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

[Guest [ga...]]

The math looks good, but I wonder why 3 hours apart?  4x3=12. What about the other 12 hours in the day? 

 

If my math is wrong here, somebody let me know!

[[Ra...]]

Just to keep everyone updated. Tomorrow I'm replacing my 0.5 XR with 4x 0.125 normal Xanax doses spread out 3 hours apart. Hopefully this transition is smooth.

 

Good luck Raven, please keep us posted 

[[Ra...]]

The math looks good, but I wonder why 3 hours apart?  4x3=12. What about the other 12 hours in the day? 

 

If my math is wrong here, somebody let me know!

 

The XR never covered 24 hours. It's about 10.7 - 15.8 hours or something around there.

[Guest [ga...]]

The math looks good, but I wonder why 3 hours apart?  4x3=12. What about the other 12 hours in the day? 

 

If my math is wrong here, somebody let me know!

 

The XR never covered 24 hours. It's about 10.7 - 15.8 hours or something around there.

 

 

I see. (I think.) 

And then you're OK after it wears off? I've never taken XR, so I'm just wondering.

[[Ra...]]

The math looks good, but I wonder why 3 hours apart?  4x3=12. What about the other 12 hours in the day? 

 

If my math is wrong here, somebody let me know!

 

The XR never covered 24 hours. It's about 10.7 - 15.8 hours or something around there.

 

 

I see. (I think.) 

And then you're OK after it wears off? I've never taken XR, so I'm just wondering.

Pretty much. The difference is that it leaves the blood slower so you kind of get a smooth 'ride' out. I was having tolerance withdrawal symptoms on the XR anyways so this should actually make me feel better. Only a little dizzy and shaky so far. I might split my last dose in half to kind of emulate the XR because at the end of the day is where its pretty much left my system : )

[[Mo...]]

Just to keep everyone updated. Tomorrow I'm replacing my 0.5 XR with 4x 0.125 normal Xanax doses spread out 3 hours apart. Hopefully this transition is smooth.

 

Good Luck Raven. 

[Guest [ga...]]

The math looks good, but I wonder why 3 hours apart?  4x3=12. What about the other 12 hours in the day? 

 

If my math is wrong here, somebody let me know!

 

The XR never covered 24 hours. It's about 10.7 - 15.8 hours or something around there.

 

 

I see. (I think.) 

And then you're OK after it wears off? I've never taken XR, so I'm just wondering.

Pretty much. The difference is that it leaves the blood slower so you kind of get a smooth 'ride' out. I was having tolerance withdrawal symptoms on the XR anyways so this should actually make me feel better. Only a little dizzy and shaky so far. I might split my last dose in half to kind of emulate the XR because at the end of the day is where its pretty much left my system : )

 

Sounds like you're doing pretty well. I dream of the day that I am at that low a dose!

Best wishes and let us know how it goes!

[[...]]

Hi Buddies, just a quick question. I have noticed when I am getting sick with a cold the interdose w/d sweats become bad. Has anyone else noticed peculiar s/sx's of w/d when they are sick or getting sick? thx

[[Ra...]]

I'm not sure how to multi quote so..

@Rabbit11 Thank you

@Monique123 Thank you also

@gardener59 I am and I'm shocked. Didn't think I could but I just kept doing what I would normally do during the day and didn't pay attention to the meds. I did have up's and downs between doses which is something I expected. If I can hold at this and feel stable, then I'll be able to start cutting But yeah, you will! Patience is key!

[[th...]]

Hi Buddies, just a quick question. I have noticed when I am getting sick with a cold the interdose w/d sweats become bad. Has anyone else noticed peculiar s/sx's of w/d when they are sick or getting sick? thx

 

Yes. Anything that revs up syxs does this. Colds, drinks, stress, anything = sweaty mess 

[[va...]]

Good luck Raven. 

 

~K

[[Ra...]]

I'm not sure how to multi quote so..

@Rabbit11 Thank you

@Monique123 Thank you also

@gardener59 I am and I'm shocked. Didn't think I could but I just kept doing what I would normally do during the day and didn't pay attention to the meds. I did have up's and downs between doses which is something I expected. If I can hold at this and feel stable, then I'll be able to start cutting But yeah, you will! Patience is key!

 

Hi Raven,

 

I believe to do a multi quote, you just go to the poster's quote you wan to quote and at the top right, it says, insert quote, click that, it will automatically put the contents of that post into your open post.  Then you can go to someone else's post and do the same thing and it will that quote in your open post. 

