XANAX Support Blog: If you're tapering Xanax/alprazolam, join in the discussion!

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Thanks for checking in Chazin.

Your input is valuable and helps others through this process. Hope you're feeling well! 

[[ho...]]

Hi TrueSouth,

 

Just wanted to say I'm glad you are here. Your voice is reassuring. I don't think I've directly "spoken" to you and just realized that tonight. I'm in bad shape with this virus. Getting slammed hard tonight. Glad your recovery is continuing!

 

Warmly,

 

Hopeful Girl

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I'm so glad you're not feeling your first cut Rabbit11. Sometimes the top is easier than the bottom which is probably a good thing. You gain the strength, resolve, and confidence needed to make it to the end.

 

You've already made the most important step... The first one. Be good to yourself and listen to your body. You'll be fine.

[[la...]]

Other than my initial 50% cut, the toughest cut I experienced was my next to the last. It was a mere .065, but I was symptomatic from day one of that cut all the way though day ten. I thought about holding and stabilizing, but moved forward and almost immediately felt better on day one of my last cut. This stuff is weird and unpredictable.

Lol, that is weird TS.

 

I guess I'll just stick it out, and play it by ear.  Not a lot else I can do really.

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Thanks HopefulGirl. 

 

I don't take anything personally here. I understand. I know you want to say hello to everyone but it's almost impossible without missing someone. Take care of yourself for now. We'll manage until you're better, but we do expect a full 6month report when you're able.

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I want to give a shout out to Carita, BabyRex, Bluebell, mama2 and Mrsalw and all the old buddies I forgot to mention. Hope Benzy made it.

 

I'm also thinking of you VCharis. I hope you're feeling better and planning your taper.

[[Mo...]]

Hey Everyone,

 

I have been hanging out waiting to make another cut. 

 

TrueSouth, it's nice to come on and read your positive post.  Gives everyone that you can get through this especially by keeping a positive attitude. 

 

I am weaning off of Xanax Xr by substituting regular Xanax and not sure what I want to do with my next cut which won't be for another 2 weeks because I have jury duty and don't want to be in the middle of trying to stabilize and have to deal with that. I am dropping my night time dose since my mornings are worse for me but not sure how much yet. My doctor gave some .25 regular xanax so I may just take one of those and see how it goes.  From what I read about the XR version, half is released when you take it and the rest is released for the next 6- 12 hours.  My doctor said that most of his patients on XR usually drop .5mg with each cut until the last .5mg and then switches to smaller cuts of regular xanax during day.  That seems a bit much for me but I have to see how it goes.

 

Nice to see new faces here because it kind of got a little slow.  Hope everyone has a great day!

 

Monique

[[la...]]

Feeling a bit better today.  Just want to thank everyone for being supportive yesterday.

[[VC...]]

I want to give a shout out to Carita, BabyRex, Bluebell, mama2 and Mrsalw and all the old buddies I forgot to mention. Hope Benzy made it.

 

I'm also thinking of you VCharis. I hope you're feeling better and planning your taper.

 

Thanks, TS. I had a good day, relatively speaking. Some symptoms just won't abate, but if I sleep, I cope. Definitely planning my taper...got my plastic syringes and jars and going L/T. Think I need more grounding, though. What do you think? Just to get sleep is a huge blessing. Thanks for your kindness!

[[Ra...]]

I'm so glad you're not feeling your first cut Rabbit11. Sometimes the top is easier than the bottom which is probably a good thing. You gain the strength, resolve, and confidence needed to make it to the end.

 

You've already made the most important step... The first one. Be good to yourself and listen to your body. You'll be fine.

 

Thank you TS, I REALLY appreciate the support.  So still not feeling the cut.  Does this mean that I'm one of the ones who might get might get slammed later?  UGH!

 

I tell ya one thing, this pill cutting is for the birds.  I have .5 and .25 pills.  So I'm cutting the .25 pills in 1/4s.  Almost IMPOSSIBLE to get 4 equal cuts.  And to boot, I have one of the recommended scales, I weighed 5 pills last night. . .only 2 of them weighed the same, SHEESH!!  It's probably no big deal at this whopping dose I'm taking, but I can see when I get lower how this could be a problem.  How did you deal with that? 

