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

[[br...]]

Hi all,

 

Are we allowed to swear here? WHAT A ******* GREAT COMMUNITY! Oops, never mind... 

 

But so many success stories around here, wow! I want mine to be one too!

 

Here goes:

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder type II and GAD in 2008

2008-2012: lots and lots of meds but finally setting on Lamotrigine (Lamictal) between 200 and 400mg and bromazepame (lexomil) if needed. Many rounds of SSRIs too (all of them) and SNRIs (excepted Cymbalta).

 

Benzo + opiates-wise

2012-2014: 20mg Valium

12/2014-> 8/2015: comfortable slow taper to 6-8mg Valium

8/2015 -> herniated disc getting slowly worse

10/1/2015 -> herniated disc getting very severe in a few days: ended up 4 times in the ER in less than two weeks

10/1/2015 -> 1st ER -> 3x100 tramadol Rxed

10/3/2015 -> 2nd ER -> 5mg morphine 3x + 0,5mg Xanax 3x/day

10/4/2015 -> 3rd ER -> 30mg morphine ER 2 times a day + 10mg IR every four hour if needed (hint: it is).

10/8/2015 -> 4th ER -> 60mg morphine ER 2x + 10 mg as needed every 4 hour

10/15/2015 -> consult with GP: bumped up to 100mg morphine twice a day + 10 mg as needed + 3x 1mg Xanax. At this time I litterally feel electrical current flowing though my right leg and cannot find any position comfortable enough for me to sleep. Suicidal thoughts.

At this point of time, I start to take the 0,5mg Xanax pills as candies, just to get into some state of oblivion. Probably up to 8mg or so.

11/5/2015 -> I finally meet a surgeon who, on seing my MRI, decides to operate ASAP.

11/10/2015 -> Hospital calls me. I need to go be there next Monday. I have a deadline I can live for!

11/14/2015 -> Hospital calls me again. Operation canceled. Overwhelmed after the attacks in Paris (I live in Paris, a couple blocks away from le Bataclan). Even more suicidal for way too many reasons now. Learning a good friend of mine has died. Taking even more Xanax pills and loosing my head. GP wants me to go to the mental hospital, but nope, sorry, not a priority to me. And my father looks down on me like I'm such a junkie now. I must act like one.

11/17/2015 -> I'm called by the hospital. Operation tomorrow

11/18/2015 -> Operated. Surgeon stops morphine cold turkey and decides to retain all my meds (incl. the Xanax pills). Unfortunately I lied on being admitted, said I could get away with 1 mg at most. Feeling way much better right after the operation. No more 220V trickling down my leg.

11/19/2015 -> morphine withdrawal starts to kick in. Oh man! Somewhat managed with loperamide and tramadol. I can push my Xanax allowance to 1.5mg but knows it won't be enough before long...

11/20/2015 -> Hospital refuses to release me yet as announced yesterday. I want to jump out of my own skin. Feel like I'm going to lose my mind anytime now. Room mate is a victim of the attacks which is too much for me to take. Going nuts nuts nuts.

11/21/2015 -> Woke up in agony. Did not sleep a single minute. Everything hurts. If they refuse to release me again, I'm ready to flee and going back home in pajama through Paris. But hospital releases me at 10, after removing the blood drain thingy (don't know the name in English). I have access to my meds and take 3mg Xanax right away as I'm leaving and before I meet my worried parents.

11/22/2015 -> Morphine withdrawal still full-throttle (be lucky I won't be graphic! 1 more mg Xanax before bed.

11/23/2015 -> Hurrah! I slept! 4 hours! Morphine withdrawal getting somewhat better with the help of 300mg tramadol. 3mg Xanax to help me navigate the day, easier now at home with my parents.

11/24/2015 -> 2.5 Xanax mg manageable so far. 200mg Tramadol.

11/25/2015 -> 2mg Xanax still manageable. 150 mg Tramadol.

11/26/2015 -> 1mg Xanax + 10 mg Valium and last 50 mg tramadol. Yet to see how this will go. Doing OK so far I guess...

 

I've decided to switch totally to Valium tomorrow. No apprehension: the switch always has worked for me. No reason for that to change.

 

I have no real deadline or goal: I'd think that my predictions would get into my way. I'm not really superstitious but still.

 

All my thoughts here are going out to my benzo buddies. My heart also goes out to all the victims of the attacks of 11-13-15.

