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

[[Bu...]]

As you can see I have held at .75 for sometime now i had a move and other things going on big life changes. Anyway for the past 1-2 weeks i have been getting a bit short of breath not like anxiety wise i have no anxiety i believe every sx i have is from this pill. I also have TERRIBLE gi problems gas,I get angry so fast i am stressed to the max everything bothers me even my dog barking i am totally on edge all the time I WANT TO BE NORMAL AGAIN. anyone please help me with this.

 

 

I was in a holding pattern at .75 too.  I'm doing smaller cuts.  So far so good.  I understand exactly what you are saying.  I had a couple of days of being a grouch and the GI stuff just keeps going on.  Either I'm nauseated or have a stomach ache and or gas.  I get the shortness of breath too.  That usually goes along with my stomach feeling tight.  It won't last forever.  Once we are done with the devil's meds we will feel much better.  Hang in there! 

[[ma...]]

Thank you for the responses. I am trying to do the nail file thing but i dont think my filing is that accurate so I hope it is close enough. Ya this GI stuff is driving me nuts not sure what else to do. Antacids,help but i am so bloated uhg.Good luck to you also

[[Pe...]]

Hi everyone, My Doc. called me in this morning in response to my phone call to his nurse about my trouble taking the Valium. I went to the appt. thinking the worst but was pleasantly surprised when he sat down , looked at me and apologized. Turns out that he's a real nice fellow. He cautioned me on my Klon. taper and said I'd better start the Xanax taper first. He wrote me prescriptions for .25 Xanax and 1 MG Xanax then told me to reduce 0.125 every 2 months. I have an appt. to see him again in two months so he can check my progress.

 

Finally a doc that's willing to work with me,and has a clue.    Thank God!                                            PepsiMoon

[[ba...]]

in 7 days from now it will be 1 month since i quit xanax !!  a few hours ago it was difficult for me i dont know why i still smoke i felt some severe tinnittus & withdrawals kickup after a cigarette i had around 7pm . umm other than that i think i had a good day going to church , i had the courage to go on my own by myself i've been wanting to go since the day i quit xanax to ask god to give me the threngh to succeed in quitting after i felt bad earlier i exercised walking a mile on the treadmill it cleared up the withdrawals . umm i had a late shower too that was relaxing . im a lil tense right now though my mouth is quivering some as if its chilly and its NOT luckily i have a cup of chamomille tea thats ready to drink

[[Pe...]]

Hi Katie, Congrats! I felt sick every time I lit up a "real" ciggy...I started using an e-cig June 17th of last year and haven't picked up a real cigarette since. The 17th of this month, I'll be without a real ciggy 16 months.. I just started cutting my Xanax tonight. I'm taking it very slow. 0.0625 cuts every three weeks. I'm happy for you in your victory over benzo hell.

(BTW, when I started on my E-cig I was using 24 mg E-liquid to vape, I'm now down to 6 mg E-Liquid)

 

                                                                                                                                        Friendly hug,                      PepsiMoon

[[Sy...]]

Question, anyone out there try a crossover to valium at the end of there tapper and have any sucsess? The xanax packs almost to much of a quick punch (funny i say that now when 8mg never phased me) I feel almost worse when I dose and of course when I miss a dose. Just thinking out loud here but maybe a sub of half and half might work? Yes the devil you know, but seriously I am ready to step it up. Almost done.

[[va...]]

babyangel, congrats!  It sounds like you're doing really well, and handling everything that comes at you.  So kudos to you! 

 

PepsiMoon, congrats on finding a doctor that works with you.  That's very fortunate. 

 

I have the GI stuff also, but usually it only bothers me for a couple days after I cut, and I get very sharp pains in my stomach with nausea, but it goes away relatively quickly, lasting maybe an hour or so.  One issue I have that I've asked about and never gotten an answer though is, I'm constantly constipated.  Does anyone else have that problem?  Because I've never had problems with constipation before, I've always been pretty regular.  So, that sucks.

