it's going to be ok - off xanax after 17 years

[[mo...]]

Hello from Romania - Eastern Europe. I am 46, female. I took xanax 0,5 - 1 mg daily for almost 17 years at bedtime. In march I experienced loud awful tinnitus in my left year. 2 weeks later I was rushed to the ER with sudden high blood pressure (in spite of not having either hypertension or other heart problems). Some days later I felt really anxious, my thoughts were running inside my head, I was trembling for no particular reason, my muscles contracted on my legs and on my back.

After a lot of medical check-ups (ENT, cardio, brain MRI), a psychiatrist diagnosed me with GAD (general anxiety disorder), put me on escitalopram and replaced xanax with bromazepam - a similar benzo, less potent but with higher halftime. The bromazepam, then, was tapered within a 4-6 weeks (from 6 mg -0). I stopped bromazepam on 5-th June. Very quick, but I didn't know that at the moment.

Of course I experienced withdrawal - first time when the doc replaced the xanax with bromazepam, for about 2-3 weeks, and when stopping the bromazepam - I would say more symptoms but less aggressive.

The symptoms peaked within 4-8 days after stopping and then they begin to fade away. They are not completely gone but they are manageable.

The symptoms that still bother me are: tinnitus - less annoying but still present; insomnia - this is the worst symptom at the moment; anxiety - some days better; muscle spasm on back, neck, jaw in the evening; foggy brain - sometime better/ sometime I can hardly read especially figures, spreadsheets. But I feel that is better than acute and I have patience to heal.

So, I really hope I'll be better and better each day and I wish good luck and good health to everyone here!

 

[[Pa...]]

Hello mouse31, welcome to BenzoBuddies,

 

Oh my, you've tapered off of these medications rather quickly, but at least you're benzo free now!  Its good to hear you've seen some improvement but it takes a long time to completely recover from this experience and our healing isn't linear.  We feel okay one day, then the next we get hit with symptoms, its so frustrating.

 

I'll provide some links to help you navigate the forum but we're glad you found us, we share many of your same symptoms and concerns so make yourself at home and ask questions if you have them.

 

Pamster

 

The Ashton Manual

 

Post-withdrawal Recovery Support

 

[[co...]]

I have been on Xanax for 17 years too!  It's good to hear you are off now and healing!

 

All the best to you!!