 

Sorry for the long-winded post but needed to get a lot of stuff off my chest.

 

 

Edit: Profanity Removed

[[Do...]]

On the way home, please don't mind being sad. It comes & goes. There are many ways to cope with detoxing, tapering etc. Even using everything possible sometimes we just are sad until be come out of it.

 

I go for the anger since it stays the depression but holding onto it is bad. I've been using meditation besides noninvasive therapy. There are studies done to show the usefulness of mindfulness. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/

 

I use guided meditation. This site is handy. Some of them are very short.http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

 

Hope you're feeling better. I'm removing myself from stressful holiday situations. Had a great time in Manhattan yesterday, all day.

 

Good luck. We are there and here.

[Guest [On...]]

On the way home, please don't mind being sad. It comes & goes. There are many ways to cope with detoxing, tapering etc. Even using everything possible sometimes we just are sad until be come out of it.

 

I go for the anger since it stays the depression but holding onto it is bad. I've been using meditation besides noninvasive therapy. There are studies done to show the usefulness of mindfulness. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/

 

I use guided meditation. This site is handy. Some of them are very short.http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

 

Hope you're feeling better. I'm removing myself from stressful holiday situations. Had a great time in Manhattan yesterday, all day.

 

Good luck. We are there and here.

 

Thank you, Dog Tag!  What you wrote made me think:  it's OK to be sad, isn't it?  I mean we're all suffering horribly and it's sad.  I realize that I don't have to be sad about being sad!

 

Good on you for avoiding the holiday stress!!

 

[[Sh...]]

On the way home, yes, it is okay to be sad!  You have to feel!  We hope you feel better soon though....

[[Be...]]

Hello everyone on the Xanax board!

 

Hey, I was wondering if any of you know what a generic 1mg rapid release tablet weights?

 

I am doing a reduction chart for a friend & am trying to get some numbers together for her before her scale arrives. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks 

[[ga...]]

Hello everyone on the Xanax board!

 

Hey, I was wondering if any of you know what a generic 1mg rapid release tablet weights?

 

I am doing a reduction chart for a friend & am trying to get some numbers together for her before her scale arrives. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks 

 

I would think that would vary from brand to brand and even from pill to pill, sorry to say.   

[[Sh...]]

I don't weigh my stuff, but aren't you supposed to get the scale first? Then you weigh 10 pills, divide by 10 and use that as the baseline to calibrate the scale?  You can't really calibrate it (meaning find the zero set point) until you own it.  Every scale is going to have a margin of error.  Awesome that you are being so helpful, Bella  you sound very sweet.  Hope this all works out.

[[Be...]]

Thanks for responding Shadow1 & gardener99-

 

Yes, it sounds logical to get scale first. To calibrate the scale one would zero it out with a given weight prior to each use, then weigh & average a sample to obtain an average weight. I would imagine the  tablets will vary a minute amount. It does seem reasonable to assume that each tablet contains 1mg of benzo & the rest would be filler due to regulations in the industry & manufacturing standards.

 

I am simply looking to get chart done asap for a friend who is struggling. I will not have the time I have right now to devote to getting it done this weekend, so I was hoping to get this chart started based on info provided from current taperers on this forum who are using a gram scale & tapering generic, 1mg Xanax tablets manufactured here in the USA ....wishful thinking I know, but worth a try I guess...So no one tapering Xanax using a gram scale here now? Hopefully someone is & will reply, otherwise I will have to wait till Friday...

 

Thanks again 

[[ga...]]

Thanks for responding Shadow1 & gardener99-

 

Yes, it sounds logical to get scale first. To calibrate the scale one would zero it out with a given weight prior to each use, then weigh & average a sample to obtain an average weight. I would imagine the  tablets will vary a minute amount. It does seem reasonable to assume that each tablet contains 1mg of benzo & the rest would be filler due to regulations in the industry & manufacturing standards.

 

I am simply looking to get chart done asap for a friend who is struggling. I will not have the time I have right now to devote to getting it done this weekend, so I was hoping to get this chart started based on info provided from current taperers on this forum who are using a gram scale & tapering generic, 1mg Xanax tablets manufactured here in the USA ....wishful thinking I know, but worth a try I guess...So no one tapering Xanax using a gram scale here now? Hopefully someone is & will reply, otherwise I will have to wait till Friday...

 

Thanks again 

 

My scale came with weights that you used to calibrate it each time you weighed something. There were directions with the scale. Humidity, vibration, even a breeze could affect the weight. The thing is very sensitive. 