 

My OCD side really comes out when I have to cut these pills.  I have a pill cutter and it still doesn't do a good job.  Oh one more thing, even though the pills are scored, they aren't always scored exactly in the middle, WTH???!!!!!  If I wasn't as stable as I am, I'd be having a total fit over this!!!!

[[la...]]

I'm so glad you're not feeling your first cut Rabbit11. Sometimes the top is easier than the bottom which is probably a good thing. You gain the strength, resolve, and confidence needed to make it to the end.

 

You've already made the most important step... The first one. Be good to yourself and listen to your body. You'll be fine.

 

Thank you TS, I REALLY appreciate the support.  So still not feeling the cut.  Does this mean that I'm one of the ones who might get might get slammed later?  UGH!

 

I tell ya one thing, this pill cutting is for the birds.  I have .5 and .25 pills.  So I'm cutting the .25 pills in 1/4s.  Almost IMPOSSIBLE to get 4 equal cuts.  And to boot, I have one of the recommended scales, I weighed 5 pills last night. . .only 2 of them weighed the same, SHEESH!!  It's probably no big deal at this whopping dose I'm taking, but I can see when I get lower how this could be a problem.  How did you deal with that? 

 

My OCD side really comes out when I have to cut these pills.  I have a pill cutter and it still doesn't do a good job.  Oh one more thing, even though the pills are scored, they aren't always scored exactly in the middle, WTH???!!!!!  If I wasn't as stable as I am, I'd be having a total fit over this!!!!

 

I personally don't worry about a little variance here or there with pill sizes.  Heck, I'm cutting .5mg's down to .0625, lol.

 

I first cut a 0.5 into quarters, and then cut those into halves.  At that point there might be a little dust in the mix, so I place the 8 pieces on top of my dresser, and move a little bit extra dust into the smaller chunk piles.  At that point maybe some '0.0625mg' piles are actually '0.0675mg', and some are '0.575mg', but that's close enough imo.  I'll take the bigger piles at the start of a cut, and smaller piles at the end of a cut.  Plus they balance themselves out a bit if you are taking doses multiple times a day, by taking a little bigger one once, and a smaller time another time. 

 

For example, even at smaller doses.  Say you take .1875mg total (.0625mg 3x a day).  Lets say one pile is 0.575mg, another pile is .675mg, and another pile is .6mg.  You are really taking .185mg that day.  But that is only 1% difference than what you should have taken.  So, not even that big of a deal at small doses.  At larger doses it's probably a tiny tiny difference well under 1%. 

[[la...]]

I'm not sure if I'm having depression symptoms today or not.  My great grandmother died today.  We've seen it coming for a while, so it's not a shock.  When I talk to other family members about it, they seem fine for the most part, where I feel like it's possible I could cry If I really thought about it.  It could be just normal grieving, but it seems like these 'potential' tears are a little easier than they normally would be.

 

It sucks though.  I was asked to give a speech, and had to decline because of this withdrawal.  There's no way I could do it.  Even the thought of being at the funeral surrounded by a bunch of people is giving me a bit of anxiety.  Where 3 months ago if I were asked to give a speech I would've gladly done it.  Bleh....

[[Ra...]]

Oh Lacey, I'm so sorry to here about your Grandma.  I agree with you 'no speeches' during w/d unless required 

[[la...]]

Oh Lacey, I'm so sorry to here about your Grandma.  I agree with you 'no speeches' during w/d unless required 

Thanks Rabbit.  It's weird. We saw it coming.  She was 99, and taken off food, and water for the last week, but there's something so final about her actually being gone. 

[[Ca...]]

I want to give a shout out to Carita, BabyRex, Bluebell, mama2 and Mrsalw and all the old buddies I forgot to mention. Hope Benzy made it.

