Benzos Alprazolam Taper, Does This Sound Right?

[Papadoc]

I'm not sure I'm picking up on this correctly. But are you saying large daily dose drops in the beginning of the taper is what makes the small drops harder at the end? And what exactly are you meaning with the timing?



Absofuckinglutely. Makes me wanna cry.



I decided taking only 20mg (33% reduction) yesterday wasn't the best idea, so I took 25mg. And i think in another 5-6 days I'll drop it to 20mg daily. That will be the point when my scheduled taper is supposed to be at 25mg.

I was expecting about 30 days of withdrawl when this is done. If it really is only 7-10 days, then i met just cut from 5mg daily to 0, when rhe time comes.

You really shouldn't try doing this by yourself, you need a Doctor or clinical expert to help you withdraw from Xanax. At the kind of doses you described taking, depending on for how long, I think it will realistically take months, not 30 days. The first step is replacing Xanax with a very long half-life benzo like Diazepam which is far easier to withdraw from. Xanax is a bitch and very dangerous with its 5-6 hour short half-life combined with its potency. Xanax dosage can be gradually reduced every few days or week by week as Diazepam is either increased or decreased to allow your brain's GABA receptors (which will have been down regulated from Xanax use) to start working regulating GABA normally again. The dosage and taper regime often has to be tailored to the individual...really depends on your withdrawals severity and how stable you feel. Some people can manage ok going quicker, for others it can take quite a while and they need to go far more slowly. The Ashton Manual explains all this and has a table showing at what doses Diazepam can replace equivalent Xanax doses and how to taper down gradually to nothing. It's definitely a softer landing coming off Diazepam or a similar long-half life benzo than jumping from a low dose of Xanax a day to nothing.

 

[noflers]

I understand the pharmacokinetics of benzos quite well now.

I do see a doctor, that is where I get my diazepam from for my taper, as well as visits with the good ol' psychologist.

I have not felt the effects of dropping my dose at the schedule I have going. Not a single symptom, business as usual.

I'm currently taking 25mg per day of the diazepam. I started the taper from 40mg diazepam 26 days ago.

The last 10-15mg is where I agree, the taper will slow down at the end, I think I'll be coming down by 2.5mg at a time.

That manual also states that, 15mg Diaz = .5mg Alp, for me it I'm about 15mg Diaz = 1mg Alp. It also says that from my dose, 18-36 weeks is what it says it should take to completely discontinue the alp. Then, another 18-36 weeks to taper off the diazepam. I'm sorry, but that's just too fucking long.

Sidebar for anyone that's interested: Benzo metabolites are stored in fat. I have maybe 2% body fat, probably closer to 1%.maybe lower tbh... 5'6" 135lb 28y/o. Which brings up another thing, I'd like to weigh closer to 145lb but my appetite has been shit for a while. It's drastically better now. I'm able to smash 3000 calories a day again ?

 

[Aeon Psyche]

"most medication doesn't work well or at all on me "

like is said, i don't feel shit from mirtazapine, in any dose. but thanks for trying to help

 

[noflers]

Wrong thread, guy.

I'm not even gonna roast your quote.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

I have found that Mirtazapine is very effective at not only calming you down if you're prone to anxiety but also lessening the withdrawal feelings of benzo drugs and also alcohol cravings (it's even prescribed for treating alcoholism and social anxiety in UK). It is a very heavy sedating novel anti-depressant though which acts on histamine receptors, the sedating effect is supposed to reduce over time or at higher doses, but I have been on it for 4 or 5 months now and it hasn't reduced much for me.

Your comment seems more out of place than mine. Can we ignore your ignorant post and stay on topic please.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

Which was a comment directed at me, in this thread. Go ahead and roast me. I would consume your flesh

In addition to the people who are worried about the seizures and appearantly have no idea they are epileptic attacks. Benzos prevent epilepsy so when you quit them to fast, these seizures will arise.
Let people know so they can put something in your mouth as you bite your tongue (in my case) to pieces. I never remember a seizure afterwards. Don't go ask for phenobarbital for epilepsy.
the best medication for this i found to be "depakine" containing Sodium Valproate & Valproic Acid. Never take this medication if you are not an epilepsy patient. It will provoke it. I am so I have had many seizures before. It is a blackout for me but appearantly i shake uncontrollably after i fall down somewhere and bite like i took some strong mdma. With no memory of there being a gap in my memory like time elapsed normally untill people point this out or i notice by my wounds, my bleeding tongue mostly. I can tell epilepsy coming on by seeing the vibrations of the universe more clearly or watching television as it shows a weird visual way that i do not know how to describe any better :/

 

[noflers]

Umm, so your comment still doesn't seem to have a place here...

