Looking for Buddies - LT High dose Xanax direct taper 1/2 way there!

[[Ji...]]

Hey everyone, just checking in. Still chugging along at now 0.5mg so pretty happy about that. I had a pretty upsetting day yesterday but did heavy breathing and calmed myself right down. As I taper I’m really learning about what helps me in certain situations and I’m fairly sure that this is the key for when I’m completely off Xanax. I wish it didn’t take all of this crap to get here but I’m happy nonetheless. 

[[Lo...]]

Hey everyone, just checking in. Still chugging along at now 0.5mg so pretty happy about that. I had a pretty upsetting day yesterday but did heavy breathing and calmed myself right down. As I taper I’m really learning about what helps me in certain situations and I’m fairly sure that this is the key for when I’m completely off Xanax. I wish it didn’t take all of this crap to get here but I’m happy nonetheless.

 

  Wishing you continued success in your taper!  Nice going!

 

Fondly,

Lori

[[Lo...]]

Hello all!

 

Well... Not great.  I've come to realize that I never truly stabilized on 1.5 before going down to 1.35.  It's been a horrible few weeks with symptoms being constant.  Granted, I'm sure that some of it is psychological but there's no way that all of it could be.  I had done well in the past with stabilizing a few days after a reduction.  I'm starting to see that at lower doses, the reductions can hit hard.  Maybe it's also because I've been on this for 20 years.  Who knows!  However, just one day of an updose and 80% of my symptoms went away!  That tells me something.  I guess the concept of "listening to your body" is pretty accurate!

 

So my plan is to go back to 1.5 and stabilize!  After that, I'm going to attempt a DLMT.  I originally was going to wait to try this when I reached 1 mg but I think it's probably worth it to give it a try since these cuts are really affecting me.  I was literally housebound for 2 weeks and cannot do that again.  It was a nightmare! 

 

Hope all are doing well and I'll keep you posted.

 

Fondly,

Lori

[[Ho...]]

I came back from my trip to Paris! My dosing was kind of erratic on my trip. The first 2 days I would forget so symptoms ramped up on third day. I just decided on the trip I would take whatever I want and deal when I came home. So I might have taken 1 to 1.5 mg a day on my trip.

 

Now I'm home, and stabilizing on 0.5 mg a day. I will start my DLMT in a day or two. Right now I'm taking a quarter of a 0.5 mg tablet 4 times a day. But those quarter pieces are all different sizes I can tell.

 

My head feels foggy, but that's probably jetlag. I hope anyway.

[[Ji...]]

Hi Hope- I hope things are going well!  You were there for me from the beginning so sending good vibes your way.  Every cut I’ve made has made me stronger and built my confidence... I’ve come to terms with that feeling symptoms is part of this process and overcoming them is extremely satisfying.

 

Again, I’m a short term user but I’m still happy with my progress no matter how slow or fast I’ve been able to do this.

[[to...]]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is hanging in there today!

 

Hi Lori - sorry you have been having such terrible symptoms.  I think it was a smart move to go back up to 1.5.  I know you are going through alot and I hope you know I am thinking about you!!!

 

I had my CT scan down last week and WOW - that sucked - the test was OK but the findings are really upsetting me, they found I have heart disease, a fatty liver, arthritis in my lower back and a cyst on my kidney.  Having a colonoscopy and endoscopy on Thursday and I am really anxious about that!  Just trying to hang in there.  Had planned to make a cut but am going to wait until I get through this.

 

Take care,

Julia

[[Ho...]]

Jimber - thanks for the encouragement. I switched to liquid 3 days ago and plan on starting my every so painfully slow taper tomorrow.

