I dont know if I should taper...

[[No...]]

Hello. Ive been taking Xanax at 0.5mg on and off for over a year. Ive never taken it for longer than 3 days in a row, i sometimes go weeks without taking it or ill take one a week here and there.

 

I am currently in protracted antidepressant withdrawal and i took the xanax to help me sleep/severe anxiety/panic attacks.

 

Lately ive become extremely ill - dizzy, nausea, exhausted, severe anxiety, tremors etc - I took a xanax on saturday night, sunday i felt a bit better. I took one sunday nght and i felt better yesterday, still dizzy etc but better. Last night i didnt take one and i feel very sick again.

 

I dont know if i couldve maybe gotten dependant on them, as ive said above i didnt take them in such a way to get hooked.

 

Should i maybe start a taper just incase?

 

I dont want to feel like this anymore

 

Oh and im still severely sick at 5 years off antidepressants - Im one of the unlucky bunch of people that never seem to heal

[[Th...]]

Hard to say without knowing how much xanax you take when you take it. One option is to take it more frequently but start taking slightly lower doses which means tapering it down. Maybe you can add your signature showing drug amounts you take. It allows more precise comments.

[[No...]]

Ive never taken more than 0.5mg at a time... meaning in a day

[[No...]]

These are recent days i took them so you can see my pattern roughly. All 0.5mg

 

29 April

19 May

21 May

15 June

18 June

19 July

22 July

23 July

 

 

Those were all mostly taken when i was flying... had trips most those days and i cant fly without taking something.

 

Please help me. How do i know for sure its benzo related

[[Th...]]

Hi, I'm not expert in this one as I have't been in your situation. Maybe you can take them as earlier but reducing amount once taking them, so for example taking 0.4 instead of 0.5 and after some time taking only 0.3 and so.

 

Alternative is as you wrote prepare a tapering schedule but as you haven't taken them so often I would try to not taken them daily as even tapering will increase benzo amount in your body.

 

Hopefully you get other comments as well as here is lot of knowledgeable BB buddies.

[[NJ...]]

You are a very infrequent user. I really don't think you would need to taper. Perhaps try something natural instead to help with anxiety--yoga, meditation, etc.