Was using xanax daily for three weeks. Can I quit cold turkey?

[[he...]]

My friend was giving me Xanax to use and I have been using for about three weeks. What I thought was a low dose was actually not low at all. At first I was using .5 mg xanax a day and worked my way up to 4mg of xanax a day. I am getting tired of it and have not taken any for the last 12 hours. Can I continue to Cold Turkey the Xanax and not look back at it or must I taper? If i taper I can only get about 10mg in the bars that all I can get. I used Xanax prior to this but not for three weeks straight. When I don't use for 24 hours my body start to ache and my mind feels fuzzy

[[be...]]

You will likely feel pretty miserable, especially during the acute period, which on average lasts about a month. Four mg is a very large dose. Xanax is ten times stronger than Valium.  You are fortunate that your use was short. They really are meant to take for 14 days or less for a variety of reasons.  Xanax has a very short half life so symptoms come on pretty quickly. Who may consider trying a rapid taper over the next week.

[[he...]]

Should I do a rapid taper? or will that prolong the withdrawal? I am confused but I know after 24 hours I do not feel right at all

[[Tr...]]

My advice is you're better off doing a rapid taper over 1-2 weeks. I tried a CT after two weeks of 1mg/day of Klonopin and it was the most panic inducing event of my life. I wound up going back on a low dosage and tapering for a month.

 

I'd say you could start your taper at a much lower dose than you are at now. That said, I don't have experience with Xanax so what do I know!

[[he...]]

should I do like .25 every 12 hours or how does this work? I can't get enough for a super long taper like I have read in these post

[[Tr...]]

I'm not sure. You have a unique situation in that you weren't prescribed the Xanax, so you can't go back to a doctor. There are plenty of sample tapers on the boards here. You may need to do some math to calculate how much you have left and how to taper.

[[un...]]

In my experience Valium or Rivotril can be very useful in situations like yours. The half life of Xanax is 11 hours, that means you at this point still have a lot of it in your system even if you can't feel it. Valium and Rivotril are long-acting benzos which means they will keep your blood levels more stable and decrease slow enough to keep your body from aching and mind feeling fuzzy. If you need to use the 10mg of Xanax you could get my choice would be to taper fast. Use as little as you can, just enough so that it's manageable and taper off the next few days.

 

Good luck!

[[be...]]

You should get some Valium ASAP. 20mg is probably enough to avoid the aching and fuzzy feeling. The half life of xanax is approx 12 hours, that means you still have a lot of it in your system. Valium which is a long-acting benzo will make your blood levels decrease much slower and hopefully keep you from feeling any discomfort.

 

 

Cross overs are  typically done when one is having difficulty tapering off their own benzodiazepine. It also takes some time to cross over to Valium.  Three weeks use would be considered short term use.  Personally if it was me I would do a very rapid taper of a week or less on the Xanax.

[[be...]]

You should get some Valium ASAP. 20mg is probably enough to avoid the aching and fuzzy feeling. The half life of xanax is approx 12 hours, that means you still have a lot of it in your system. Valium which is a long-acting benzo will make your blood levels decrease much slower and hopefully keep you from feeling any discomfort.

 

You may share you own experiences but you can not give medical advice. The poster does not need to get Valium as soon as possible. Also, you can not tell another member what dose to take. Xanax has a very short half life. How does that equate into "having a lot in your system?", when it leaves your system more quickly than a  longer acting benzodiazepine? It is the reason why symptoms come on more quickly for shorter acting benzodiazepines.

[[lo...]]

like people said, you might get hit with panic attacks and other pleasant w/d symptoms.

I was on xanax for 1 month before switching to K. if i could redo everything from the point where I took my last dose xanax, I would have switched to 1:1 clonazepam, and did a rapid taper from that.

 

 

[[un...]]

Xanax has a very short half life. How does that equate into "having a lot in your system?", when it leaves your system more quickly than a  longer acting benzodiazepine? It is the reason why symptoms come on more quickly for shorter acting benzodiazepines.

I wrote that xanax has a half life of approx 12 hours, and I don't agree with describing its half life as very short. Even though xanax has a short half life it will still build up in the system.

[[he...]]

It's been three days since my last dose almost four and I not feeling well. My muscles ache and I have a lot of anxiety or panic attacks. Since it was a short time of usage will it let up in a week? I don't think I should use anymore since its been almost 4 days it should be out of my system or clearing out by now?

[[he...]]

on day 2 and early this morning I took a couple norco and it helped ease the withdrawals but when it wears off I get more anxiety for an hour. Not sure if its worth it to take more

[[Wi...]]

DONT do any more xanax! At four days out you should only be a few days out from feeling decent. Ive had numerous 2-4 week habits thru the years and would normally do like a quick 4 day detox which made it bearable. U have four days off so it would be idiotic to start again over using for three weeks. U lucked out-stay off this poison.