Has anyone used a three month 12 step program to get of Xanax?

[[Ma...]]

I have cut down to .375 twice a day on the Xanax and 7.5mg of Valium in the evening.

i think my doctor will support it but i would like to present a better plan.

i could use some help with that please?

Edited February 28 by [Ma...]

[[je...]]

39 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

I have cut down to .375 twice a day on the Xanax and 7.5mg of Valium in the evening

Can you please clarify how your dosing has been prior to and since the crossover?

I need you to list your dosing before the start of the crossover specifying am, noon and pm doses and list your dosing after you introduced Valium.

For example:

0.5 Xanax am, 0.5 Xanax noon, 0.5 Xanax pm.

[[Ma...]]

. 375 X morning .375 X afternoon and .375 X evening.

Now .375 X morning .375 X afternoon and 7.5 Valium evening. 
 

Thank you

[[je...]]

I have gone through your previous posts and I don't understand your numbers. It is really important for me to make sure I understand the numbers. You have always said you are at 1mg.

Now you say before the crossover you were at:

16 hours ago, [[M...] said:

. 375 X morning .375 X afternoon and .375 X evening.

This equals 1.125mg

The last post I can find about splitting your dose you said this:

 

On 14/02/2024 at 15:02, [[M...] said:

I take (2) .5 mg pills. I take 3/4 of one pill in the morning. I take the two 1/4 of the pills at 2-3:00. That leaves me 3/4 of the last pill for the evening dose. Does that make sense?

 

This equals 1mg, not 1.125mg. When did you increase your dose?

[[Ma...]]

I was taking .5 mg twice a day. Then I spread my dose out to three times a day which would be 3/4 of a pill in the morning a half a pill In the afternoon, and 3/4 of a pill in the , that equals 1 mg. Now I’m only taking 3/4 of a pill of Xanax in the morning 3/4 of a pill of Xanax and the afternoon and 7.5 mg of Valium in the evening. The Xanax pills are still .5 mg each. I’m only taking 3/4 of a .5 mg twice a day now. Does that help? 

Edited February 29 by [Ma...]

[[je...]]

18 hours ago, [[M...] said:

375 X morning .375 X afternoon and .375 X evening.

So this is incorrect then?

[[Ma...]]

 Yes, it’s .375 Xanax in the morning .25Xanax afternoon and .375 Xanax in the evening.

now, as of last Thursday night, I am taking .375 mg of Xanax in the morning, .375 mg of Xanax in the afternoon and 7.5 mg of Valium in the evening.

[[je...]]

Thank you. Now it makes more sense.

I'm not surprised that you're struggling with the crossover. You have completely removed the Xanax from your evening dose and directly swapped it with Valium without gradually reducing the Xanax. Also, 0.25mg Xanax is  equal to 5mg Valium at most. Not only did your doctor fail to do a gradual crossover, but he moved the higher Xanax dose from night time to day time, without letting any Valium build up in your system. 

I don't know how your doctor determined the substitution of 7.5mg Valium to replace 0.25mg Xanax.

I'm not sure how to level and equal out the doses at this stage. Because you are now overdosed on the evening dose. 

[[Ma...]]

I’m not sure either. But I am feeling better now with the two .375 mg doses of Xanax during the day and the 7.5 mg of Valium in the evening.

If I’m not mistaken, 1 mg of Xanax is equal to 20 mg of Valium. He wants to hold at this 7.5 mg of Valium at night for a while until it builds up. Then he wants to switch the morning dose of .375 Xanax 7.5 mg of Valium. Then hold for a while until that balances out, then switch the afternoon dose of .375 Xanax, 5 mg of Valium. I guess he figures that it will build up in my system that way and we will have completely made the switch after a period of time then we will start a slow taper.

I have seen doctors on here switch people over to Valium completely all at once, and they really didn’t Notice any difference but felt better and some said it was difficult. But at least we’re not switching them all at once and letting the Valium build up in my system. So I think he’s thinking 7.5+7.5+5 equals 20 mg of Valium over time.

I think it’s better than a sudden switch all at once.

what do you think?

Edited February 29 by [Ma...]

[[je...]]

Yes, it is better to switch one dose at a time rather than the entire total dose, but it's still not how Ashton recommended a crossover to be done. I was just giving you possible explanations for why you were having difficulties which you have been voicing. If you follow your doctor's plan you might just want to prepare that it will likely be a bumpy road and that you might encounter difficulties when you cross to 5mg Valium because at that dose you will be underdosed for that specific dose while your body is withdrawing from the Xanax.

I don't know how to prepare a different plan for you as I only know how to adjust for Ashton's specifications. And since you are now overdosed on one dose, I don't know how to compensate for that on the other doses. I can only work from the original starting point/doses. I don't know how to fix it mid-crossover, unless your Valium doses remained the same in equivalence.

To get back to your other question:

 

On 28/02/2024 at 12:11, [[M...] said:

Things are a little better but it is difficult during the day.
I was thinking of going back to .5mg Xanax in the morning and .5mg Xanax in the afternoon. Then 10mg Valium in the evening. 

 

If it were me, I would not do this. You are updosing from your original starting dose in total by 10mg Valium (including the 2.5mg your doctor added to the conversion) or 0.5mg Xanax. 

 

 

 

 

[[je...]]

I think it might be best to stick with your doctor's plan. You might want to consider splitting the difference between the 7.5mg and 5mg between the doses left when you do the crossover for the other two doses. So you have 12.5mg Valium in total left for your crossover and divide that between the doses to try and equal them out a bit more. Does this make sense?  

[[Ma...]]

I agree 

thank you very much!🙏

Edited February 29 by [Ma...]

[[Ma...]]

I will talk to my doctor about spreading my other two doses out evenly. (6.25) Each. To do that I need to go to a liquid.

He has said there is no hurry and we are going very slowly.
I also think that since I quit drinking and quit caffeine at the same time of spreading out my doses and switching over it has contributed to some of the bumps in the road.

Thats a lot of changes happening at once. When I quit drinking a glass of wine at night that was like stopping a benzo dose.

And stopping caffeine CT and wine gave me the worst headache for over a week. I am proud of myself for being able to do that.

That way I can focus on the switch and then eventually the very slow taper and know that is what is causing the my symptoms.

It may not be the perfect solution by switching out one dose of X for V completely at a time but he’s a psychiatrist not an addiction medicine specialist and has told me that he hasn’t done this but a couple of times. There are no addiction medicine specialists within a 100 miles. He is looking at the Ashton manual but referred to it as more of a guide. At least he is educating himself and willing to listen.

 

Edited February 29 by [Ma...]

[[je...]]

3 hours ago, [[M...] said:

 

I will talk to my doctor about spreading my other two doses out evenly. (6.25) Each. To do that I need to go to a liquid.

 

You don’t have to be that exact. You can do 6mg and 6.5mg. You have come a long way and who knows even if you did it according to Ashton you might have had similar issues. It’s a good sign that you’re doing better, so you’ll hopefully settle in soon after the crossover.