Need help with Xanax taper and advice!

[[Ma...]]

Yes I can say for most of the last month to month and a half it was pretty much .25 every 6 hours or about 1mg to 1.25mg in a 24 hour period really over the last two months since coming off of lexapro. It was usually a .25 in the mourning a .25 in the afternoon and a .25 to a .5 at night for sleep due to the horrible insomnia from and anxiety from the lexapro.... Really the extra .25 I've cut out was at night for sleep. Sometimes I would try and make it off .25 say at 10pm but then would wake up at like 3 or 4 am and have to take that extra .25 for sleep..... But in the past month as I've been experiencing more of the negative effects tolerance, dependence and w/d and was looking for answers and rehabs that would help me to a more gradual taper I went to .25 every 6 hours and then in the last week or so have tried to cut back to the .25 every 7 to 8 hours or 3 x a day. So your right between bad advice and me not knowing any better I was all over the place and didn't know what I was doing at all! I was lead to believe at first that 1mg to 1.5mg was not even a high dose and it wasn't till 4mg to 6 mg a day that you ran into trouble but boy was that not so for me! So I'm scared and I know that .25 3x a day or every 8 hours is minimum and as much as I hate the drug I don't think it would be a good idea to even attempt to go down any further right now but I'm just wandering cause like I said the seizure and psychosis and all this other stuff that can happen if you taper to fast or quit cold turkey if it's gonna keep me out of the woods and from dying or having a psychotic breakdown then ok but I'm also worried about the breathing thing really scares me and I can't tell if it's withdrawal, rebound anxiety, stress, or just long term effects of the drug so I'm just really confused and don't know what to do? So is it better to go back to .25 every 6 hours or keep it at every 8 hours but .25 in the am, .25 in the afternoon and a .5 at night does it make a difference I don't know and like I said it's hard to explain everything going on or to even know what to do? I'm sorry once again I know you probably have better things to do but it's almost like your scared to take the drug cause the adverse effects of the drug but your scared not to take it because of the dangerous w/d and I have no idea of what I'm doing at all..... I don't even understand what's the difference between tolerance w/d and dependence w/d and what signs should I look for if Its one or the other or if I'm in real danger?

[Guest [Le...]]

Yes I can say for most of the last month to month and a half it was pretty much .25 every 6 hours or about 1mg to 1.25mg in a 24 hour period really over the last two months since coming off of lexapro. It was usually a .25 in the mourning a .25 in the afternoon and a .25 to a .5 at night for sleep due to the horrible insomnia from and anxiety from the lexapro.... Really the extra .25 I've cut out was at night for sleep. Sometimes I would try and make it off .25 say at 10pm but then would wake up at like 3 or 4 am and have to take that extra .25 for sleep..... But in the past month as I've been experiencing more of the negative effects tolerance, dependence and w/d and was looking for answers and rehabs that would help me to a more gradual taper I went to .25 every 6 hours and then in the last week or so have tried to cut back to the .25 every 7 to 8 hours or 3 x a day. So your right between bad advice and me not knowing any better I was all over the place and didn't know what I was doing at all! I was lead to believe at first that 1mg to 1.5mg was not even a high dose and it wasn't till 4mg to 6 mg a day that you ran into trouble but boy was that not so for me! So I'm scared and  but I'm just wandering cause like I said the seizure and psychosis and all this other stuff that can happen if you taper to fast or quit cold turkey if it's gonna keep me out of I know that .25 3x a day or every 8 hours is minimum and as much as I hate the drug I don't think it would be a good idea to even attempt to go down any further right nowthe woods and from dying or having a psychotic breakdown then ok but I'm also worried about the breathing thing really scares me and I can't tell if it's withdrawal, rebound anxiety, stress, or just long term effects of the drug so I'm just really confused and don't know what to do? So is it better to go back to .25 every 6 hours or keep it at every 8 hours but .25 in the am, .25 in the afternoon and a .5 at night does it make a difference I don't know and like I said it's hard to explain everything going on or to even know what to do? I'm sorry once again I know you probably have better things to do but it's almost like your scared to take the drug cause the adverse effects of the drug but your scared not to take it because of the dangerous w/d and I have no idea of what I'm doing at all..... I don't even understand what's the difference between tolerance w/d and dependence w/d and what signs should I look for if Its one or the other or if I'm in real danger?

 

I'm not sure if defining the differences between tolerance and dependence will be of immediate help, but here is a link to look at some definitions:

 

  Tolerance & Relative Withdrawal

 

Meanwhile, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is try to stabilize at the minimum dose that you can tolerate, and taper down carefully from there - whether you divide it between three or four doses a day might depend on what feels the least difficult.

 

Since Xanax has a short half-life, my guess would be that it might be easier to stick to the four doses, but perhaps some Xanax taperers here on BB can join in the discussion, to helped get you started.

[[Ch...]]

Yes I can say for most of the last month to month and a half it was pretty much .25 every 6 hours or about 1mg to 1.25mg in a 24 hour period really over the last two months since coming off of lexapro. It was usually a .25 in the mourning a .25 in the afternoon and a .25 to a .5 at night for sleep due to the horrible insomnia from and anxiety from the lexapro.... Really the extra .25 I've cut out was at night for sleep. Sometimes I would try and make it off .25 say at 10pm but then would wake up at like 3 or 4 am and have to take that extra .25 for sleep..... But in the past month as I've been experiencing more of the negative effects tolerance, dependence and w/d and was looking for answers and rehabs that would help me to a more gradual taper I went to .25 every 6 hours and then in the last week or so have tried to cut back to the .25 every 7 to 8 hours or 3 x a day. So your right between bad advice and me not knowing any better I was all over the place and didn't know what I was doing at all!

