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

[[Tr...]]

I'm currently on .17mg once a day. I've been thinking about cutting that down even further but I've kind of rushed this taper. Would it be a bad idea to spread that .17mg through out the day? Maybe split it into thirds and take a equal amount in the morning, afternoon, and night. Perhaps just twice a day? Or maybe I should just continue on with what I'm doing.

[[Ra...]]

Tree, are you experiencing any interdose w/d symptoms?  If not, I wouldn't break it up.  I would continue with your single dose unless you're having issues otherwise.

 

Grinch, I haven't been on in a while and see you recently jumped, CONGRATUATIONS!!!  You just hammered through your taper, good for you!!!!  How are you feeling?  Better since you jumped?

 

My taper continues to go well as I slug along at a flat .0625 reduction every other week.  I dose twice a day and so far so good.  Not that I'm always feeling perfect, but nothing as bad as my acute period in Fall of 2013 when I was off work for 3 months.  I'm a little more than half way done. 

 

Congrats to Saul and Oz at being so close!

 

Marija, I feel bad for you you are having such a rough go 

 

Mrs, glad to see you are still with us    How are you feeling lady? 

 

Hugs to all my fellow Xanax taperers 

[[mr...]]

Tree, are you experiencing any interdose w/d symptoms?  If not, I wouldn't break it up.  I would continue with your single dose unless you're having issues otherwise.

 

Grinch, I haven't been on in a while and see you recently jumped, CONGRATUATIONS!!!  You just hammered through your taper, good for you!!!!  How are you feeling?  Better since you jumped?

 

My taper continues to go well as I slug along at a flat .0625 reduction every other week.  I dose twice a day and so far so good.  Not that I'm always feeling perfect, but nothing as bad as my acute period in Fall of 2013 when I was off work for 3 months.  I'm a little more than half way done. 

 

Congrats to Saul and Oz at being so close!

 

Marija, I feel bad for you you are having such a rough go 

 

Mrs, glad to see you are still with us    How are you feeling lady? 

 

Hugs to all my fellow Xanax taperers 

 

(((((Bunny!!!)))))

 

Good to see you! I am doing well, thank you for asking! The process "ebbs" & "flows" of course, but I am seeing improvement after improvement as time passes by. It is a bit slower than I'd like it to be, but I am very grateful for the progress that has been made I'm so proud of you for sticking to your tapering plan, girl - I know it can feel slow, and I know how it feels to want to rush things along. But, for me, in the end, I am VERY grateful that I didn't rush things along at all. For me, the lower doses were a bit troublesome to work through, so I'm very grateful I took things slow & gradual building up to that point. Thus far, in my 2+ years being a part of this forum and seeing hundreds of buddies posting, I only know of me and two other persons who have had any sort of "uptick" in the low doses of a very slow taper - we're "rare air" I think - so I have very little doubt that you'll have any sort of issues at all coming off! Heck, you probably won't even notice it   Yes hah!! You're over half way done, girl - bet that feels great!! How have you been feeling? Have you noticed steady improvements as you've gotten lower, or has it gotten any more challenging? What are your main/recurring symptoms currently? Anything change since you've started tapering? You've got a good year (or more?) under your belt, so you've got some good experience to go off of now!

 

Okie dokes, off to bed for me It was good "seeing" you again!!!! Keep in touch, eh?

 

Mrs.

[[Ra...]]

Tree, are you experiencing any interdose w/d symptoms?  If not, I wouldn't break it up.  I would continue with your single dose unless you're having issues otherwise.

 

Grinch, I haven't been on in a while and see you recently jumped, CONGRATUATIONS!!!  You just hammered through your taper, good for you!!!!  How are you feeling?  Better since you jumped?

 

My taper continues to go well as I slug along at a flat .0625 reduction every other week.  I dose twice a day and so far so good.  Not that I'm always feeling perfect, but nothing as bad as my acute period in Fall of 2013 when I was off work for 3 months.  I'm a little more than half way done. 

 

Congrats to Saul and Oz at being so close!

 

Marija, I feel bad for you you are having such a rough go 

 

Mrs, glad to see you are still with us    How are you feeling lady? 

 

Hugs to all my fellow Xanax taperers 

 

(((((Bunny!!!)))))