 

Good luck,

 

Bunny

[[ba...]]

today is exactly 7 months i've been not taking xanax , seems like a lifetime ago when i took that medicine , even today i still carry my xanax bottle with me where ever i go i had to wrap a clear tape around the bottle so the writting on the prescripiton bottle doesnt fade

 

i quit at 0.0625mg which was the same dose other folks quit from if i could do this all over again i would water taper cuz even at just 1/8th of a 0.50 mg xanax pill i felt horrible 2 months then i started getting better. activatng & alot of exercise was my key to reducing severe yucky withdrawals , i took magnesium vitamin D & vitamin C all together at once to help me sleep and i also made chamomille tea i made it extra strong i got 2 tea bags put them in coffee cup filled with water in microwave  1min 45 sec i let the tea bags sit in cup 20-30 minutes as i pulled the tea bags out i squeeseed the moisture from bags into my cup

you will feel some senstivity to lights i wore sunglases indoors this helped me alot with this it helps also with insomnia since our body doesnt adjust to sleep being around too much lights !! avoid excess sugar  if your worried about seizures you'll be safe if you quit a dose size my size or smaller ive been seizure prone the last 10 years i didnt have any

 

i wish you folks the best of luck i know its really tough going thru this but this is do-able , god bless you'all ,

Katie (babyangel)

[[va...]]

hey babyangel!  Congratulations! 

 

~K   

[Guest [ga...]]

I have a question about tapering xanax for those with experience. I originally took it for debilitating insomnia, sort of like mini panic attacks that only happened when I was asleep, and, of course, woke me up. I was originally prescribed it at bedtime only and went through 3 horrible months of inter-dose withdrawal. I have a new prescriber who told me to take the same dose and divide it up so I am dosing 4-5 times/day instead of all in the evening. So, little by little, I changed it so I was distributing it more evenly throughout the day. So far no big problems, but I also have made no major cuts.

 

Now I take my smallest doses at 3:00AM-ish, 7:30AM, 12:30PM, and 5:30PM. I still take a larger dose at bedtime around 10:00PM. As I start my taper, I'm wondering if the most important thing to do is get the doses all equal first. That would mean I would be doing all of my cutting off of the bedtime dose first. Then I figure the next thing would be to get rid of the middle of the night dose and take only 4 doses.

 

That's how I'm thinking and I'm wondering if anyone has done something similar or has another suggestion. I do know that as my bedtime dose goes down, I will stop sleeping again.

 

I take Seroquel several nights/week right now when I am feeling exhausted and must sleep to function. My psychiatrist said it was OK to take it every night if/when my sleep deteriorates, which it's starting to do already. Not a good night last night, but then my son did total his car yesterday!   He's fine, though. He always wears his seatbelt. Still, it was a very stressful day!

[[Ch...]]

So glad to hear your son's okay… it doesn't get much more stressful than to hear that one of our children has something going on.  Even the normal folks don't sleep then, right?

 

For me, as long as I stuck with 100% of my dose within a 24 hour period, I could move things around fairly easily.  Some people can, some can't do it without feeling it.

 

When I was dosing four times a day, I kept rotating the cuts to keep them even, always leaving the last cut for the bedtime dose in hopes it would allay some of the insomnia.

 

My friend Charlie never took it any other time than bedtime… 9pm… even when she was tapering.  I couldn't have done that, I'd have felt w/d symptoms after 4-6 hours.

[Guest [ga...]]

So glad to hear your son's okay… it doesn't get much more stressful than to hear that one of our children has something going on.  Even the normal folks don't sleep then, right?

 

For me, as long as I stuck with 100% of my dose within a 24 hour period, I could move things around fairly easily.  Some people can, some can't do it without feeling it.

 

When I was dosing four times a day, I kept rotating the cuts to keep them even, always leaving the last cut for the bedtime dose in hopes it would allay some of the insomnia.

 

My friend Charlie never took it any other time than bedtime… 9pm… even when she was tapering.  I couldn't have done that, I'd have felt w/d symptoms after 4-6 hours.

 

Thanks, Challis. 

 

I'm like you with the dosing. My interdose withdrawal was awful. I thought I was going to end up in a psych ward.

 

I like your rotating plan. Sounds like that would mean getting my bedtime dose down to even with my daytime doses first and then go from there. I know that will mean relying more on the Seroquel, but it seems the lesser of two evils at this point. At least I only need to take it at bedtime and I don't get any kind of rebound anxiety in the daytime from it. It just makes me pretty drowsy all the next morning. So I have learned to do around-the-house stuff in the morning and schedule appointments and errands in the afternoon. I don't drive on the freeway anymore, though. I feel lag in my thinking I didn't used to have before the Xanax and the poor sleep and now the Seroquel. Makes me feel nervous driving at high speeds.