 

Really, you need to have the actual pills in hand. What Shadow said is correct. Each pill will be slightly off from the others. You need to average them and then go off of the average weight of the pills. And, many different manufacturers make the generic Xanax. Each brand will be different, so there's no way of knowing ahead of time unless you know the brand and then somebody happens to have that brand on hand.

 

I am tapering my Xanax using a liquid form called alprazolam intensol. I dilute it to 5% with plain water and can make very small, very accurate cuts that way using an oral syringe. I find it so much easier than cutting pills, but some people are fine with cutting pills.

 

For people trying to be supportive of friends in withdrawal, I recommend to site recovery-road.org. Lots of good info on there for support people.

 

Best wishes,

Gard

[[Do...]]

I'm thinking this micro tapering would cause me more stress and that jumping by 1/8ths of mm would be easier and worth the symptoms. The weighing is too reminiscent of heroin use when getting desperate and cutting up bits and pieces of get better. Don't want to remember that. No scales for me then. Body problems here we come!

[[br...]]

I think I might taper a tad too fast, but I'm so fed up with the benzos right now.

 

Anyways I was at 6 mg Valium the last time I posted (after crossing over from Xanax), went down to 4 mg for a week, and now down to 3 mg, probably for one more week. Which means unfortunately that I won't jump off this year, as I had intended to do. But better safe than sorry.

 

I also stopped taking the gabapentin for 24 hours (from yesterday night to tonight) to see how I would fare, and I did not really feel the difference. Which surprised me a bit and which is great because it makes me think that gabapentin won't be such a big monkey on my back as the benzos have been.

[[Sh...]]

Bruno, I hope someone can answer you, I don't know about tapering from valium c/o. 

 

I do have a question though, and may have to start another thread.  I have been dry cutting Xanax from 1 mg, split into 4 doses a day.  Then dropping .0625 mg per week, round robin style.  At this point, I want to go to .0625 mg x3.  But I am not sure about the times to take that...So yesterday I did .0625 at 6am, .0625 at 130 and .0625 at 9:30 pm, much different than my .0625 mg x4 schedule at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight.  I could just be feeling the cut, but wonder what times worked for others.  Best to all...

[[jr...]]

Bruno, I hope someone can answer you, I don't know about tapering from valium c/o. 

 

I do have a question though, and may have to start another thread.  I have been dry cutting Xanax from 1 mg, split into 4 doses a day.  Then dropping .0625 mg per week, round robin style.  At this point, I want to go to .0625 mg x3.  But I am not sure about the times to take that...So yesterday I did .0625 at 6am, .0625 at 130 and .0625 at 9:30 pm, much different than my .0625 mg x4 schedule at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight.  I could just be feeling the cut, but wonder what times worked for others.  Best to all...

 

 

 

 

I am currently dosing .475mg of xanax divided into 4 doses per day. I tried 3 dosing but it just didnt work for me. too much time in between. My problem is I take half my dose at 9pm and the other half divided into 3 doses at 8am, 1pm and 6pm.i got to get them evened up sometime on my way down

 

 

 

 

 

[[Sh...]]

Bruno, I hope someone can answer you, I don't know about tapering from valium c/o. 

 

I do have a question though, and may have to start another thread.  I have been dry cutting Xanax from 1 mg, split into 4 doses a day.  Then dropping .0625 mg per week, round robin style.  At this point, I want to go to .0625 mg x3.  But I am not sure about the times to take that...So yesterday I did .0625 at 6am, .0625 at 130 and .0625 at 9:30 pm, much different than my .0625 mg x4 schedule at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight.  I could just be feeling the cut, but wonder what times worked for others.  Best to all...

 

 

I am currently dosing .475mg of xanax divided into 4 doses per day. I tried 3 dosing but it just didnt work for me. too much time in between. My problem is I take half my dose at 9pm and the other half divided into 3 doses at 8am, 1pm and 6pm.i got to get them evened up sometime on my way down

 

Thanks jr, I am just at such a low dose now, those pills are hard to chop, but it may be what I have to do.  FYI for me, I started at 1 mg.  The hardest part was for me to even them out into 4 doses.  I just did it right away, but you can tell from my signature, I spent awhile there before I started tapering.  Hopefully this thread will help you.  Thank you for your story.

[[Sh...]]

