It depends on the medication AND your personality.
Personality has a lot to do with it. If you don't have an addictive personality you're probably not going to be addicted to any anti-anxiety drugs.
Exactly.
SSRI's are not addictive because they can't give you a 'high'. Also, my Psychiatrist has told me (and other doctors) that you're only more likely to have suicidal thoughts, if you were already suicidal.
I've never had any adverse affects from my antidepressants.
My dad has a bit of a prescription pill addiction, and he takes Xanax and he takes it because it can get him high. If you are the type of person who likes being high, it would definitely be easier for you to abuse the prescription and take much more of it so you can get high. But in my opinion it comes down to a choice, it's not so addictive like cigaretts that your body is reacting to not having enough, it's a choice of whether you want to drown out your pain and get high.
Abusing Benzo meds is how people force their bad feelings to go away because at a certain point, you end up in a la-la land and you don't really feel. SSRI and other antidepressants don't do this at all.
I've been given Klonopin and Xanax, and I hardly ever use it because I don't know if it truly works for me. Maybe it's because my doctors always give me low doses and it isn't strong enough, but every time I take them I never really know if they helped or if I calmed myself down.
As I said in another thread, antidepressants truly saved me. I suffered horribly for two years until I couldn't take it anymore and got help. The meds gave me my life back to the point that I wasn't in fear every day of my life. I think my success (which is not 100%) has come 60% from antidepressants and 20% from exposure. Several times I have gone off my pills for a couple weeks and I definitely notice my symptoms coming back; the blushing and sweating happening far more often and with less negative stimulation.
But really, it comes down to each individual person. Some say the meds never work for them, and some like me say it really helps. I think if anyone is unsure of whether they will work, just give it a try at least.