 

I made my 5th cut (.125) last night after holding 10 days.  The tinnitus has been pretty persistent the last few days, and loud, and that's unusual because it generally is loud and kicks up after a cut, but dies down over time.  This time, it kicked back up a few days before I cut.  Is that normal?  It seems backwards.  Anyway.

 

I've also been experiencing some fatigue since the last two cuts.  I'm hoping this is temporary and my energy comes back eventually.

 

Not much else to report at this point.

 

Have a great day everyone!

 

Namaste.

 

~K 

[[Bl...]]

I had many days of tinnitus during my taper, and like you, it coincided with my cuts most of the time. But I remember I experienced it at random too.

 

Blue

[[ba...]]

i learned something new a few hours ago, sugar can agrivate withdrawals? well every morning i go to the suparemarket to buy donuts theres some days i eat 2-4 each day all the sugar from them couldve been what making me feel bad or gum i chewed , well tomorrow im not going to have any at all and ill see how i feel from that

[[th...]]

i learned something new a few hours ago, sugar can agrivate withdrawals? well every morning i go to the suparemarket to buy donuts theres some days i eat 2-4 each day all the sugar from them couldve been what making me feel bad or gum i chewed , well tomorrow im not going to have any at all and ill see how i feel from that

 

Babyangel,

 

People can have wd from sugar too so just be prepared. Especially if your body is used to that much every day. Most of the time the wd is in the form of headaches but usually only last a few days.

 

Grinch

[[Sy...]]

Well it's done, I was given 5mg diazapam and trazadone my tinitus had gotten so bad it was causing hearing issues and after 5 months of screaming in my head we will see. I will be treading lightly using the V on an every other day trial and cutting my xanax down to .25. As for trazadone I dont know. I will just be glad when this is over.

[[ba...]]

thanks grinch for the heads up,

[[va...]]

Well it's done, I was given 5mg diazapam and trazadone my tinitus had gotten so bad it was causing hearing issues and after 5 months of screaming in my head we will see. I will be treading lightly using the V on an every other day trial and cutting my xanax down to .25. As for trazadone I dont know. I will just be glad when this is over.

 

Good luck!  I know trazadone works for a lot of people, but every time I've tried taking it, it gave me horrible, gruesome nightmares.  I assume I'm allergic to it or something.  I hope you have better luck.

 

Namaste.

 

~K 

[[ba...]]

hi synapsekills, my tinnittis was minimal today just from AVOIDING sugar & taking a vitamin B6, b12 , b7(biotin) , & a vit e. i smoked only 4-5 single cigarettes today all of that helped me sleep well i took a 4 hour nappy . i hope that helps or anyone reading this, god bless y'all,

katie

[[Sy...]]

Yea I am not sure if I like this trade off so far only first night. I dont have much in the way of sxs (other than the tinitus) and gi issues but here I am amped wide awake 4 hrs after I tried sleeping. Taken one walk, 2 hot epson soaks and tv. Wtf. I took the trazadone 200mg and the V 10mg (yea I know) but it has me all hyper. Hmm gonna see how the week plays out before I decide to just stick with .25 X or what. I was able to fall asleep better just on my xanax.

 

BabyA, I eat a clean mostly vegan diet and avoid ALL processed sugar and foods. I honesty think unless you have bloodwork done and see you are lacking in vitamins you can get what the body needs from organic plant based foods imo. the B complex helps some but for me it was overkill. Congrats on your xanax free time! You do you whatever is working keep it up. Btw I had to quit the 3 or 4 cigs I smoked during the taper because the tinitus would kick up big time along with shakes.

 

-SynapSkills

[[Mo...]]

Synapskills,  I was only on 50mg Trazadone for sleep.  This amount knocked me out with no side effects.  Did you doctor just start you at 200mg?

[[Sy...]]

