Well I wanted some tips on tapering off Xanax

[Edaw'Naflagn]

I've been taking Xanax for more than 8 years; even since I was 11. First time was in December, I was sucidal at that time due to my mother being a abusive drunk back then, & would "torture" me evey late-evening- to night, & late at night too. So I attempted suicide by taking a full .025mg bottle of 160 count of Xanax, & a full bottle of OxyCodone 5mg's too which was only 20 something left in it, maybe less.

I survived, felt like I was in hell, couldn't breath while I was in like another demison! Where it rained red with a cracked back sky with bright red veins. I was in a bed "yelled help!" Many times and the a old looking door to my right was broken down with a bright light and then... BAM *hhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuu *couging and I shit and pissed soo much I didn't know how much shit and piss could be in a lil short light weight kid! I was getting vomit outta my lungs and throat.

I coughed it out in the bathroom, not all of if sadly. I was too scared to tell my mother or sister, so I kept it to my self till I went to my doctor who did basic shit but then said he "noticed a few odd things about me". Tested be more weeks past of going constantly to different types of doctors; my next and last appointment with my normal doctor I mentioned before, & told me and my mother I had a stroke! I lied to the doctor saying "I don't know how it happened!" I did drink a dangerous amount of mount dew so I told him that. Long story short I had a mini stroke at age 11; I've been using benzodiazepines and opioids every since then.

I'm very experienced with both and have been addicted to Xanax since the age of 16. I'm 20 now and getting better but still an addict; I'm still using oipates due to me not bring addictive as of yet and they help with sleep for benzo WD's. I'm down to 1mg of Xanax a day now, but I'm substituting Valium at 20mg's instead of Xanax. I've been feeling great for the 2nd day now, & I'm for sure tapering back down to .025 or at most .5 to enjoy the good ol' feeling of some Xanax : D also I'm doing it to get that great feeling again from my Temazepam too. So, what's the tips, tricks, methods/OTC medications that can help or online medication that'll help out as well (not trying to source or find sources either so please don't close this I need help and advice- I don't want any more seizures ever again! :,(

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

Anyone? Please help?

 

[lovelydayz]

I wish I had some good sound advice for you. But I toy more than I should with xanax and have successfully avoided addiction. Yet i have been caught in the grasp of the oxys off/on for years. I wish you luck, and just be careful and maybe find a doctor to help with the wd of it gets too bad, since benzo wd can be pretty dangerous

I hope someone else has some good home grown advice for you soon!

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

I wish I had some good sound advice for you. But I toy more than I should with xanax and have successfully avoided addiction. Yet i have been caught in the grasp of the oxys off/on for years. I wish you luck, and just be careful and maybe find a doctor to help with the wd of it gets too bad, since benzo wd can be pretty dangerous

I hope someone else has some good home grown advice for you soon!

I've tapered on & off/did it right for months than get carried away and then relapse :'( this time I'm confident and have a source of good Valium, & I have my Temazepam/Alprozalam too. I'll be okay but I do need tips, & tricks, etc... To help not use up all of my benzo stash during the months of tapering. At least I got my OxyContin to help with sleep and pain during the benzodiazepine WD's! I also get other opiates too so I'll be all good and great. Hopefully- just someone help me out here! I really need people who are personally experienced with this hell I'll be walking into.

 

[T. Calderone]

If you feel that you can do this on your own, using diazepam is a better option than short acting benzos. The Ashton method would be ideal since you have been using for years. But you need to have the discipline so you don't over-use them. Given that you mentioned you've already had seizures, this can be a challenge. You have to seriously want to do this and stop trying to get high from all the drugs you're taking. See your doctor and tell him what you want to do so they can prescribe them, as opposed to buying from the street.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

We also have lots of threads with other Bluelighter's experiences that may help-

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/671630-HELP-Benzo-Withdrawals-HELL

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/747406-How-do-I-go-about-coming-off-daily-benzos

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/515375-Successful-Benzo-Tapers

CJ's dilemma is a lot like mine. In my 53 years, I have been through opiate withdrawal numerous times. Withdrawing from benzos was a completely different experience because I didn't taper properly. I didn't get a good night's sleep for months afterwards.