 

tolnbltp  - CT scans never look OK. They always find something, and they list everything they find. Talk to your doctor about the significance of the findings in the report. The report is simply that, a report of what they found. The next step is to interpret it. I get CT and PET scans all the time since I had cancer 3 years ago (all clear now). I remember the first ones after I finished chemo, and they were really disappointing. I was expecting a "nothing's there you're all clear!" but that's not how they work. The scans are interpreted for findings, and then the findings have to be interpreted. What's nice about have a series of scans over the years is you see what things are important to look at and what are not important to look at. The minor COPD in my lungs that developed from chemo soon went away. That calcifications in heart arteries disappeared too. The cyst-y looking things that pop up in some scans disappear in others, or they don't get bigger (that's the main worry), or are otherwise clinically unimportant because they don't affect anything and aren't painful. So what if they're there.

[[to...]]

Hi everyone,

Hope things are improving for everyone - that is the hope every day!

 

HopeToDoThis - Thank you for the encouragement, that did help me alot.  My doctor did go over everything with me and said she did not feel anything needed to be addressed right now except she wants to put me on statins because of the plague in my arteries.  I am looking up everything I can in order to do this without taking any new meds as I am so allergic to meds since 2 1/2 years ago when I was taken off Xanax and Ativan cold turkey.  I get really anxious when a doctor says I need to take a medicine because in the last two years I have become allergic to multiple meds that have caused Anaphylaxis.  I can not even take prednisone now as it too is a drug I am allergic to.  I did find that there are alot of foods that can clean your arteries too and I am going to try that.

 

But - I am glad that your cancer is gone and you are better.  I know once we are off this horrible Xanax, we will all be better and full of life - that is what I keep telling myself because I believe it.

 

I am still having the stomach issues which is why my doc had me do a CT scan.  I have had one done every year since 2015 for one reason or another.  This one showed more than any other.  That is why it concerned me so much.  I am having a colonoscopy and endoscopy on Thursday so hopefully that will give us some answers.  Also, I do think part of this may be from the Xanax and the taper.  We will see....

 

I hope everyone has a good day!

 

Take care,

Julia

[[Lo...]]

Hi everyone,

Hope things are improving for everyone - that is the hope every day!

 

HopeToDoThis - Thank you for the encouragement, that did help me alot.  My doctor did go over everything with me and said she did not feel anything needed to be addressed right now except she wants to put me on statins because of the plague in my arteries.  I am looking up everything I can in order to do this without taking any new meds as I am so allergic to meds since 2 1/2 years ago when I was taken off Xanax and Ativan cold turkey.  I get really anxious when a doctor says I need to take a medicine because in the last two years I have become allergic to multiple meds that have caused Anaphylaxis.  I can not even take prednisone now as it too is a drug I am allergic to.  I did find that there are alot of foods that can clean your arteries too and I am going to try that.

 

But - I am glad that your cancer is gone and you are better.  I know once we are off this horrible Xanax, we will all be better and full of life - that is what I keep telling myself because I believe it.

 

I am still having the stomach issues which is why my doc had me do a CT scan.  I have had one done every year since 2015 for one reason or another.  This one showed more than any other.  That is why it concerned me so much.  I am having a colonoscopy and endoscopy on Thursday so hopefully that will give us some answers.  Also, I do think part of this may be from the Xanax and the taper.  We will see....

 

I hope everyone has a good day!

 

Take care,

Julia

 

Julia, Thinking of you and praying all went well with your tests!  Haven't been able to type.  Tendonitis in my wrist! UGH!  Hope the procedure went smoothly.  Again, you've been in my thoughts and prayers.  Keep us posted!

 

Fondly,

Lori

[[to...]]

Hi All,

I hope things are going well for everyone today. 

 

Well - my prep day was a disaster.  I started the prep and did everything like I was supposed to ALL day.  I started the prep - yuck - and after 2 hours I started vomiting like there was no tomorrow.  I also was not going to the bathroom hardly at all so the prep was sitting in my stomach and my stomach was hurting so bad and was so bloated.  I knew something was wrong.  My husband told me to stop drinking it as I only drank half of the gallon.