 

Good to see you! I am doing well, thank you for asking! The process "ebbs" & "flows" of course, but I am seeing improvement after improvement as time passes by. It is a bit slower than I'd like it to be, but I am very grateful for the progress that has been made I am SO happy for you!  You were such a comfort to me when I first joined.  I pray that God continues your healing process, I know he will 

 

I'm so proud of you for sticking to your tapering plan, girl - I know it can feel slow, and I know how it feels to want to rush things along. But, for me, in the end, I am VERY grateful that I didn't rush things along at all. For me, the lower doses were a bit troublesome to work through, so I'm very grateful I took things slow & gradual building up to that point. Thus far, in my 2+ years being a part of this forum and seeing hundreds of buddies posting, I only know of me and two other persons who have had any sort of "uptick" in the low doses of a very slow taper - we're "rare air" I think Well, THAT is the kind of information I've been looking for.  So much of what I've read, either you have trouble at the top of your taper or at the bottom, so since I've had a fairly smooth ride so far, I just assumed I would get konked over the head in the lower doses.  Oh this give me SUCH hope, THANK YOU for saying this 

 

- so I have very little doubt that you'll have any sort of issues at all coming off! Heck, you probably won't even notice it   Yes hah!! You're over half way done, girl - bet that feels great!! Yep, when I hit that half way mark, I was pretty tickled!!  Just another 12 months to go.  Christmas day 2015 is supposed to be my jump day if I continue to taper at this rate.

 

How have you been feeling? Actually I think I 'generally' feel better at the lower doses.

 

Have you noticed steady improvements as you've gotten lower, or has it gotten any more challenging? Yes I have noticed improvements.  I seem more myself, I can laugh with friends and even have a glass of wine if I want.  So far, nothing is more challenging.  Everything is better.  I can even occasionally nap in the middle of the day.  Sometimes they end up being toxic naps, but sometimes good.  Haven't been able to nap for almost a year and I was a VERY good napper.  Could lay my head down just about anywhere and go to sleep if I wanted to, NOT so now!  But it is getting better.  Muscle twitching is less and muscle pain is less. I used to have a lot of tightness in my left thigh and both of my buttocks. 

 

What are your main/recurring symptoms currently? I would say, my sleep is still disturbed.  I think the only reason I sleep as well as I do is because of the Seroquel and occasional glass of wine.  I do have some tinnitus.  Not terrible.  Sometimes I think it's gone, but it may not be.  When it's quiet is when I notice it most or when I think 'do have tinnitus right now?', then I have tinnitus.  So with that I just try to distract.  I hope that symptom doesn't become worse. I am sensitive to stress, no shocker there.  If I get stressed, I will almost immediately get shaky hands and weirdly, my voice can get hoarse. When stressed or worried (doesn't take much), I can feel my heart beat in my abdomen, I HATE THAT!  That actually causes me anxiety! I know it's a harmless symptom, but I take it as a sign my anxiety is ramping up and it makes it worse!

 

Anything change since you've started tapering? You've got a good year (or more?) under your belt, so you've got some good experience to go off of now! I would say I feel more confident in my taper.  I use to shake like a leaf when cutting up my doses and weigh them on a gram scale and be all OCD about it.  Now I just try to get it close.  Course, I'm still on a pretty high dose. 

 

Okie dokes, off to bed for me It was good "seeing" you again!!!! Keep in touch, eh? Absolutely!  I was so tickled to see you posted!  Hugs to you my friend and may  God continue to bless you    Shalom

 

Mrs.

[[mr...]]

Bunny, IMO, I think its another good sign that things are improving as you get lower For me, things (veerrry sloooowly) got a lil teensy bit harder the lower I got. So progressively slowly worse that I didn't even detect it - until it "clobbered" me, lol So, long story short - lol - I think it's a good sign that you're going to be aaaiiight in the low doses, IMO Just keep moving slow & steady - and if your body says to slow it down at any point, DO IT (again, IMO ) You're doing great, friend Proud of you!

 

Mrs.

[[Ra...]]

Thank you Mrs!  Not sure what this means .  . .?

 

I think it's a good sign that you're going to be aaaiiight in the low doses, IMO

 

I had a bit of a scare this morning and was convinced my taper was going south on me, but hub convinced me otherwise and I'm sure he was right.  Within an hour, I was OK again.  It sure is scary when you start to think the taper is going haywire, YIKES!

 

Thank you so much for all of your support.  I'm SO happy things are going well for you!

 

Love, Bunny 

[[mr...]]

Thank you Mrs!  Not sure what this means .  . .?

 

I think it's a good sign that you're going to be aaaiiight in the low doses, IMO

 

I had a bit of a scare this morning and was convinced my taper was going south on me, but hub convinced me otherwise and I'm sure he was right.  Within an hour, I was OK again.  It sure is scary when you start to think the taper is going haywire, YIKES!

 

Thank you so much for all of your support.  I'm SO happy things are going well for you!

 

Love, Bunny 

 

I meant that, since you're feeling better & better the lower you go, its probably a good sign that you're going to be alright (aka: aaiiight!) in the low doses 

 

What was your "scare"? (If you don't mind my asking!)

 

Mrs.

[[oz...]]