 

Ironically, two days ago, my son and I went for a drive on the freeway so he could practice his on and off ramp skills, and he did pretty well. Then the next morning he was going way too fast in a parking lot, turned into the morning sun, got blinded and hit a light post hard enough to shift it. Airbag deployed. Hood crunched. Headlights popped out. Car totaled. So, apparently he's fine on highways and dangerous in parking lots!    Well, he's only twenty and I guess guys that age must learn these things the hard way.

[[Ch...]]

Well, the good thing is that he'll probably be hyper aware for awhile… right?  That's what happens to me with a close one, anyway.

And I agree with you on the freeway driving.  Most of us really shouldn't be driving in w/d… we're not 'all there'.  I think the fact that most of us hate to drive during w/d is our brains telling us it's not a good idea.

 

Same thing with the agoraphobia… our brains telling us we need to hunker down and chill in safety…go to the ground, as they say.  Hole up and heal.

 

[Guest [ga...]]

Well, the good thing is that he'll probably be hyper aware for awhile… right?  That's what happens to me with a close one, anyway.

And I agree with you on the freeway driving.  Most of us really shouldn't be driving in w/d… we're not 'all there'.  I think the fact that most of us hate to drive during w/d is our brains telling us it's not a good idea.

 

Same thing with the agoraphobia… our brains telling us we need to hunker down and chill in safety…go to the ground, as they say.  Hole up and heal.

 

 

Amen to all of that! 

[[ba...]]

hi miss  vangoghsear,

thanks for congraduating me 

 

i have a question is xanax less effective if you just take your dose with water instead of placing it under your tongue to let it disolve? i did it this way just took with water the first year i took it, seems like this was my worst year taking it

 

thanks for replies,

katie (babyangel)

[Guest [ga...]]

I've never tried Xanax under the tongue. I have a liquid that I just swallow and it works fine. One caveat, I find it works better on an empty stomach. It was especially slow to start working if I took it after a high-fat meal. So, maybe it matters what's in your stomach when you swallow it?

[[...]]

Yes, all medications' absorption rate is slowed down when food is in the stomach. If you can take your Xanax sublingual (under the tongue) you would get a more effective dose as it doesn't go through what is called "the first pass effect", meaning if it is taken orally and into the stomach, the liver filters any thing perceived as a toxin therefore weakening the strength. (just stuff learned in nursing school) take care, Rose

[[va...]]

I have a question about tapering xanax for those with experience. I originally took it for debilitating insomnia, sort of like mini panic attacks that only happened when I was asleep, and, of course, woke me up. I was originally prescribed it at bedtime only and went through 3 horrible months of inter-dose withdrawal. I have a new prescriber who told me to take the same dose and divide it up so I am dosing 4-5 times/day instead of all in the evening. So, little by little, I changed it so I was distributing it more evenly throughout the day. So far no big problems, but I also have made no major cuts.

 

Now I take my smallest doses at 3:00AM-ish, 7:30AM, 12:30PM, and 5:30PM. I still take a larger dose at bedtime around 10:00PM. As I start my taper, I'm wondering if the most important thing to do is get the doses all equal first. That would mean I would be doing all of my cutting off of the bedtime dose first. Then I figure the next thing would be to get rid of the middle of the night dose and take only 4 doses.

 

That's how I'm thinking and I'm wondering if anyone has done something similar or has another suggestion. I do know that as my bedtime dose goes down, I will stop sleeping again.

 

I take Seroquel several nights/week right now when I am feeling exhausted and must sleep to function. My psychiatrist said it was OK to take it every night if/when my sleep deteriorates, which it's starting to do already. Not a good night last night, but then my son did total his car yesterday!   He's fine, though. He always wears his seatbelt. Still, it was a very stressful day!

 

Hey gardener, I originally took a larger dose at night to help me sleep (I was dosing twice/day), but I cut round robin, and I ended up keeping the larger dose during the day so I would experience less side effects while I was awake.  (not that I wasn't also awake all night half the time because of insomnia because I was.)  Since you're dosing several times/day, this probably isn't as much of an issue for you as it was for me.

 

hi miss  vangoghsear,

thanks for congraduating me 

 

i have a question is xanax less effective if you just take your dose with water instead of placing it under your tongue to let it disolve? i did it this way just took with water the first year i took it, seems like this was my worst year taking it

 

thanks for replies,

katie (babyangel)

 

yuck!  I can't even imagine dissolving a xanax in my mouth, with water, milk or anything!  Nope, I swallowed them. 

 

 

 

Namate.

 

~K    :smitten:

[[Ch...]]

I have taken Xanax under the tongue before… nastiest taste ever.  Bitter. 

But it worked faster that way.

[Guest [ga...]]

Thanks, Van. I think I understand what you mean. Did you keep the 2 doses lopsided like that through your whole taper?