 

I'm also thinking of you VCharis. I hope you're feeling better and planning your taper.

 

Hi TrueSouth...always good to see your posts. Sending friendship and gratitude,

Carita

[[la...]]

Hey True South and anyone else that has tapered off xanax already.

 

Out of curiosity, how would you rate your energy levels out of 10 while on benzo's, while tapering benzo's, and post benzo use?

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I'm ready to throw this freakin' iPad across the room!!! 

I'd made lengthy responses to everyone and somehow lost it. User error? I love and hate this thing. Grrrr!!

I'm hammered with work and home "stuff" and I don't have much time to respond to everyone.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your lose Lacey23. I had to put my dog down five days before I jumped. I cried more over that than I did when my mom died two years early. Xanax just numbs us to life and everything around us.

 

Energy level on benzo's had continued to decline over the years. Probably a six to a seven on benzos.

I had days during my taper that I can hardly find the strength to get out of bed. Looking back, I'm not sure how much of that was physical versus mental. Some days were better than others, so I'd say my taper levels ranged from 4 to 6, but I had a couple of two and three days along the way.

Post Benzo? Kind of like a yo-yo. I've had more mental tiredness than physical.

[[la...]]

I'm ready to throw this freakin' iPad across the room!!! 

I'd made lengthy responses to everyone and somehow lost it. User error? I love and hate this thing. Grrrr!!

I'm hammered with work and home "stuff" and I don't have much time to respond to everyone.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your lose Lacey23. I had to put my dog down five days before I jumped. I cried more over that than I did when my mom died two years early. Xanax just numbs us to life and everything around us.

 

Energy level on benzo's had continued to decline over the years. Probably a six to a seven on benzos.

I had days during my taper that I can hardly find the strength to get out of bed. Looking back, I'm not sure how much of that was physical versus mental. Some days were better than others, so I'd say my taper levels ranged from 4 to 6, but I had a couple of two and three days along the way.

Post Benzo? Kind of like a yo-yo. I've had more mental tiredness than physical.

 

Thanks TS. The loss sucks for sure, and it's weird how xanax effects us with that.

 

I get the yo-yo thing, but curious what your physical energy level is out of 10 now?  4-6 range?  6-10 range?  5-8 range?

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Probably a solid eight most days, but a perfect ten is made of unobtainium. It won't happen.

 

The time change always screws me up. This one has proven no different. I don't know why I fight them, but I do. Yes, I've been dragging a little bit this week, and I'll bet I'm not alone.

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Rabbit11; There's not much I can add to Lacey's reply on pill splitting. Please reread his sage advice. His method of dealing with unequal sizes perfectly mirrors my own experience during my tapering.

 

I'm delighted to hear it's going easy for you. I'll bet you'll be one of the lucky ones who has an easy time of this.

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Carita; I'm always happy to hear from you and I wish you many symptom free days and nights filled with pure joy. The really good stuff is still ahead my friend. I promise!

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Monique123; You're doing great! Take it slow and be good to yourself. This race isn't about speed, it's about endurance. Continue to do what you've done to get this far and don't give up!

 

If I can do this, you can too!

[[Tr...]]

Mama2, HopefulGirl, VCharis, Babyrex, Chazin, Mrsalw, and everyone I didn't mention... I hope you're all feeling well and healing. Take care of yourselves.

[[la...]]

Probably a solid eight most days, but a perfect ten is made of unobtainium. It won't happen.

 

The time change always screws me up. This one has proven no different. I don't know why I fight them, but I do. Yes, I've been dragging a little bit this week, and I'll bet I'm not alone.

 

Well it's good to hear to went from a 4-6 (with days of 2-3) during taper, to an 8.  I'd gladly take that right now.

[[mr...]]

Mama2, HopefulGirl, VCharis, Babyrex, Chazin, Mrsalw, and everyone I didn't mention... I hope you're all feeling well and healing. Take care of yourselves.

 

Thanks TS; I'm still around; I am lurking whilst healing intensely  Thank you for thinking of me

 

Mrs.