Thanks for the info on seizures, though.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

dude, are you blind? I commented directly to who commented towards me. My comment is in the right thread and right place.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Told the doctor I've consumed 350mg of alprazolam in the last 60 days with of/ on use of benzos for a while before that. By the grace of witch craft, they decided an outpatient taper with diazepam was suitable. Also, I made it clear I didn't want to do inpatient detox/taper.

They averaged my use to 4mg alp per day. But in reality, by the end of it all I was doing 6-8mg per day.

Problem is, they started me on 40mg diazepam per day. That's 1 in the morning and 1 every 4-6 hours. By their standards 10 to 1 is equivalent. But every where I look the equivalent dose is more like 15-20 to 1.

I'm definitely noticing the drop in medication today.

Yeah, alprazolam is 20 times stronger than diazepam. Plus if you were on more like 6mg a day, you should be on more like 120mg diazepam

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

i've found it's possible to make huge drops at the beginning of a taper, with both opiates and benzos. especially with short acting benzos like xanax. i've been at 6mgs a day as well, but that's certainly not where i established my base for the taper. that would take forever. it's usually the end that sucks, no matter where you started from. like if they do it by 5mg instead of 10 percent, going from 10mg to 5mg and from 5mg to 0 is gonna hurt. it's gonna hurt no matter what. if you find out that what's gonna happen, i'd squirrel some away so you can go from 10 to 7.5 and from 5 to 2.5mg. i drop off a 2.5mgs and even from there it sucks if you've been using for a while. two months with on/off before hand isn't terrible. especially if you haven't been seriously dependent (like years of daily) on them before. though you let your dose get pretty high before deciding to quit -- happens.

don't drink coffee. don't drink alcohol.

best

Surely drinking alcohol would actually help? They use benzos to taper from alcohol so surely you can use alcohol to help taper from benzo's?

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Sounds like you're gonna have a helluva time getting off that. Aeon, so far I've been doing just fine without a "replacement". Once I am down to 10mg daily or maybe even 5, I'll start cutting down by 2.5mg, then 1.25 (I've got a plan) maybe at the very end, a decent muscle relaxer would be good, not gabapentin, or is that a nerve relaxer? Ooh well, i can rude whatever it is it

Zolpidem, as I am a poly addict, I used to shoot that. Talk about instant weird. Delirium etc...

I do have a question about the seizure aspect of the benzo withdrawl. Will I notice the other symptoms like tremors and whatnot before a seizure comes on? Or can a seizure just come out of nowhere even if I feel fine?

Not always, you can feel totally fine and then the next thing you know you're coming around from a grand mal seizure (happened to me).

 

[Aeon Psyche]

True^^ You cannot always find a way to predict a seizure. just taper slow with the right substitutes and in case, anti-seizure meds taken in advance.

 

[noflers]

Yo, people. I'm down to 20mg daily, and still haven't felt any withdrawl symptoms. Or maybe I have, but they just blend into my other nonsense.

Aeon, I'm glad you want off the benzos, and are going to five it a shot ast some point, and I'm sorry you're getting worked up over this. But did you ever consider the fact that that information didn't pertain to me whatsoever? Btw, common knowledge: drugs affect people in different ways.

Chemically Enhanced- That is exactly the answer to the question I was asking. Thank you. I was unsure and its a question I keep forgetting to ask the doctor. But as far as 20x stronger, which I think is what I said in the beginning.... for me, 10-15x is what I'll give it. The 40mg I started on was plenty, it was the transition that was a little uncomfortable. Your theory of using alcohol to ease the withdrawl is interesting, I can't imagine a doctor prescribing alcohol, but I feel like it has some merit. I mean GABA is GABA is GABA, right?

Diazepam is absolutely my least favorite benzo. It makes it so I have zero short term memory, and I also have trouble formulating sentences as well as spelling. I can't imagine how retarded 120mg would make me, I certainly wouldnt remember my DMT trips lol. To put that into perspective, I'm three years into a BA in English Literature, minoring in creative writing. It was beyond the ability of words to describe how frustrating/scary it felt to not really know what's going on around me, and to feel like I may be that way forever.

 

[noflers]

Dropped to 15mg daily! ?

