0)ETA-

Ignore my above question.
Alprazolam is a long-acting benzo, like diaz.

And the 125mg (120 actually) was in reply to daz.

All benzo's are reccommended for short term use only but plenty of people take them for years and years with no intention of ever stopping, and gp's probably cant be bothered/dont have the time to get people off them.
Like you say though, if you genuinely need them, then life couldnt have been much worse before hand anyway so what does it matter.