Synapskills,  I was only on 50mg Trazadone for sleep.  This amount knocked me out with no side effects.  Did you doctor just start you at 200mg?

 

Yea he just kinda puts it out there for me to figure out. The script is 1 to 2 100mg at bed.

I am 6,7 and a lean 195 pounds  so maybe he figured 100mg would be a good dose. I dunno.

dont not remember falling asleep but woah did I sleep. Didnt wake up once and had good dreams. I think tonight I will only take half of a 100mg. The V is helping me not go up and down but im super groggy today. So far so good gonna spread my .25 throughout the day and see how the rest of the week goes

[[va...]]

2nd day after my last cut, and so far, no new symptoms, no nausea this time, no cramps thus far, just my good old faithful tinnitus.  So yay!

 

~K 

[[Bu...]]

i learned something new a few hours ago, sugar can agrivate withdrawals? well every morning i go to the suparemarket to buy donuts theres some days i eat 2-4 each day all the sugar from them couldve been what making me feel bad or gum i chewed , well tomorrow im not going to have any at all and ill see how i feel from that

 

Baby, I discovered that sugar and anything starchy like bread aggravates my stomach.  I have a couple of dry crackers once in a while to settle my nausea.  Tums don't do diddly. 

[[to...]]

Hi, I'd love to join this thread!

I'm down to 2 mgs of xanax now and stable, but I realize now that I went a little too fast. I've found myself cheating occasionally, especially when I started a new job right in the middle of my taper! However, I'm still determined to stick with 2mgs for a while and the jobs going well. My next taper will be smaller (I learned my lesson) but I only have 1mg pills, so dry cutting 10% is pretty difficult.  Any suggestions on how to do this?

Also, I have been taking 25 mgs of Zoloft which I believe is helping with depression and social anxiety. However, it is a small dose and I can't really tell if thats what's helping or I'm just naturally healing from my taper. My Doc wants to put me on a higher dose, 50 mgs (he always is pushing something…I will be seeking out a new Doc as soon as I'm finished with this taper). I do feel like 50 mgs might make me feel even better but I fear getting off that once I finish the Xanax. Anyone have any experience with Zoloft? Good or bad.

I'm really glad i found this threadhttp://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/Smileys/standard/grin.gif

 

[[va...]]

torrence, I was on 2mg X when I started about 7-8 weeks ago and now I'm down to 1.25mg.  I was taking 1mg pills as well, and I was trying to quarter them.  It was a huge hassle.  So I got a bunch of .25mg pills from my doctor last time, and half of that is .125 (you can just break them with your fingernails) and a quarter is .0625.  If you quarter it, you'll need a razor blade or a pill cutter. 

 

I've been cutting by .125, which is easy, as it's just a half a pill, and so far it hasn't been that bad, but I've been cutting every 10-11 days, except for once when I only waited a week.  I think 10 days is better for me, so I'm going to stick to that.  So next time you visit the doctor, just ask for 4x the number of pills in .25mg instead of 1mg.  For each 1mg you'll have to take 4 pills (8 pills=2mg), or you can divide the dose into 2 doses (4 pills twice a day=2mg) or 4x /day (2 pills 4x a day=2mg).  I take .5mg in the morning and .75mg at night right now.  So 2 in the am, and 3 in the pm.  When I go down in dose, it's by half a pill.  Pretty easy to keep track of it this way.

 

It's much easier to figure out when you have the .25 pills.  Once I get a little farther down, I'll probably start quartering them and dropping .0625 instead .125.  This is what many people here have done tapering xanax.  I'm still relatively new, so you might want to consult a few of the people who've successfully jumped, or are near the end of their taper.

 

Good luck!

 

~K 

[[to...]]

Thanks for the advice vangoghsear!

I'll try asking my doctor. Unfortunately he has no concept of how hard tapering is and keeps try to drop my 1mg every month. However, I'll talk to him, I think he means well he's just has no idea about the severity of this drug. I think I've taught him more about it through my own research.

[[Pe...]]