 

[noflers]

P.S. no withdrawl symptoms so far...

I should also add that I'm back to skateboarding and mechanic work daily again. There's no doubt that is helping all of this go smoothly, and getting me back to the things I love.

 

[noflers]

And down to 10mg daily as of wednesday.

Doc wants to cut that in half in two weeks, then from there it'll be 2mg for an entire month before discontinuing completely.

That seems a little excessive to me... But it's not like I'm following to taper schedule anyway. According to the doctor I should still be at 20mg daily...

I was thinking something like 10mg daily until next Wednesday, then drop to 7.5mg after 7 days, then a 2.5mg drop every5-7 days. That would complete the taper right at the end of this month.

 

[hotfriesmmm]

When I tried to taper off 20+ mg a day with a Dr. The doc would only prescribe me 8mg a day. Then I dropped .5mg a month. Sometimes sustaining whatever dose I was on for months. Eventually I was on 80mg of diazepam a day. Then went to jail and ct'd in there. But what im trying to get it is your dose seems to be decreasing quite quickly. It will be more difficult once your around 6mg a day. Check out the Ashton Manual. Benzos.uk.org

 

[Xorkoth]

And down to 10mg daily as of wednesday.

Doc wants to cut that in half in two weeks, then from there it'll be 2mg for an entire month before discontinuing completely.

That seems a little excessive to me... But it's not like I'm following to taper schedule anyway. According to the doctor I should still be at 20mg daily...

I was thinking something like 10mg daily until next Wednesday, then drop to 7.5mg after 7 days, then a 2.5mg drop every5-7 days. That would complete the taper right at the end of this month.

Great job! You're dropping very fast. I will say a jump from 10mg to 2mg is insanely huge and will probably produce strong withdrawal. That's an 80% drop, where you're generally recommended to drop 10% every week to every 2 weeks. When you get to lower dosages, a small drop it actually a larger percentage of a drop so it goes slower at the end. 2mg of alprazolam is actually quite a high dose for most people, so jumping off from 2mg to nothing is going to be a really bad idea, most likely. I think your taper is too aggressive. it's easy to drop 5mg when you're on 20mg, but when you're on 10mg, dropping 5mg is half your dose, and is probably going to be too big a jump.

However you get to 2mg, once you get there you should hold it until you feel pretty good, then drop to 1.5mg. Then drop dropping to 1mg. Then .5mg. Then .25mg. Maybe then jump off. When you're at 1mg, dropping to .5mg is dropping 50mg of the dose and even that may be too painful all at once. Benzo tapers are designed to be slow for a reason, it's because benzo withdrawals are dangerous and horrible. Not trying to scare you, just trying to be realistic. I think your doctor is being too aggressive.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

i'm using 2-f-dck daily to quit benzos, i went from 4 x 12mg bromazepam daily to 1.

 

[noflers]

As I implied earlier, the ashton martin manual is garbage imo. With that schedule I wouldn't be done with the taper until the end of the year. Starting with 120mg diazepam daily. Nope.

Going from 15mg to 10mg daily has been difficult. It didn't at first. Lol. I've figured I'll do no more than 25% drops from here on...

My doctor might be a bit aggressive with it, but I am more or less following my own schedule. I'll go from 10mg to 7.5 2mg to 5.5mg, to 4mg, then 3,2,1 and done. Hoping to finish this off by the middle of June at the latest. I have 1/3 of the 10mg pills that I've been perscribed left, lol. Last week I told him I didn't need a script for the coming week because I have plenty, and will still have plenty next week.

I'm also moving out of state next week... I'll be near my mom, and she's got all of grandpas hospice meds still, though I'm not interested in the fent, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, etc.... They keep you real high while you go through a slow and painful death. But there's neurontin, promethazine, and others that I am interested in, or will be...

Anyway, the point of mentioning that is, I won't be back for a month and maybe I'll not need to come back here... iffff, the doc will just write me like 120 2mg tabs, I'll be good.

Aeon, 2-F-DCK, tell me more. Though I'll probably look it up any minute now.

EDIT: 2-FDCK is a ketamine analogue. I've done a fair bit of ketamine, but I wouldn't do it daily. As far as I know you build a tolerance very very quickly...

EDIT 2: The Ashton Martin manual isn't complete garbage, butt what I meant to say is that for my application, it would have been wayyy overkill, really glad the doctor didn't follow that because I probably wouldn't have protested at that point... I'd rather have an Austin Martin ?