I have been having severe anxiety due to my fathers' death and have been prescribed xanax. Is this safe?

I am not on any prescription meds, don't drink or smoke eat healthy, am not overweight, etc. My dad died recently, and i have been really stressed out helping take care of my mom. yesterday my blood pressure was 146/94. 150/100, 146/98, etc. according to my mom's portable home bp machine (my mom checked hers and it was normal according to the machine). i do not have hypertension normally. I went to a dr. (my normal dr. is on vacation) and he prescribed .5 mg of xanax to take twice a day. he did blood tests but said that he though that everything was most likely normal, that my bp was rising because of stress and possible panic atacks. my bp at the drs. office was 116/80. I have been taking the xanax for the past day, but i have read about about it and it is scary to me. the dr. stressed that i really need it, at least for a little while. will this be safe to take until next week when i see my actual dr.? I am hoping that he can prescribe something safer.