Xanax Withdrawal

[[Mi...]]

Hello everyone,

 

I’m currently going through Xanax withdrawal. I was on them for about 10 months every night at .5mg’s. I began my taper two months ago. I didn’t know anything about tapering (like most people I’m sure), so I went cold turkey for a week. Then I went back on at .25mg’s. Went off again for a week, then back on. After that I tried to take them down to half of .25mg’s for 2 and a half weeks. I thought things were going okay, but now everything has started to get worse. My anxiety is through the roof and I’m starting to get shaky. I’ve been back on .25mg’s for about a week now. Any words of encouragement would be great. A psychiatrist also prescribed me gabapentin (which I haven’t started taking yet) and am hesitant to do. Please let me know your thoughts guys.

 

Thanks,

[[ma...]]

Hello MiracleMan3344 Welcome to Benzobuddies!

 

You will get plenty of support here, reducing  50% is far too much, benzodiazepines are best tapered off slow.  I would get on a stable dose before starting a taper.    Reducing your daily dose by somewhere between 5% and 10% every 10 - 14 days is the rule of thumb.  Listen to your body, slow it down if you need to,  whatever feels comfortable.  The goal  is to keep any symptoms manageable.  Some members have added other drugs like gabapentin to help them through withdrawal, but if you can manage without it, then I would.  Benzo withdrawal is not an easy process, but you will come through it successfully.    You will find some very valuable support and information on the forum.  Please feel free to browse the boards and post questions to any of the dedicated threads.

 

I would like to suggest you read The Ashton Manual, I found the manual to be a great resource, it helps us understand the effect benzo’s have on our body.  It provides withdrawal information that can be so reassuring during this process, it includes a list of common symptoms 

 

I'll leave you a few links:

 

The Ashton Manual. 

Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidelines

Withdrawal Support

Planning Your Withdrawal (TaperPlans)

 

You might like to post to this support group:

 

The Xanax Club

 

We have a dedicated board dealing with Anxiety issues, you can connect with others who can offer some ideas and help.

 

Anxiety     

 

If you would like to add a signature (history of meds/doses etc) to help members give you relevant advice.  Go to the top of the page and select PROFILE then choose forum profile then insert drug history into the text box and remember to click change profile

 

Welcome aboard

Magrita

 

[[Be...]]

Hi there u can do it...

Trust me it goes. The bad days will soon be gone. How I'm getting threw it is literally one day at a time. I keep saying tomoz will be better and it is....I know how disabling anxiety. No matter what people say u still have to face it once u do that u can heal. All the best

[[Be...]]

In my experience xanax withdrawls symptoms are very delayed. If i stepped down i would feel totally fine for 7-10days and then the effect of lowering the dose would start to hit me.

 

For me, it was really i portant tbat i didnt "yank the wheel" to fast. Changing doses up and down so fast is good way to find yourself experiencing waves of synptoms that are hard to attribute to specific changes.

 

I suggest you go up to the dose that stops the spiral and stay there for a couple weeks at least.... then begin a very slow and deliberate taper..

 

 

When you went from 0.5mg to 0.25 mg, that is a 50% step down, which can easily be too much. If you want to give yourself the best chance for success you could try this schedule:

 

Xanax 0.25mg tablets

2 tablets every night before bed for two weeks.  (0.5mg)

Then 1.75 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks (0.44mg)

Then 1.5 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks  (0.38mg)

The. 1.25 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks (0.31mg

The. 1 tablet  every night before bed for two weeks (0.25mg)

Then 0.75 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks (0.19mg)

Then 0.5 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks ( 0.12 mg)

Then 0.25 tablets  every night before bed for two weeks (0.06mg)

Then 0.25 tablets every other night before bed for 4 weeks (0.06mg)

 

Then stop taking it.

 

This will require 137 tablets of xanax 0.25mg and will take 20 weeks. In 5 months time you will be xanax freeee

 

Being on the medication for 10 months, it is not unreasonable to expect it to take 5 months to come off.