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/805245-Benzo-withdrawal-Losing-my-mind

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

If you feel that you can do this on your own, using diazepam is a better option than short acting benzos. The Ashton method would be ideal since you have been using for years. But you need to have the discipline so you don't over-use them. Given that you mentioned you've already had seizures, this can be a challenge. You have to seriously want to do this and stop trying to get high from all the drugs you're taking. See your doctor and tell him what you want to do so they can prescribe them, as opposed to buying from the street.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

We also have lots of threads with other Bluelighter's experiences that may help-

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/671630-HELP-Benzo-Withdrawals-HELL

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/747406-How-do-I-go-about-coming-off-daily-benzos

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/515375-Successful-Benzo-Tapers

CJ's dilemma is a lot like mine. In my 53 years, I have been through opiate withdrawal numerous times. Withdrawing from benzos was a completely different experience because I didn't taper properly. I didn't get a good night's sleep for months afterwards.

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/805245-Benzo-withdrawal-Losing-my-mind

Just tapering down from 1mg was hard a yeah I barely get to sleep now but I just force myself too. I'll do what you're saying to do this correctly, I've done this before off 8mg of Ativan a day for like 4 years way back before I got prescribed xanax but it was before I ODed. I stopped cold turkey! At that time I had no idea how hard it was gonna be and how crazy it could have been. I didn't have seizures at all it was crazy! I never knew at that time you could even get seizures from just stopping a drug I thought it was like an anti-depressante. I know better know I'm past the seizure stage, I know this because I went days without xanax or just .5 cuz I had none. Felt a bit nasty no bad feelings, just couldn't sleep for shit and felt tension in my heart. Like it was beating too fast plus aniexty, it wasn't a panic attack I know that due to having them and I had then so much when I was younger I was put on .5mg Ativan back then before even knowing the powers of xanax. When it comes medically, since I'm not trying to stop 100% on my xanax I'm just trying to get to a good point like let's say .5-.025 every other day instead of 1mg a day. Xanax helps with my other mental issues and would rather stay on it then completely off it. If you understand- I'll look into that menu and start from there.

 

[GoShredAK]

I got started on xanax about ten years ago for daily anxiety and occasional panic attacks. That was the start of a long bumpy journey. I was on and off xanax for years with no real issues with withdrawals. I was not even aware of benzo dependency or withdrawals at the time.

As I got older it got worse, I was prescribed 90 1mg xanax every month and I popped the things like skittles. Often with alcohol and other drugs as well. Then I got prescribed 90 1mg klonopin every month, with an additional valium script here and there.

At this point I knew I was hooked and I knew the dangers of stopping too fast. So I began the process of attempting to taper down and stop.

It was less then a year ago today that I took my last piece of k-pin and went through the withdrawals.

First you need to have the desire to quit, or in your case cut down tremendously. You have to really want it.

What did it for me was the risk of seizures and knowing that the longer I took them the more my brain would change. Also knowing the more I took them, the longer and more difficult the withdrawals would be.

After you have the unshakable desire to succeed you need to come up with a solid taper regimen. You will need a longer acting benzo like your valium. Find the dose that keeps you out of withdrawals, stabilize there, and eventually begin a very gradual taper.

Once you get down to a low enough dose of valium, maybe consider switching to Librium. It is a very mellow benzo, but strong enough to keep one from withdrawals.

You have to give your brain time to heal, and that cannot happen when your loaded up with benzos.

Then once you make it where you want to be try to just take them as needed. Like every other day as you said.

Good luck, you got this! Just make sure you have a solid supply of valium and a good plan to stick to.

It is possible. I was abusing benzos pretty heavily and I actually got cut off and had to do a very rapid taper that was nearly cold turkey. Even then the worst of my withdrawals on lasted about two weeks. No seizures. Now I just have residual anxiety and depression and I can't drink alcohol because it'll make me feel like crap and brings benzo withdrawal symptoms back to the surface.

