Starting my xanax taper

[[Bn...]]

Seekingpeace your next cut is anytime. I’m rooting for you any information you are willing to share with me. I’m following you. Thanks so much for putting your taper in here.

[[Se...]]

Been a little while since I posted. This was a little harder month of cuts for me. I did stick to it and make a small cut each week. I am now on half a .25 pill four times a day. I may hold here a little bit. Anxiety has crept back into my life. I had days at work when I had the feeling I needed to escape. Felt dizzy. Heart palpitations.

 

Right now I am not sure I will be completely Xanax free. .5 a day is a heck of a lot better than I was 13 months ago at 6 mg. I have to be able to work. Having a meltdown is not an option in my life. See how it goes on the .5 for a bit. Hopefully I will even out.

[[Su...]]

Been a little while since I posted. This was a little harder month of cuts for me. I did stick to it and make a small cut each week. I am now on half a .25 pill four times a day. I may hold here a little bit. Anxiety has crept back into my life. I had days at work when I had the feeling I needed to escape. Felt dizzy. Heart palpitations.

 

Right now I am not sure I will be completely Xanax free. .5 a day is a heck of a lot better than I was 13 months ago at 6 mg. I have to be able to work. Having a meltdown is not an option in my life. See how it goes on the .5 for a bit. Hopefully I will even out.

Slow and steady wins this turtle race... actually slow with holds wins the race!

Glad you got that so early in your taper..... took me awhile to learn!

😆 👍🏻

SS

[[Se...]]

It’s been close to a month. Time for an update. Still holding at .5. I feel alright taking this dose now. Probably time for a tiny cut.  Weight continued to rise, started a low carb diet last week. That is going well so far. Difficult to tackle two problems at once but the weight is out of control. I cannot keep going to carbs and sugar for my comfort. I hope I can super slow cut and diet, time will tell.

 

Hope everyone is doing well on their personal journeys.

[[Bn...]]

I’m rooting for you out here. I don’t know a lot about your story since I caught you at the tail end of your taper.

 

Good luck. Let me know.

 

Kristin

[[Se...]]

Ended up doing a .0625 cut last week from the morning dose. This week went pretty good. A bit of dizziness on several occasions. Dizziness typically cause panic for me but just kept telling myself I was ok and got through it without any major anxiety attacks. I am going to hold this dose for another week. If I still feel ok plan is to cut another .0625 next week, probably from the bedtime dose.

 

[[Bn...]]

Are you still doing multiple dosing times?  I am so glad you are back. Glad you stabilized.

 

I had my first super rough cut. This last one. Ouch. I had already planned a hold. Thankfully

[[Se...]]

Still dosing 4 x a day. Cut .0625 today, so my current schedule is 9am .0625, 1pm .125, 6pm .125, 11:30pm .0625. So my larger doses during the workday, my most stressful time. Still taking the magnesium, I really feel like that has helped me.

 

This week I have felt really good. Better than I have in maybe years. I am eating low carb no sugar. Oddly to me that has helped me feel sooo much better, even though I am eating less. I really turned to food for the last 10 months or so, particularly carbs and sugar. I was really feeling lousy every day. I sure hope this great feeling of wellness continues.

 

I feel very encouraged to continue with my cuts, probably every two weeks. No need to rush, been at this more than a year. What’s a few more months lol.

 

I encourage anyone that is starting out or going through a rough patch to hang in there, it will get better.

[[Bn...]]

Hi there,

 

I had my first icky cut last week.  Got like allergies or something.  In the morning my nose runs, this happens everyday anyway, but after last Tuesdays cut it got really icky.  Felt like withdrawal like my body was dumping junk.  But it  has kept ongoing,  feels like  allergies but its  mostly in the am.

 

I do think its withdrawal.  So I am holding at 2.5 mgs until I feel better.

 

I am not dealing with much anxiety or rage.  My issue is being dizzy.  Having stomach issues daily, just in the morning (loose stools ick).  Of course tinnitus like its on steroids.  Doable though.

 

I just want to be off this yucky drug.

 

Thanks seakingpeace I am  even dosing at the same time as you except i take my 4th dose at 9pm.

 

Kristin

[[Se...]]

Back to report another cut. As usual feeling reluctant to do this. My morning and evening doses are so tiny now, a quarter of a .25 pill. I am eliminating the last dose at night, .0625. It doesn’t help me sleep. It has no purpose. That’s not a time of stress for me. Trying not to overthink this, just do it. I will take two magnesium at bedtime.

 

This is the first scheduled dose I have eliminated, not sure how it’s going to go. Now on three doses a day. .0625 in the morning, .125 around noon, and .125 around 5pm. Anxiety at home does not scare me. Panic and anxiety during work does. I am very reluctant to cut the noon and 5pm doses.

 

Last two cuts I have done have not been easy. But it has gotten better after about 10 days.

 

Wishing everyone strength and success, we can beat this!

[[Bn...]]

Seakingpeace

 

You are rocking your taper. Hope this sounds ok but I’m proud of you.

 

I don’t have a lot of mental anxiety. It’s the physical part that bugs me. Taking lots of baths as magnesium isn’t ok for me to use due to intestinal issues.

 

I thought about the future yesterday and what it would be like to elimate our first dose.

 

Please keep in touch on that one.

 

I’m curious. Do you have a plan on what amount you will jump from?