It just dawned on me, jr your other option could be to just start tapering the large dose, but I see, it's probably the sleep thing.  You will find a way to do this.  Looking forward to hearing.  Take Care.

[[Sh...]]

Bruno, I hope someone can answer you, I don't know about tapering from valium c/o. 

I do have a question though, and may have to start another thread.  I have been dry cutting Xanax from 1 mg, split into 4 doses a day.  Then dropping .0625 mg per week, round robin style.  At this point, I want to go to .0625 mg x3.  But I am not sure about the times to take that...So yesterday I did .0625 at 6am, .0625 at 130 and .0625 at 9:30 pm, much different than my .0625 mg x4 schedule at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight.  I could just be feeling the cut, but wonder what times worked for others.  Best to all...

 

I am currently dosing .475mg of xanax divided into 4 doses per day. I tried 3 dosing but it just didnt work for me. too much time in between. My problem is I take half my dose at 9pm and the other half divided into 3 doses at 8am, 1pm and 6pm.i got to get them evened up sometime on my way down

 

Thanks jr, I am just at such a low dose now, those pills are hard to chop, but it may be what I have to do.  FYI for me, I started at 1 mg.  The hardest part was for me to even them out into 4 doses.  I just did it right away, but you can tell from my signature, I spent awhile there before I started tapering.  Hopefully this thread will help you.  Thank you for your story.

 

I grind my pills up in a mortis and store the powder in a baby food jar. then I weigh my powder out for each dose on my gram scales, put it in a fruit juice bottle, add water and refrigerate. my doses are ready for the whole day

 

The hardest part for me was getting to a system.  As we get lower. meaning, me, not necessarily you, as we switch doses the system has to change I guess.    Interesting to hear what you are doing.  Take Care, Shadow

[[jr...]]

you are welcome. everybody has to do what makes sense to them. i was having a hard time filing pills so i decided to just change them to powder. the pills must be homogenous because other than getting in a hurry my doses have been ok.

[[th...]]

Bruno, I hope someone can answer you, I don't know about tapering from valium c/o. 

 

I do have a question though, and may have to start another thread.  I have been dry cutting Xanax from 1 mg, split into 4 doses a day.  Then dropping .0625 mg per week, round robin style.  At this point, I want to go to .0625 mg x3.  But I am not sure about the times to take that...So yesterday I did .0625 at 6am, .0625 at 130 and .0625 at 9:30 pm, much different than my .0625 mg x4 schedule at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight.  I could just be feeling the cut, but wonder what times worked for others.  Best to all...

 

Hi Shadow,

I tapered Xanax just as you are. My schedule was exactly as yours. What I did when I started dropping a timed dose was divide the dose into equal parts in the day starting early in the morning like you. Almost exactly the same times. Yes, you may feel it more bc you are dropping dose and decreasing dose but it's survivable. Then when I dropped again I went to 12 hrs apart dosing at 6 am and 6 pm. Some people wait to push back on the bedtime dose but my mindset was it is going to get dropped soon and it wasn't helping anyway. Then the morning dose dropped and finally the evening. I didn't go any lower then breaking .25mg tabs into .0625mg doses. Until the very end where I went to .03125 for a few days then said screw it and jumped. I stuck with dry cutting all the way to 0. Hope that helps. I am not saying it was easy, it was and still is a white knuckle torture but it worked in the sense to taper off for me and at least rid me of the drug.

 

Grinch

[[Sh...]]

Thanks, Grinch!  I think I did not stabilize before the last cut, and being I'm still sick with some virus or bronchitis, I may have jumped the gun.  I think I will go back to the .0625x4 for a few days, hoping this illness will leave and then I can reevaluate...I notice the nighttime dose doesn't help me much as well.  My most precious is the 6Am dose.  I have to ponder this a little.  i am being really wishywashy....

[[Sh...]]

Grinch, do you think I would have a softer landing if I go slower?  Ahhh, the tension between wanting to get off and being more functional...

[[th...]]

Grinch, do you think I would have a softer landing if I go slower?  Ahhh, the tension between wanting to get off and being more functional...