 

After I started throwing up, I got a little relief from my stomach.  I was going to the bathroom but it was nothing like it was supposed to be.  I finally called the doctor on call and he called me and said I must have had an allergic reaction to the prep meds and told me not to drink anymore of it.  He asked if I was able to drink water and I told him yes and he told me to keep drinking water and hopefully that would make me go.  I stayed up until almost midnight but still did not go much.  I got up at 4:45 am and we went to the hospital to do the testing.

 

I told the nurses what had happened and they said they may still be able to do the test.  Fortunately I had only had clear liquids the day before and the day before that had not eaten that much so they were able to do the colonoscopy and the endoscopy.  When the nurse went to put the IV in, I told her not to put it on top of my hand as I have issues with that so she ended up putting it on my wrist right where my hand and wrist meet.  Well - that was a mistake too as it hurt the whole time it was in and it is still hurting - swollen and there was a large knot there when they took it out and it was bleeding really bad.

 

But anyway, the doctor found and removed 4 7-8 mm polys from my large intestine and 1 polyp from my esophagus.  The report says I have gastritis and now the doctor wants me to do a X-ray of my small intestine with the barium.  I do not think that I am going to be able to swallow that as I am scared to death I will have a reaction to that too.  I do not know what the hell I am going to do about that.  I am going to research and see if there is another way to do the test.

 

So - it went bad all the way around.  Once we left I did not even want to eat.  I went to bed as soon as we got home and slept for 6 hours.  When I got up I still did not want anything to eat but knew I needed to so I had a plain cheese sandwich.  Later I ate a little more.

 

Since I threw up so much the day before - I had taken my 4:30 dose of Xanax and I know I threw that up too so at 6:30 I took a partial dose and then my regular dose at 8:45.  Then yesterday I was off with my dosing because I was up so early and then slept so long so I am not feeling good at all today. 

 

I am trying to get back on track with my dosage and the times today.  We shall see how it goes.  We are expecting terrible storms today and I am terrified of storms so I am not a happy camper today!!!!!

 

So here is to hoping everyone is having a better time of it than I am right now.  :'(

 

[[Te...]]

Hello all!

 

Well... Not great.  I've come to realize that I never truly stabilized on 1.5 before going down to 1.35.  It's been a horrible few weeks with symptoms being constant.  Granted, I'm sure that some of it is psychological but there's no way that all of it could be.  I had done well in the past with stabilizing a few days after a reduction.  I'm starting to see that at lower doses, the reductions can hit hard.  Maybe it's also because I've been on this for 20 years.  Who knows!  However, just one day of an updose and 80% of my symptoms went away!  That tells me something.  I guess the concept of "listening to your body" is pretty accurate!

 

So my plan is to go back to 1.5 and stabilize!  After that, I'm going to attempt a DLMT.  I originally was going to wait to try this when I reached 1 mg but I think it's probably worth it to give it a try since these cuts are really affecting me.  I was literally housebound for 2 weeks and cannot do that again.  It was a nightmare! 

 

Hope all are doing well and I'll keep you posted.

 

Fondly,

Lori

 

Hi Lori,

 

I fully understand not stabilizing and having to up dose, I know all about tapering down from a high dose of Xanax,

I hope you're feeling better now, it looks like you're tapering again, and so am I, wishing you the best health.

 

Kindest Regards

Terry

[[Po...]]

I'm tapering xanax. It was going pretty well till last weekend. I updosed to one quarter of a 0.5 mg tablet on Sunday and Monday, and all my sumptoms disappeared. So I'm trying to stabilize on 0.125mg for a bit. I have a weeklong trip to Paris in 3 weeks. I was to be hoping to be done with all this by the time of my Paris trip, but that seems out of the question now. So maybe I'll just hold at a quarter of a pill per day.

 

Hello Hope,

I had the project of this trip to the US, with my tickets and hotel reservations already paid, and I was so concerned as I was afraid of feeling bad away from home (Argentina).

So I left, because of that and also my wife's pressure to go...

And I can tell you that I was so surprised about being distracted and happy of being abroad with friends, that it gave me the courage also to jump...without any doubt of what I was doing, I had the strength to do it!!!