Well, I'm on day 4 of my Xanax taper @.0625 mg cut at my night time dose (12 Midnight) and doing pretty well actually. My doc is a Godsend. He told me to only cut .0125 in two months! Which I think is an extremely slow taper IMHO. I think I could go a bit faster. I have tinnitus anyway, which is a direct result of playing guitar in bands here and there, listening to music way to loud,

going to a lot of concerts, going to NHRA Drag races..etc., so I've gotten pretty used to the ringing in my ears. I bought a 'Noise Maker' for when I go to bed to drown out the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek in my ears so that I can sleep. For anyone that is new to the forum, I strongly suggest that you talk to your doctor and try to get the .25 mg tablets , they're a lot easier to cut into 1/4's to get the .0625 cut you need to taper. See, Xanax is a very powerful benzo, but it has a very short half life and short duration of action.Thats why I dose every 6 hours. I dose .50 .50 .50 then at midnight 49.9375 (cutting .0625)

 

I'm getting ready to go get a medical marijuana card pretty soon. I'm looking at Medical Grade MJ with high CBD and low THC for my panic disorder. I have PTSD hence the reason I'm on all of this medication to begin with. I live in Oregon and I'm definitely voting YES on measure 91 to legalize it November 6th. Grant you I'm not a 'Pothead' in fact I've tried pot a few times ( I smoked my fair share back in the 70's) and its so potent now days that it sends me into a panic attack however: after doing some research and talking to a couple of local medical growers I found that there are strains out there that have low THC (psychoactive properties) and High CBD ( antispasmodic, analgesic, and anti-seizure properties)

 

                                                                            Just my two cents.                                                PepsiMoon

[[va...]]

PepsiMoon,  I wish I lived in a marijuana legal state.  I also can't stand the high.  I smoked it when I was young (in the 70s) but quit when I was around 20, and every time I've tried it since then (maybe 5 or 6 times for chronic pain), I've hated it.  It makes me super paranoid and so acutely aware of my breathing, it makes me highly anxious.  So I'm in the same boat as you. 

 

I've read that juicing the leaves is really good for a lot of things (like lupus) and doesn't get you high, or using the hemp oils.  If I could find some with low thc and high cbds like you said, I'd get it as well.  In fact, if I lived somewhere where it was legal, I would just grow it myself.  The plants are absolutely stunning, and they smell wonderful.  I find it ridiculous that our government has outlawed and waged war on a plant that's useful for SO many things.  Clothes and textiles, paper, making oil, gas, etc., in addition to all kinds of medicine, and the seeds are highly nutritious.  I lived in CA the year it was legalized.  Wish I still lived there.  Alas.

 

Peace.

 

~K 

[[Pe...]]

I have a question for all of you that have (and are ) having successful tapering off of Xanax.

At the Present I'm taking .5 mg every 6 hours with the exception of my midnight dose, which I'm cutting .0625 from that dose.

My schedule is as follows for the Xanax:

6AM- .5mg

12 noon-.5 mg

6 PM-.5mg

Midnight-49.9375 (with the .0625 cut)

 

My question is this: When I feel the time is right to move forward with my next .0625 cut, should I choose to cut let's say my 6 am dose at .0625?

Or, continue cutting the same dose(at midnight in my case) down to .125,and keep cutting the same midnight dose until it's completely eliminated,

then start cutting my 6 AM dose in the same fashion? I'm still wondering if I should 'cut' every two weeks, or 14 days,hold for a few days then cut again?

I feel that it would be safer in the long term, if I start/move my next .0625 cut to my 6 AM dose since Xanax has a shorter half life and duration of action,

then cut each dose (each time I cut) to the next pill and so forth, letting my body and brain get used to the cuts instead of cutting the  same pill until it's completely gone, then having a 12 hour 'window' without the Xanax, which could cause trouble. Any and all responses would be greatly appreciated.

 

                                Peace,            PepsiMoon