 

I wish I knew. It just isn't something anyone can say for sure. Some people need to taper very slow with micro tapers and others can whiz by. For me, well, I prob pushed too hard, even though it took a year to taper, even though I felt I was going at a snails pace, bc I was bedridden the entire time with horrid symptoms and still suffer almost a year later. But....I may have had the same outcome if I went even slower and to be honest just wanted off so bad I really was willing to live thru anything. Which I did. I guess my mindset is not too drag it out too long, but also make it right for you. I wouldn't go up and down though, it just confuses the process. If you must hold, hold, but don't jump back up. It defeats the purpose. I am a strong believer in putting a plan in place and sticking to it, even if that means white knuckles. I wrote out my yr taper on paper with dates and doses and cuts for each week, and only held once, even if I was puking or literally dying....never stopped the cuts. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life mentally, emotionally and physically. Still is. But I would not change a thing. I am off, and I am free, and hopefully going to heal one day. 

Grinch

[[Sh...]]

Hi Grinch - Thank you!  This virus really sidelined me, but I think I have a good plan now....and plan to get back on my steady track...Maybe I can cut faster after all this stupid congestion goes away.  And I have to say with a name like that, Merry Christmas!  Hope you have a happy one and get better and better.

[[br...]]

Shadow, I switch over to Valium when I was down to 1mg so I cannot answer your question. But I would advise anyone with access to Valium to make the switch because the Valium taper (due to its crazy half-life) is probably much smoother than a Xanax taper.

 

As a little update, I have stalled the benzo taper for now for different reasons:

[*]first I've been warned that Gabapentin was a bitch to get rid of and I was on quite a large doses of it. So I just went from 1800 mg a day to just on 300 mg caps before night: I haven't had any problem with the sharp reduction but then again I was only on it for 3 weeks.

[*]second between family events in mid-December and the holiday season, I need to stay sharp or people are going to question my demeanor and it's a big no-no after my story with street drugs. If I cut now, from 4 to 3, I might still lack some sleep on Christmas' Eve and I don't want the family to believe I'm back to my old ways and on an upper comedown. So I'll stick to 4 until after New Year's Eve and goes down to 3 when the holiday season is over.

 

I noticed that after tapering to fast from 10+ to 3 in a matter of weeks, I started to have some physical symptoms such as the feeling of having bubbles bursting under my skin, muscles twitch, insomnia. And the lights! The lights were so strong I was dazzled by them and I could see halos everywhere. If felt kinda like I was rolling. Unfortunately without the euphoria that comes with Molly. On the positive side, very little anxiety which comes as a big surprise since it was because of anxiety that I was put on benzos in the first place.

 

Chins up everyone, you are doing a good job. Never forget that the pain is worth the gain on the long haul. We just have to hang in there and be patient.

[[Sh...]]

Hey bruno...thanks for your story.  I hope it gets better.  I am so close to being over with taking anything, I am probably just going to stick with the Xanax.  I really think my setback is from a real live horrid cold, not WD.  But we shall see.  I think it is wise you stay functional and are following your gut on this.  I wish it were an exact science.  And thank you for the inspiration!

[[br...]]

I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to post in the Xanax megathread once I switched over to Valium. 

 

A quick update: like I said I stalled my diazepam taper until further notice (i.e. the end of the holiday season). But I had a major screw up after a night of insomnia. I needed to wake up early the next morning and at 4am, since there was no way I would re-up the benzos, I decided to delay the wake-up time by one hour (which was OK), but also to take some morphine (which is NOT OK) since I have three weeks of treatment worth of it left after I quit almost c/t just after the microdiscectomy. Not too clever... 10 mg did nothing at all, so half an hour later I added 30 mg for good measure and then I felt it but it was more stimulating that the nodding effect I was expecting. Well, I did not sleep that night, at all, but wasn't bothered as I still had some residual opiate stimulation (I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but that's how I reacted to it; codeine does the same thing to me: on the other hand, ritaline and substituted amphetamines can relax me like you would not believe. Weird stuff). Anyway, that was 3 nights ago.

 

Yesterday I walked 17 km (10 miles), just because I could, and last night I had the best sleep I've had in months. I slept 9 uninterrupted hours and even needed half an hour to shake off the lethargy. But now, apart from the stiff legs and back, I feel great. Exercice and the physical exhaustion that comes with it sounds like a much better plan than playing with non-benzo narcotics.

 

I keep taking the 300 mg gabapentin pill at night, but at this point, I think it's more psychological than physical dependancy. I just don't want to be thrown off out of my routine so close to the big family Xmas reunion (I'll stay four days at my brother's place). I don't think I'll post again before I'm back on the taper schedule since I see no added value to the thread until then.

 

But yeah, I'm a little disappointed that I could not quit benzos altogether before the end of 2015.