Obviously I had some symptoms, that affected me mostly when I returned home. And they still do...

But that's OK. I am now in a different phase of my healing process: dealing with my symptoms, but away from the pills!!!

Maybe you can do it too...and Paris is such a beautiful city and with so many things to do, that will give you enough distractions to leave your self-awareness back home!

 

Rodolfo!  Such wonderful news that you were able to jump.  So happy for you!.  I hope you don't mind a question.  On your sig line you  have ll the cuts you made.  Can I ask how you made them that small? They are tiny near the end and I need to know how to do that.

 

Thank you and best wishes.

 

[[Lo...]]

Hello all!

 

Well... Not great.  I've come to realize that I never truly stabilized on 1.5 before going down to 1.35.  It's been a horrible few weeks with symptoms being constant.  Granted, I'm sure that some of it is psychological but there's no way that all of it could be.  I had done well in the past with stabilizing a few days after a reduction.  I'm starting to see that at lower doses, the reductions can hit hard.  Maybe it's also because I've been on this for 20 years.  Who knows!  However, just one day of an updose and 80% of my symptoms went away!  That tells me something.  I guess the concept of "listening to your body" is pretty accurate!

 

So my plan is to go back to 1.5 and stabilize!  After that, I'm going to attempt a DLMT.  I originally was going to wait to try this when I reached 1 mg but I think it's probably worth it to give it a try since these cuts are really affecting me.  I was literally housebound for 2 weeks and cannot do that again.  It was a nightmare! 

 

Hope all are doing well and I'll keep you posted.

 

Fondly,

Lori

 

Hi Lori,

 

I fully understand not stabilizing and having to up dose, I know all about tapering down from a high dose of Xanax,

I hope you're feeling better now, it looks like you're tapering again, and so am I, wishing you the best health.

 

Kindest Regards

Terry

 

Thanks, Terry!  Ugh.  It was a rough few days but today is "finally" better!  Sleep is a bit crappy but I'll deal with it.  At this point I feel like I'm back on a mission like I was earlier in my taper.  I honestly believe that I let my mind get the best of me.  I was so sick with a cold, which turned into a sinus infection.... the list goes on for 2 months and got discouraged because during that time I had to put my taper on hold.  I was just too sick physically.  I beat myself up over it like a lunatic which is so ridiculous!  As if it was my my fault that I caught a cold? 

 

Hope you're doing well and thanks again for the support!

 

Fondly,

 

Lori

[[Lo...]]

Hi All,

I hope things are going well for everyone today. 

 

Well - my prep day was a disaster.  I started the prep and did everything like I was supposed to ALL day.  I started the prep - yuck - and after 2 hours I started vomiting like there was no tomorrow.  I also was not going to the bathroom hardly at all so the prep was sitting in my stomach and my stomach was hurting so bad and was so bloated.  I knew something was wrong.  My husband told me to stop drinking it as I only drank half of the gallon.

 

Oh, Julia!  I'm so sorry!  Sounds like you really had a rough time.  I apologize profusely that I haven't responded.  Today is the first day that my wrist is able to type.  I feel terrible that you went through such a horrible ordeal.  I can't even begin to image.  I truly hope that you're feeling better now.  Not medical advice at all... just a suggestion based on my own issues which we've talked about from last year when I was dealing with my Mom's medical crisis as well as my recent 2 month hold for an ilness... if you have to hold, by all means, do so!  I've learned the hard way that life can throw you some curves that you have no control over.  But what you can control is your taper and the amount you reduce.  As we talked about, you have NO reason to put a date/deadline on this.  Hence, take your time. 

 

Please know that I'm thinking of you.  In my heart I know you'll be fine.  Hang in there, girlfriend.  You're going to be fine!

 

Love,

Lori

[[Lo...]]

Just checking in. Thread is very quiet these days.  Hope all are doing well!

 

Lori

[[Ji...]]

Just checking in. Thread is very quiet these days.  Hope all are doing well!