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

I got started on xanax about ten years ago for daily anxiety and occasional panic attacks. That was the start of a long bumpy journey. I was on and off xanax for years with no real issues with withdrawals. I was not even aware of benzo dependency or withdrawals at the time.

As I got older it got worse, I was prescribed 90 1mg xanax every month and I popped the things like skittles. Often with alcohol and other drugs as well. Then I got prescribed 90 1mg klonopin every month, with an additional valium script here and there.

At this point I knew I was hooked and I knew the dangers of stopping too fast. So I began the process of attempting to taper down and stop.

It was less then a year ago today that I took my last piece of k-pin and went through the withdrawals.

First you need to have the desire to quit, or in your case cut down tremendously. You have to really want it.

What did it for me was the risk of seizures and knowing that the longer I took them the more my brain would change. Also knowing the more I took them, the longer and more difficult the withdrawals would be.

After you have the unshakable desire to succeed you need to come up with a solid taper regimen. You will need a longer acting benzo like your valium. Find the dose that keeps you out of withdrawals, stabilize there, and eventually begin a very gradual taper.

Once you get down to a low enough dose of valium, maybe consider switching to Librium. It is a very mellow benzo, but strong enough to keep one from withdrawals.

You have to give your brain time to heal, and that cannot happen when your loaded up with benzos.

Then once you make it where you want to be try to just take them as needed. Like every other day as you said.

Good luck, you got this! Just make sure you have a solid supply of valium and a good plan to stick to.

It is possible. I was abusing benzos pretty heavily and I actually got cut off and had to do a very rapid taper that was nearly cold turkey. Even then the worst of my withdrawals on lasted about two weeks. No seizures. Now I just have residual anxiety and depression and I can't drink alcohol because it'll make me feel like crap and brings benzo withdrawal symptoms back to the surface.

I'm actually at your stage [at the end when you drink you feel benzo WD] where I can't drink but no seizures just feeling like can't sleep, etc... It's been this way for a while since I started to really taper using Xanax about 3 months back with 2mg down to 1mg then now 20mg's of Valium or if needed a .5 Xanax later at night if I can't sleep or I wake up and feel off as I do but that's been going away. I have both Xanax and Valium as well as my Temazepam at the moment. So I plane to use the Valium and Temazepam soon to kill off the use of Xanax almost completely than lower on Valium, go from there and into Temazepam (can't get Librium and I prefer Temazepam it helps more last longer but is weak for me.) than just use 1-2 10mg Temazepam's. I forgot I got lowered to 10 after all the time of slowly tapering using Xanax first. Which was about 3 months back. It's just Valium now strictly and or .5 of Xanax to kill any type of bad feelings so I can then get use to only Valium. So I'm actually a bit far along here in this taper I'm doing. Just gotta do this for a month and a half now maybe 2 months and then slowly stop the 10mg Temazepam- thus being able to not need to take any of them every day any I'll be using .5 Xanax every other day or when needed so I won't deal with WD off the Temazepam I'll just feel the Xanax better and use it less and more for harder medical problems of mine.

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

I got started on xanax about ten years ago for daily anxiety and occasional panic attacks. That was the start of a long bumpy journey. I was on and off xanax for years with no real issues with withdrawals. I was not even aware of benzo dependency or withdrawals at the time.

As I got older it got worse, I was prescribed 90 1mg xanax every month and I popped the things like skittles. Often with alcohol and other drugs as well. Then I got prescribed 90 1mg klonopin every month, with an additional valium script here and there.

At this point I knew I was hooked and I knew the dangers of stopping too fast. So I began the process of attempting to taper down and stop.

It was less then a year ago today that I took my last piece of k-pin and went through the withdrawals.

First you need to have the desire to quit, or in your case cut down tremendously. You have to really want it.

What did it for me was the risk of seizures and knowing that the longer I took them the more my brain would change. Also knowing the more I took them, the longer and more difficult the withdrawals would be.