[[Se...]]

Seakingpeace

 

You are rocking your taper. Hope this sounds ok but I’m proud of you.

 

I don’t have a lot of mental anxiety. It’s the physical part that bugs me. Taking lots of baths as magnesium isn’t ok for me to use due to intestinal issues.

 

I thought about the future yesterday and what it would be like to elimate our first dose.

 

Please keep in touch on that one.

 

I’m curious. Do you have a plan on what amount you will jump from?

 

Thank you, I appreciate your praise. A lot of people have no idea how difficult it is to get off this medication, and keep at it for months turning into years.

 

My first dose elimination went very well. At .0625 I don’t really feel like it is doing anything, and I cut my morning dose today. So I am down to just two doses a day, half a .25 just before work and half a .25 midway through my shift. Next step will be reducing these to quarter pill and once down to just a single dose of a quarter pill my current plan is to jump. Might happen as soon as a month or six weeks from now. Hard to believe!

 

I went to my doctor today and he gave me prescription for my next challenge, and that is to start cutting the Zoloft. Plan to go slow on that as well.

[[Se...]]

Another tiny cut today. I am now on two doses, .0625 (1/4of a .25 pill) and .125 (half a .25 pill). All these months of tiny cuts has lead me here, almost done!  Last week cutting the first dose of the day did not really bother me. I felt a tiny bit of nervousness a couple of times.

 

I feel like the change in diet - eliminating sugar, most carbs and the diet soda has helped. Along with just going slow and steady. 

 

I wish everyone strength in your journey.

[[Bn...]]

Wow. You are almost done. So exciting. So you’ll jump from a quarter of a quarter.

 

I’m going to try to follow. Might do half of a quarter.

 

Let me know. I’m here. Watching. Cutting behind you. Thanks for leading us.

 

Kristin

[[Bn...]]

Hey seakingpeace

 

How are you?  Ive cut my dose again. Im so curious how you are doing.

 

Hope it’s wonderful.

 

Kristin

[[Se...]]

I am doing great!  Cut on the 14th, now .625 twice a day. Very tempting to jump. At this low dose I don’t really feel like I need this medication anymore. I will continue on at my snails pace and finish it out as planned, cut a dose next week and jump the week after. That’s the current plan.

 

I have cut my Zoloft and the has been easy. Started at 100 now at 75.

 

I don’t need these medications any longer, and I feel great!

[[Bn...]]

Seakingpeace

 

I  am SO HAPPY for you.  That is awesome.  I am so glad I got here in time to watch you come to this point and soon off,  I am excited for you.  I feel like I am doing really well too. 

 

Can't wait to be off, but I have some time.  We shall see.  So  glad you are doing  great. 

 

Happy Dance..

Kristin

[[Ho...]]

Wow your story is incredible.

[[Bn...]]

Seakingpeace how are you?  Thinking of you

 

Kristin

[[Se...]]

Hi Kristen, doing excellent - cut my second to last dose yesterday. I don’t need this stuff anymore, i feel so much better. Tempted to just cut the last dose but I will go ahead and finish out the week. Maybe 6 more days on Xanax!  The past six weeks or so I have also cut my Zoloft in half. That one is much easier to cut than Xanax.

 

It has taken me more than a year, but I see the end of Xanax in my near future.

 

Anyone reading this and struggling just make the small cuts that you can easily tolerate and eventually all those tiny cuts are going to add up and you will be done with Xanax. Persistence and patience will pay off.

[[Ma...]]

Kristin and Benzo 8 As a person hoping to start my taper soon from 1 mg or less Xanax for 7 years why you chose to stay on Xanax and not crossover to Valium? No judgement on my part, I certainly am way too much of a newbie to really have an opinion.

[[Bn...]]

Matt - when I decided time to taper. I waited for 2 months for my doctors to work out a plan. On February 22nd my psychiatrist fired me. She wasn’t my original prescriber. That day I did my first cut. I knew since I live in a very rural town and all the psychos are intertwined i knew Valium cross wasn’t going to happen. I started searching for others. Once I found them. I felt better. I’ve come down a lot. I’m kinda glad now. It wasn’t a choice.

 

Kristin

[[Ov...]]

My PDoc did the same thing when I mentioned I wanted off. He scribbled out 25% reduction per week for Xanax and said "There ya go." with a smirk. I inquired about the Valium crossover to which he said, "I thought you wanted off benzos? No, you don't need Valium to stop Xanax. You said you wanted off, there you go. Do it!".  And....I did. All the way through the last appointment I had with the guy he maintained that "Benzo withdrawal will only cause flu like symptoms in high dose / long term use patients for a couple of days." He swore by that belief.

[[Bn...]]

How are you doing?  You jump? 

 

Kristin

[[Se...]]

I jumped!!  This past week was a bit more difficult, don’t think it had much to do with decreasing Xanax more to do with personal relationships and work!  Very stressful and I did experience some fairly significant anxiety. But I did not need to turn to Xanax.

 

Not cutting the Zoloft this week, holding that med for another week.

 

Going forward I will be keeping Xanax in the med cabinet I guess just as a security thing knowing it’s there if I really NEED it, but I never plan on taking it on a schedule just to deal with everyday life.  And certainly not to sleep!  Hard to believe it’s prescribed for that. It took me a year and a half to get completely off it.

 

I feel alright, glad to be done with the beast lol!