Hi Grinch thanks for your positive feedback. A quick update, I have dropped my morning dose and now on just 0.0625mg in the PM. Today was the first day without the morning dose and I managed to get through a busy day without any problems.... woooh! I can't believe after 2 years on the Xanax I'll soon be free.

[[sa...]]

Good to hear Ozbear,

 

I quick question to everyone. Do you think holding for longer than a week in the lower doses of xanax would help lessen symptoms?

 

Because of it's short half life, I wonder if waiting more than a week when cutting xanax would make a difference or not?

 

I plan to keep cutting once a week, but it would be nice to think that holding longer would help if I needed to.

 

Ozbear, sounds like you will have a successful jump soon and I hope pain free or very, very close.

[Guest [Ma...]]

Update from the trenches .....

 

Unbearable!  Not sure why my wheels are coming off but I have every symptom in the book expressed exponentially😞

Could be from previous C/t ?

Wasnt able to drive my kiddos to school or activities yesterday - thank God for girlfriends!!

So, will try Valium.... I added 2 mg last night and will hold my X at the current dosage for a bit. This is incredibly painful process for me. Hopefully, just a bump in the road and the remainder will even out for the remainder.

 

Take good care my fellow BB's!!

Marija

 

Ps terrific reading so many are close to completion and feeling well!!

Much healing to you all.

 

 

 

[[mr...]]

Yo Marija. Mrs here

 

I "hit a wall", or "the poo-poo hit the fan", or "my cup ranneth over", at around 70-75% free from my original starting dose. I don't know why exactly, because I'd moved very slow up to that point. In hindsight, I had some "yellow lights" that had popped up a couple months before, but just didn't really know that they were signs to "slow down" per say. For me, it got progressively harder the lower I got. I didn't notice it though, because the downhill progression happened at a very slow and (at the time) undetectable rate. In hindsight, I can see this now, that I was feeling a bit worse and worse as the months passed by. But back then, I didn't. Anyways, all that to say, that if I had to guess what's going on with you, your cuts probably just "caught up" with you at this point. I did taper off of xanax and never crossed over, but if I had a "do-over", I might have considered a crossover more seriously. That's just ME, okay? Just my opinion on my personal experiences So, I am interested to learn more about how you do with a crossover like you're doing. I also think its wise to just hold with your xanax, and IMO I like that you have a teensy bit of an updose, in order to restabilize again. IMO, just keep moving very slow in the c/o like you're doing - treating each step of the c/o like a cut & such - and I think it should help a bit I have been very intrigued by Diaz-Pam's method of tapering for a long time, so I'm interested to see how you do

 

OK, back to work for Mrs! Feel better soon, dear

 

Mrs.

[Guest [ga...]]

My psych nurse had me on xanax only at bedtime. After about month I came part at the seams, apparently due to inter-dose withdrawal. She thought I just needed more at bedtime and upped the dose. Switched doctors.

 

My new psychiatrist said to spread the same amount of xanax out over 4 doses. I have started to shift a portion to earlier in the day. Does 4 doses sound right? I can't figure out from people's signatures how many times a day they are dosing.

 

Also, toward the end, when the doses get so tiny, is it OK to cut the number of doses rather than try to cut the size of the dose? I want to write down a plan so my son can help me measure my doses when I am too spaced out to do it myself. My main issue is sleep and I know that's going to go downhill with these changes. So I expect to be math challenged very shortly!

 

Thanks!

[[Ch...]]

My psych nurse had me on xanax only at bedtime. After about month I came part at the seams, apparently due to inter-dose withdrawal. She thought I just needed more at bedtime and upped the dose. Switched doctors.

 

My new psychiatrist said to spread the same amount of xanax out over 4 doses. I have started to shift a portion to earlier in the day. Does 4 doses sound right? I can't figure out from people's signatures how many times a day they are dosing.

 

Also, toward the end, when the doses get so tiny, is it OK to cut the number of doses rather than try to cut the size of the dose? I want to write down a plan so my son can help me measure my doses when I am too spaced out to do it myself. My main issue is sleep and I know that's going to go downhill with these changes. So I expect to be math challenged very shortly!

 

Thanks!

 

Probably a reasonable expectation...I couldn't add two single digit numbers accurately for awhile. 

 

Four doses worked for me when I was tapering.  I spread them roughly 6 hours apart although it didn't seem to bother me to miss dosing by an hour or two.  When you get to the point where you're ready to make it simpler, you can either cut the amount of each dose or eliminate a dose, depending on what you tolerate at the time.  I didn't have much trouble going from four doses to three, etc.

[Guest [ga...]]

Thanks, Challis. It's good to hear that eliminating a dose is a possibility.

[[th...]]

My psych nurse had me on xanax only at bedtime. After about month I came part at the seams, apparently due to inter-dose withdrawal. She thought I just needed more at bedtime and upped the dose. Switched doctors.