 

 

It's hard to say what the insomnia and anxiety are from, the Lexapro discontinuation or Xanax issues, but either way, you have these symptoms and they are upsetting.  They are also very typical side effects and/or withdrawal symptoms and are temporary. 

 

As far as your Xanax taper... I also took Xanax (for 10 years or so) and would suggest the following: Xanax only 'works' for about 4-6 hours and then one begins to feel symptoms of withdrawal which only go away with another dose.  If I were you I would take my doses 4-6 hours apart until I felt more stable.

 

I would taper by removing 1/4 of a tablet from one of the .25mg doses.  That's .0625mg off only one dose.  The rest I would leave as is for now.  I would wait at least a week before taking .0625mg off of a different dose.

 

So, for now, I would simply do that... .0625mg (1/4 of a tablet) off of just one dose.  Wait a week, see how you're feeling.  You are likely to have insomnia, most of us do.  But it will pass with time.  It's part of the process of withdrawal.  Benzodiazepines are sedatives.

 

 

 

 

I was lead to believe at first that 1mg to 1.5mg was not even a high dose and it wasn't till 4mg to 6 mg a day that you ran into trouble but boy was that not so for me! So I'm scared and I know that .25 3x a day or every 8 hours is minimum and as much as I hate the drug I don't think it would be a good idea to even attempt to go down any further right now but I'm just wandering cause like I said the seizure and psychosis and all this other stuff that can happen if you taper to fast or quit cold turkey if it's gonna keep me out of the woods and from dying or having a psychotic breakdown then ok but I'm also worried about the breathing thing really scares me and I can't tell if it's withdrawal, rebound anxiety, stress, or just long term effects of the drug so I'm just really confused and don't know what to do? So is it better to go back to .25 every 6 hours or keep it at every 8 hours but .25 in the am, .25 in the afternoon and a .5 at night does it make a difference I don't know and like I said it's hard to explain everything going on or to even know what to do? I'm sorry once again I know you probably have better things to do but it's almost like your scared to take the drug cause the adverse effects of the drug but your scared not to take it because of the dangerous w/d and I have no idea of what I'm doing at all..... I don't even understand what's the difference between tolerance w/d and dependence w/d and what signs should I look for if Its one or the other or if I'm in real danger?

 

Whether it's tolerance (when the drug stops giving therapeutic relief) or tolerance withdrawal (next step after tolerance hits, which is to begin having withdrawal symptoms), these are both signs of a physical dependence.

 

You are not in danger, though I understand these symptoms are scary and unusual.  But it is important to get on a relatively tolerable dosing schedule and begin tapering carefully to minimize your symptoms.

 

We're here for you.    You'll be okay.

[[Ma...]]

Ok I'm new at this and I'm not sure what to do? it seems I'm showing signs of tolerance withdrawal and the interdose withdrawl or relative withdrawl and I don't really know where I'm at with this the first two months I was all over the place with it due to some bad advice I got from Doctors and my shear ignorance of the drug but normally it was 1mg-1.5mg a day over 3 to 4 doses with a brief period of about a week or less where I got a little higher to between 2 to 2.5 mg but that was not consistent.... The last two months has been pretty consistent between .75 to 1.25 a day with month 3 pretty much at 1mg or .25 4 times a day.... The last month has been back and fourth between .25 every 6 hours and .25 every four hours with the last week being right at .25 every 8 hours or 3 x a day. So not sure what to do but my pharmacist told me last week that he would have reduced the frequency first and not the dose and I went into the ER Saturday and he told me to try and stick it out at ..25 3 x day for a few more days but if it wasn't any better to go back up. So I'm scared and I don't know what I'm doing so any advice on increase or back to 1mg or staying at .75 mg and whether or not going back to 4 times a day or staying at 3 times a day would help....

[[Ma...]]

Oh and how do I find my replies or even know if anyone has replied? This is confusing?

[[Ch...]]

If you go up to where it says Hello MaizeNBlue81 and look directly underneath, you'll see the following:

 

Show unread replies since last visit.

Show new replies to your posts.

September 27, 2016.

 

Choose the one in bold.  It is a list of all the threads you've posted in.

 

I wrote a detailed post above.  Can you see it? 

 

I would disagree with the pharmacist.  I would not reduce the frequency first, I would reduce one of the doses by breaking it into fourths and throwing away one of those fourths.

[[Ma...]]

Should I stay at the .75mg but do every 6 hours instead of 8 and make the 2 middle dose a half of a .25 or go up a little bit and do every 6 hours instead of 8? It seems I may have messed myself up by coming down a whole ..25 and changing from 4 to 3 times a day or from 6 to 8 hours a day... Ok update took my night dose at 11:00 last night and then got up at 6:00 and took my mourning dose and had a bad crying spell and thoughts of not surviving this and saw my girls get out at school for prayed at the flag pole day and it just made me cry all the way home and then about 4 hours after I took it went from that to this feeling of being numb and sedated and almost like a I don't care attitude agitated and like I was losing all sense of reality and thoughts of self harm which I know are just thoughts and those seem to clear up as the drug was wearing off at the 5 or 6 hour mark but I waited till 12:00 and took my second dose and about an hour after I took it came back and and like when i picked up  my daughter to school even when I was talking to her it was almost as if I could hear myself talking but it wasn't me that was weird and took into the store and it's like I was there but not there and I have this numbness and tingling in the front of my head right above the eyes today is all this normal? Adverse effects to the drug? Signs of to fast of a taper or withdrawal? Or should I just leave things alone and this is just something we have to deal with? Just asking for advice or maybe if you experienced any of these things?