My pharmacy cut me off cold turkey off high dose xanax

[[bo...]]

I’ve been on a high dose of Xanax for over a decade - 2mg 3x a day. We’ve been weaning off and after a long time I got down from 4 doses to 3. I’ve been getting this current dose for at least 9 months and we are working to file off small amounts very slowly.

Thursday I went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist would NOT give me a single pill. Even though this pharmacy and my insurance never had an issue. I explained that she must know of the dangers of going cold turkey off this drug. She simply said, “okay.” I said I could literally seize without warning, causing death. She again said, “okay,” and turned around and walked away from me. 
I’m now 2 days with NO benzo. I can’t eat, sleep, my stomach cramps in horrible pain, I’m so anxious I spent the past 2 days sobbing, I have never felt so sick or crazy in my life. What can I do?   

[[Le...]]

Your doctor isn’t involved?  This seems like very unusual behaviour from a prescriber.  

[[Co...]]

Hello @[bo...]

What is your present daily dose? Why has your prescription been stopped?

[[mo...]]

Did they give you a reason for stopping?  I’ve had some pharmacies decide to stop filling RXs from my psychiatrist and once from my MD.  But they helped me get another pharmacy. 

Ask the pharmacy why. Maybe you can figure out what to do from there.  
 

call your doc!!! Get your doctor involved to help you get the RX filled. 
 

this is sooo important I know!! I had a doctor cut me off once and I called emergency on a Sunday and she called back and was rude to me saying she can’t keep up with my medications. (She would give me samples every time I came in and I never liked them). 
well she told me to call Monday and she would get my RX.  But I had been calling the whole previous week and the girls were rude and laughing. 
 

so I knew a MD who would prescribe for me.  He was my doctor for awhile but he eventually died.  But at one point, Walmart said they no longer prescribe for that doctor.  I have since found out that Walmart is funny about filling for certain doctors.  I called everyone to find that out. But I called the pharmacist again and he said he would call my RX over to Publix a grocery store pharmacy here.  So I got it done. 
 

but you can’t take no for an answer.  Keep calling everyone.  Your doctor surely knows the risks.  

[[pi...]]

@[bo...], please contact your doctor and see if there was a mixup. Just yesterday my pharmacy said the doctor cancelled a prescription they just sent in for a pretty benign medication. The doctor said they didn’t cancel it so who knows what happened, a glitch somewhere.

If you can’t reach anyone right away I would suggest going to the er and explaining the situation and hopefully they would give you enough to tide you over until a solution is found.

I agree with @[mo...], keep at it, keep calling until you get some help. 

[[bo...]]

4 hours ago, [[L...] said:

Your doctor isn’t involved?  This seems like very unusual behaviour from a prescriber.  

He is. He tried to tell the pharmacist that I cannot go cold turkey with this drug. She argued him, and it was his understanding she'd give me something. She didn't. She cancelled it pretty much immediately.

[[Le...]]

go to a different pharmacy

[[bo...]]

4 hours ago, [[C...] said:

Hello @[bo...]

What is your present daily dose? Why has your prescription been stopped?

I'm prescribed 2mg 3x a day. We've been slowly filing away, with a gem scale (as people here suggested). And that's lower from the 2mg 3-4x a day I WAS on. But he wanted to use 1mg pills to make this taper easier. That made the pharmacist flip out and she couldn't understand me, or my psych, that it was the same exact dose, just a higher number of pills. I get how how that threw her. So he cancelled that prescription, and left the one I have been getting for 9 months (less pills, since we weaned off). My doctor in NO way wanted the prescription ended. It was the pharmacist's choice. My doctor talked to her, twice. She will not give them to me. I'm on day two cold turkey and feel like absolute hell.

[[Le...]]

This was done to me. I really recommend doing anything you can to avoid a CT. 

[[Co...]]

@[bo...]

As others have already suggested, go to another pharmacy. And if you cannot get your medication from elsewhere, you probably should go to the ER. You absolutely cannot quit such a high dose cold turkey.

[[vo...]]

1 hour ago, [[b...] said:

I’ve been on a high dose of Xanax for over a decade - 2mg 3x a day. We’ve been weaning off and after a long time I got down from 4 doses to 3. I’ve been getting this current dose for at least 9 months and we are working to file off small amounts very slowly.

Thursday I went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist would NOT give me a single pill. Even though this pharmacy and my insurance never had an issue. I explained that she must know of the dangers of going cold turkey off this drug. She simply said, “okay.” I said I could literally seize without warning, causing death. She again said, “okay,” and turned around and walked away from me. 
I’m now 2 days with NO benzo. I can’t eat, sleep, my stomach cramps in horrible pain, I’m so anxious I spent the past 2 days sobbing, I have never felt so sick or crazy in my life. What can I do?   

@[bo...]

 I was on Xanax too. The same dosage as you - 6mg. 2mg 3 X a day. I didn't know the dangers and rapid tapered in 2 weeks and I'm still here 16 mos later. I'm not discounting the dangers - I just want you to know that it isn't hopeless if you can't. So many doctors and pharmacy are running scared these days of prescribing these meds. I hope you are able to get you script refilled somewhere soon if you are able to, as others have suggested. 

[[bo...]]

2 hours ago, [[L...] said:

This was done to me. I really recommend doing anything you can to avoid a CT. 

That's awful. I'm so sorry. I just talked to my doctor again. He said the pharmacist agreed to 10 fewer pills - still a problem, but likely workable. But, she did NOT put the order in. 2 days later, it's not in the system. Dr. is calling a smaller, privately owned pharmacy that he "has a relationship with" to see if they can fill it. I'm guessing not as that was 15 minutes ago and haven't heard back from him.  I'm screwed.

[[bo...]]

2 hours ago, [[C...] said:

@[bo...]

As others have already suggested, go to another pharmacy. And if you cannot get your medication from elsewhere, you probably should go to the ER. You absolutely cannot quit such a high dose cold turkey.

Tried to transfer it, transfer would not go through. My doctor is calling another smaller independent pharmacy that he said he "has a relationship with" to see if they can fill it. This is day two and it's late afternoon and I want to cry I feel so ill. I'm waiting for him to call back and tell me what to do.

[[bo...]]

1 hour ago, [[v...] said:

@[bo...]

 I was on Xanax too. The same dosage as you - 6mg. 2mg 3 X a day. I didn't know the dangers and rapid tapered in 2 weeks and I'm still here 16 mos later. I'm not discounting the dangers - I just want you to know that it isn't hopeless if you can't. So many doctors and pharmacy are running scared these days of prescribing these meds. I hope you are able to get you script refilled somewhere soon if you are able to, as others have suggested. 

I'm SO glad you survived that! It had to be pretty miserable though... That's one of the reasons I decided it was the time to wean off, as I worried about a situation like this, or him retiring one day and not being able to find another doctor to prescribe my dose.