti-meds but sometimes when you're in a tough spot they are magical and going without is the worse alternative.
For what it's worth after 2 years of occasional use, I have no addiction at all. I've been tracking my use daily for the past year and as my anxiety has waned I've stopped taking them entirely.