Xanax (alprazolam) binds to GABAA receptors in the brain. This is one activity of this drug which helps inhibit abnormal brain activity.
This is a very precise process that is hard to explain by the average person. It can be equally as hard for the average person reading this to understand.
Your doctor or psychiatrist can further explain the process by which this medication works. However, for the time being the very short introduction to the brain activity that is altered by using alprazolam is as described above.
The overall goal of this benzodiazepine class drug is simply to correct flaws in the central nervous system. This helps bring a person back to a normal state of being.
As a result, a person is usually then calmer. A person might even be sedated and then is easier able to fall asleep, or convulsive activity of epileptic seizures is stopped.