Best way to get off of Xanax?

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Hello, I am currently 14 days sober from alcohol, and I am working on quitting Xanax. When I first stopped drinking, on July 2nd, I didn’t have any Xanax and went through really bad withdrawals from no alcohol and no Xanax. I had to go to urgent care and get an IV and meds. They told me to just use less than what I have been, but didn’t give me any good advice or plan to stop. Anyway, I was taking about 2-2.5 mg a day and have now tried to cut it to .5 or .25 every other day. It’s been alright, but I’m wondering if this is the best way to do it? Is it safe to cut down on my own? Or should I seek professional help so that I can make a plan and be able to stop taking them completely? I don’t want to have to rely on them forever, but when I stop taking them I have horrible anxiety, insomnia, agoraphobia, sweats, shakes, etc. So I am also having trouble dealing with that, in top of not feeling so great physically. Any advice or thoughts is very much appreciated!

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

Congratulations on giving up alcohol!  Can I ask a few questions about your Xanax use?  How long have you used between 2 and 2.5 mgs Xanax and do you have a doctor willing to prescribe enough Xanax for you to do a slow taper?

We typically recommend reducing your dose by about 5-10% every few weeks or when your symptoms have leveled off enough to make another reduction, its important to listen to your body's cues so you can remain functional.

Its not a good idea to take benzodiazepines every other day, we want steady blood serum levels so we won't suffer from peaks and valleys, especially since Xanax has such a short half life.  And you can do this on your own, professional help typically means they try to taper us too quickly resulting in severe symptoms.

For now, I'd hold off tapering the Xanax to give your body time to recover from the alcohol cessation.

Lets keep talking so we can figure this out together.

@[Pa...]

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Hi @[...] how long were you taking the Xanax at 2.5 mg a day? Was it prescribed to you by a doctor? Just trying to understand the context better.

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2 minutes ago, [[P...] said:

Hello @[...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

Congratulations on giving up alcohol!  Can I ask a few questions about your Xanax use?  How long have you used between 2 and 2.5 mgs Xanax and do you have a doctor willing to prescribe enough Xanax for you to do a slow taper?

We typically recommend reducing your dose by about 5-10% every few weeks or when your symptoms have leveled off enough to make another reduction, its important to listen to your body's cues so you can remain functional.

Its not a good idea to take benzodiazepines every other day, we want steady blood serum levels so we won't suffer from peaks and valleys, especially since Xanax has such a short half life.  And you can do this on your own, professional help typically means they try to taper us too quickly resulting in severe symptoms.

For now, I'd hold off tapering the Xanax to give your body time to recover from the alcohol cessation.

Lets keep talking so we can figure this out together.

@[Pa...]

Thank you so much! And I did not know about it being not a great idea to do every other day, so thank you for that information. I have been taking the 2-2.5 mg everyday for the past about 2 years now. My general practitioner will more than likely prescribe me the Xanax if I make an appointment and tell him what is going on. I am running low right now so I probably should go ahead and do that before I run out. Also, if I am feeling very anxious when i wake up, would it be better to take part of the dose in the morning and the other part before bed? Lastly, is going from 2 mg to .5- .25 too big of a drop to start off with?

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3 minutes ago, [[G...] said:

Hi @[...] how long were you taking the Xanax at 2.5 mg a day? Was it prescribed to you by a doctor? Just trying to understand the context better.

It has been about 2 years since I started taking the 2.5 mg. It wasnt a prescription for me but it was a prescription written by a doctor, so I at least know they were real instead of pressed. 

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9 minutes ago, [[G...] said:

Personally, I would prioritize making sure you can get your own prescription with a doctor who is willing to prescribe throughout your taper so that you don’t run out and end up going cold turkey. But making the jump from 2.5mg down to .5/.25 is drastic. I would stay at the 2 or 2.5 right now until you can figure out a long term plan. 