After you have the unshakable desire to succeed you need to come up with a solid taper regimen. You will need a longer acting benzo like your valium. Find the dose that keeps you out of withdrawals, stabilize there, and eventually begin a very gradual taper.

Once you get down to a low enough dose of valium, maybe consider switching to Librium. It is a very mellow benzo, but strong enough to keep one from withdrawals.

You have to give your brain time to heal, and that cannot happen when your loaded up with benzos.

Then once you make it where you want to be try to just take them as needed. Like every other day as you said.

Good luck, you got this! Just make sure you have a solid supply of valium and a good plan to stick to.

It is possible. I was abusing benzos pretty heavily and I actually got cut off and had to do a very rapid taper that was nearly cold turkey. Even then the worst of my withdrawals on lasted about two weeks. No seizures. Now I just have residual anxiety and depression and I can't drink alcohol because it'll make me feel like crap and brings benzo withdrawal symptoms back to the surface.

90! Xanax! I'm not saying that's bad or too much. Just damn, I get only 40 total & 30 10mg Temazepam!

 

[GoShredAK]

Ya, 90mgs a month! And I was able to do that for several months. Then it was 90mgs of klonopin every month for awhile.

The prescribing doctor was notorious for handing out prescriptions. Also he downplayed the potential for addiction and the withdrawals like crazy.

I would very often go through my entire prescription within a week or two. I have blacked out quite a few times from abusing benzos either alone or In combination with other drugs like alcohol, opiates, and meth amphetamine.

It was so dangerous because the benzos mask the negative effects of meth, so I would load up on them all day and eventually take an extra big dose to fall asleep.

With all the mixed signals I was sending my brain I set myself up for on hell of a recoil. Which I eventually felt and it was very difficult to get through.

I remember my last binge, shortly before quitting, I took about 7-10mgs of klonopin and drank a pint of tequila and blacked out. I woke up with only 5mgs left and no way to get more, so it was at that point I had to use what little I had left to taper with, and brace for withdrawals to start.

 

[Edaw'Naflagn]

Ya, 90mgs a month! And I was able to do that for several months. Then it was 90mgs of klonopin every month for awhile.

The prescribing doctor was notorious for handing out prescriptions. Also he downplayed the potential for addiction and the withdrawals like crazy.

I would very often go through my entire prescription within a week or two. I have blacked out quite a few times from abusing benzos either alone or In combination with other drugs like alcohol, opiates, and meth amphetamine.

It was so dangerous because the benzos mask the negative effects of meth, so I would load up on them all day and eventually take an extra big dose to fall asleep.

With all the mixed signals I was sending my brain I set myself up for on hell of a recoil. Which I eventually felt and it was very difficult to get through.

I remember my last binge, shortly before quitting, I took about 7-10mgs of klonopin and drank a pint of tequila and blacked out. I woke up with only 5mgs left and no way to get more, so it was at that point I had to use what little I had left to taper with, and brace for withdrawals to start.

Im good now man- I've tapered down to only 1-2 10 mg brand name Roche Valium a day. I love these V-Cuts and never in my life have I had these before but ive been getting a large amount to taper down and since my house fire and lost of my meds due to the fire I had 4 days without any xanax or pain meds so I was WDing from both. On the 5 day I started to feel normal and my T dropped soo much too! Now I can take only like 2 10 mg Valium and feel it and feel super nice and buzzed as fuck! It feels like the first time I ever took benzo's again. It's great! I'm still tapering down so incase I lose em or can't get them I'll be fine without them but for now I'm trying to just get down to at least .5 mg of xanax when needed instead of everyday sort of thing and it's been working so far. I have replaced my Xanax with my brand name Valiums and have been for about 2 weeks now so I'm slowly tapering down and enjoying the good ol feeling I once I had when I first tried benzo's. I'll them work on tapering down to a decent dose of OxyContin and Opaites so I can use them when needed and every other day or when I have pain spikes like I do. It may be hard and tempting to abuse why I have but I know I gotta do it for my money's sake and my lives sake too.