 

My new psychiatrist said to spread the same amount of xanax out over 4 doses. I have started to shift a portion to earlier in the day. Does 4 doses sound right? I can't figure out from people's signatures how many times a day they are dosing.

 

Also, toward the end, when the doses get so tiny, is it OK to cut the number of doses rather than try to cut the size of the dose? I want to write down a plan so my son can help me measure my doses when I am too spaced out to do it myself. My main issue is sleep and I know that's going to go downhill with these changes. So I expect to be math challenged very shortly!

 

Thanks!

 

Probably a reasonable expectation...I couldn't add two single digit numbers accurately for awhile. 

 

Four doses worked for me when I was tapering.  I spread them roughly 6 hours apart although it didn't seem to bother me to miss dosing by an hour or two.  When you get to the point where you're ready to make it simpler, you can either cut the amount of each dose or eliminate a dose, depending on what you tolerate at the time.  I didn't have much trouble going from four doses to three, etc.

 

I thought I would jump in here so you can see my sig. I started dosing 4xday at the beginning of my taper after only taking xanax for sleep too. It helped with the interdose wd. I kept at that path making cuts to each dosing time trying to keep the doses as equal as possible. Then I got to the end (see sig) and began cutting out doses. It was pretty simple really so don't fret. Let us know if you have questions. Challis (Chalpal  ) helped me immensely and I hope I can give the same encouragement back to others.

 

Grinch 

[Guest [ga...]]

Oh, thanks so much. That's just the sort of thing I was looking for!

[[th...]]

Oh, thanks so much. That's just the sort of thing I was looking for!

 

When I cut doses out I would change the times I took the rest of them. Spreading them out further but keeping the hrs between equal so my body could adjust to it. Pretty soon I was taking only two doses 12 hours apart and then just one dose...and then none 

 

G

[[Tr...]]

I just found the xanax support Blog! hi guys! I'm currently down to .17mg/day. I've been splitting .5mg quarter bars into 3 lines (.17mg each). I know this method isn't extremely accurate and after reading a bit of stuff on here I heard about micro dosing. I ordered a mg scale on Amazon with a mortar and pestle. I'm pretty excited to be at this point - I can't see myself ever going back to 1.5-2mg/day. I have a question for all you jumpers out there: are you completely avoiding the drug you jumped from for the rest of you life or do you allow yourself to take it very occasionally, and if so how often? I doubt I'll ever take Xanax again but if I have a severe panic attack or something crazy happens in my life - maybe I'll take a VERY small dose if needed.

[[Ch...]]

Never again for me.  I asked my doctor to put a note on my chart to avoid being given a benzodiazepine again.  Ever again.

[[Je...]]

When I get off, I'm never going to touch the excrement again.  It makes you worse.

[[mr...]]

No more for me either. If a "bad" panic occurs, I'll take a beta blocker (I have it prescribed by my doctor in low dose). But no more benzos. In Jesus' name!

 

Mrs.

[[mr...]]

When I get off, I'm never going to touch the excrement again.  It makes you worse.

 

"Excrement" - I LIKE it!! Haha, made me giggle!!

 

Mrs.

[Guest [Ma...]]

Hello Mrs!

 

Thanks again for your thoughts while in the trenches!

Yes, I think the cuts just caught up to my taper weary body. I have to bare in mind that this is my third, back to back, attemp to discontinue a benzo. Twice k; now X. I believe this figures prominently into the approach as I move forward - slow, slow, sow.

For me, the first attempt at tapering, I was no where near as symptomatic.  My CNS has had it with the poking and prodding!!

So far so good with adding in the V. A bit thick headed and "dopey" feeling this morning; however, preferable to the " jumping out if my skin, burning, tingling mess 24/7" soley on X.

I will stop by and say hello to Diaz Pam and pick up a few tips.

 

Working my way out,

Marija 😘

[[Tr...]]

Right on. After reading what a lot of other have to say - I'll never be touching any type of benzo again after I jump. Does anyone use alcohol and cannabis (responsibly) to help with the PAWs? I smoke before bed which helps me sleep and I have a few beers when I get off work. I try not to drink to excess. Anyone do anything similar?

 

When I was on the benzo's I would drink a lot and it got to a point where I wouldn't black out anymore. I know that was a bad idea, I hope I didn't make the whole dependency worse by adding alcohol into the mix. During my taper I am only going to drink 3-4 hours after I take my daily dose.

[Guest [ga...]]

Oh, thanks so much. That's just the sort of thing I was looking for!

 

When I cut doses out I would change the times I took the rest of them. Spreading them out further but keeping the hrs between equal so my body could adjust to it. Pretty soon I was taking only two doses 12 hours apart and then just one dose...and then none 

 

G

 

Yeah, that makes sense. Even them out.