Thank you so much, I will definitely make sure I do both of those things and get on top of meeting with my doctor to get my prescription so I can taper properly. Thank you for your advice and help!! Very much appreciated 

[[Js...]]

 I hope you keep us updated 

I was on X for 3 years, double your dose.

Now I am roughly 50 days free and I feel great. 

Tapering responsibly is the best way, as Pamster stated, 5-10% reduction is ideal. 

You can always come back here and let us know how you feel - we will understand. 

 

 

 

 

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26 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

 I hope you keep us updated 

I was on X for 3 years, double your dose.

Now I am roughly 50 days free and I feel great. 

Tapering responsibly is the best way, as Pamster stated, 5-10% reduction is ideal. 

You can always come back here and let us know how you feel - we will understand. 

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words!!! And that is so amazing, congratulations!! Knowing it can be done, and that you can feel good again after is extremely encouraging. A lot of days are really hard and feel like I’m always gonna feel like this. I’m taking it one day at a time, and knowing more about what to do and how to properly adjust myself so hopefully it’ll go smoother is super helpful. I really appreciate the advice and encouragement! 

[[Pa...]]

Please secure the Xanax prescription with your doctor, that's number 1!  I have a question but please understand that I'm not judging, just trying to help.

Does your doctor know about your drinking?  The reason I ask is because alcohol is addictive and so are benzodiazepines, they both affect the same part of the brain, the GABA receptors.  I know this because when I took my first benzo, it felt like my first drink, I loved it and that's when I knew I shouldn't take it because I'd been sober for 8 years.  But, I didn't listen to that voice and Klonopin soon became my drug of choice.  If your doctor doesn't know about your alcohol use, he may prescribe but if you tell him, he may not want to raise any red flags and put his practice in jeopardy.  Even though you're being responsible, and not drug seeking like an addict, doctors get nervous. This is my way of saying, use your best judgement when speaking to him because its very important you have enough to taper slowly.  I'm not encouraging you to lie to your doctor but advising caution. 

Most Xanax users will dose more than once a day because the half life is so short, if you decide to take it more than once a day, please don't reduce while you're making the changes, we try to keep changes to a minimum because they all hurt.  And please, don't make big reductions, small, slow and steady is the way to go.

 

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37 minutes ago, [[P...] said:

Please secure the Xanax prescription with your doctor, that's number 1!  I have a question but please understand that I'm not judging, just trying to help.

Does your doctor know about your drinking?  The reason I ask is because alcohol is addictive and so are benzodiazepines, they both affect the same part of the brain, the GABA receptors.  I know this because when I took my first benzo, it felt like my first drink, I loved it and that's when I knew I shouldn't take it because I'd been sober for 8 years.  But, I didn't listen to that voice and Klonopin soon became my drug of choice.  If your doctor doesn't know about your alcohol use, he may prescribe but if you tell him, he may not want to raise any red flags and put his practice in jeopardy.  Even though you're being responsible, and not drug seeking like an addict, doctors get nervous. This is my way of saying, use your best judgement when speaking to him because its very important you have enough to taper slowly.  I'm not encouraging you to lie to your doctor but advising caution. 

Most Xanax users will dose more than once a day because the half life is so short, if you decide to take it more than once a day, please don't reduce while you're making the changes, we try to keep changes to a minimum because they all hurt.  And please, don't make big reductions, small, slow and steady is the way to go.

Thank you so much for all this information. I didn’t know any of this, so having this knowledge is definitely very helpful. I haven’t been to my primary doctor about this yet, as they couldn’t get me in for an appointment right away when my alcohol withdrawals were really bad. So I went to an urgent care and got back the diagnosis of “alcohol abuse”, so my regular doctor doesn’t have this diagnosis. That being said, I’m not sure what the best route would be. Whether that is bringing up the alcohol issue and telling him about that, or telling him I am currently trying to quit the Xanax and am tapering off of it, (or both), or what I should mention to get the best possible care plan for myself.

[[Pa...]]