 

Lori

Hi Lori- I’ve been fairly quiet on the boards lately but still checking in from time to time. I’m down to 0.25 and will be making another cut tonight. My doc moved me down to 0.25mg pills which has made thing simpler but I’m debating if I should knock down to 0.125mg tonight or just take 25% off. I’ll see how I feel later tonight.

 

Hope you’ve been doing well!

[[to...]]

Thanks Lori - I am hanging in there.  I posted on the other board too.

 

Hope everyone is doing ok today.

 

 

[[to...]]

Hello all,

 

Doing a cut today to 2.25 mg Xanax.  I hope I do ok.  Trying to be positive.  It has been a month since my last cut.  I hope doing .25 mg cuts is not too much.  I started this in January and was at 3.5 mg when I started.  Have been doing ok for the most part but had some issues related to health and my husband's health so have not gone as fast as I wanted to on this taper journey.

 

If anyone has any advice or thinks I am going to fast or making to large of cuts, please share with me.  I am not good at figuring out the percentages.  I have no idea if this is a 10% cut or more.

 

Thanks for any help with this.

 

Julia

Modify message

 

[[Ho...]]

Your cut from 2.5 to 2.25 is a 10% cut.

 

A cut from 2.25 to 2.00 would be an 11% cut.

 

A cut from 2.00 to 1.75 would be a 12.5% cut.

 

A cut from 1.75 to 1.50 would be a 14% cut. You'll probably want to start making your cuts smaller at this point.

[[to...]]

Hi HopeToDoThis,

 

Thank you so much.  How often do you think I should do those cuts?  Was cutting once a month and then once at 14 days and did ok other than some health issues and also every cut, after a couple days, I feel tired and have headaches and just do not feel good but then go back to feeling ok.

 

I was also thinking that once I got below 2.00 that I may want to do smaller cuts but not sure how as I am using the .5 mg pills now.  I guess it would be best at that point to cut a quarter of a .5 but that is going to be hard to do as the pills are small. 

 

I would like to do cuts every 14 to 20 days but do not know if that if advisable.  Any advice on that?

 

Thanks - hope you and everyone here is having a decent day!

 

Julia

[[Ho...]]

I am doing the daily liquid micro taper. Much easier than cutting pills. Look around on the "Titration Taper Plans" board for advice on that. If your cuts are causing minimal symptoms now you can keep doing that until the symptoms get too hard to deal with.

[[to...]]

Thanks alot, I will do that.  So far I am having minimal symptoms but we all know that can change overnight.  Trying to be positive and hope for the best.

[[to...]]

following

[[Ji...]]

Hi everyone!  Hope things are going as well as they can be.

 

Anyway, I worked my way down to 0.125mg and decided to try to jump last night. I didn’t hold myself to it since I know I’ve done a rapid taper but I’ve been falling asleep on the couch before I even get to bed (insomnia was the reason for this mess) the last couple nights so I wanted to see how it would go.

 

Well, I’ve been using a CPAP machine for the last year and a half and of course the night I try to jump is when it decides to lose it’s seal and it kept me awake even after passing out for 20 minutes on the couch.  It’s frustrating since I did well staying calm and almost pulled it off. I decided to take 0.0625mg and some more Remeron which did the trick after I was able to fix my machine.

 

My question is, at what point have people been able to jump?  Was I crazy to try 0.125?  I know it’s variable but just trying to get a feel for what other people have seen work. I’ve tried searching but it’s a mess because “Xanax” and “jump” are in practically every post. Also, I read that 0.5mg of V is the normal jumping off point but I can’t get a firm number of what that equals for X. Some sites say it’s 1mg of X equals 10mg of V but then there’s a range that could almost double that.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[[la...]]

1 mg of V = .05 of X

 

I've heard Bella Amis say time and time again she(?) would have jumped off 1mg of V instead of .5 if she had it to do over again as there was no difference after all was said and done.

 

You are at the finish line! Congrats!!!