Xanax and Xanax ER. My doctor wants to wean me off of Xanax by adding in Xanax ER. Questions about stronger benzos

[cottonxcandy]

I recently switched from an out of state psychiatrist who had no problem keeping me on .5 mg Xanax twice a day. My father recently passed away and I need an increase because it's not controlling my anxiety. I asked for a temporary increase and they were completely against it and wanted me to come in for an appointment to discuss everything, potentially switching me to a new benzo. Keep in mind that I have been on Xanax instant release for nearly 6 years now. Well, I was unhappy that they wouldn't increase me and couldn't afford the 5 hour drive to go see my psychiatrist so I found a general practitioner in my town who thought that I was on way too much Xanax. So her plan was to add in a 1mg XR Xanax daily to be taken with my regular 0.5 mg Xanax instant release 2x daily as an attempt to get me weaned down to about 10 days a month on Xanax instant release. I'm not pleased with this at all, as I was looking for a slight increase (temporarily) for my Xanax instant release while dealing with the death of my father. I'm on my standard dosage with an added in 1mg XR Xanax each day for 3 months, then after that she wants to decrease my instant release slowly until I'm taking it only about 10 days out of the month. I have many questions. Is there a stronger benzo that I might be able to use daily instead of my Xanax instant release, is there a possibility she could add in a different benzo instead of the Xanax XR to be taken with my regular dosage. Basically, how do I keep her from cutting down my Xanax because it is greatly needed at a time like this and I am in no way comfortable to switching from taking 0.5 mg Xanax twice a day for over the past 6 years to getting my prescription cut down to ten-ish days a month. Should I ask her for a referral to a psychiatrist who will continue my current prescription or should I see if she can change up the benzos that I'm currently on? I will admit that I do take them for anxiety and to get a high because life is too much to deal with right now. My general practitioner's reasoning was that she could lose her license if she's prescribing me that many xanax a month, but two previous psychiatrists that I saw were completely fine keeping me on my regular dosage for as long as I needed, they just didn't want to up my dosage at all. Any advice you can give me on what I should do with the doctor situation is greatly appreciated, any advice on alternative benzos that will be stronger than Xanax would be greatly appreciated, or any advice on breaking the XR mechanism of the Xanax XR would be greatly apprecaited. I am struggling greatly and running out of my prescription long before it should be filled again because I need an increase to cope with the death of my father and the added anxiety that has come from being with him in the last moments and the trauma of watching him die a horrible death. I would just appreciate any advice and any experiences. I know that I'm abusing my prescriptions, that's pretty obvious, but frankly if it keeps me from being suicidal and self harming I really don't care. Please help. I'm open to a variety of suggestions. Thank you so much for your help.

Edited to add, how long do you think it would take to get my tolerance down if I'm taking my full 60 0.5 mg Xanax in literally like 5-6 days when I get them and then going the rest of the month just trying to survive off of my 30 1mg xanax xr. I would be willing to suffer through for a bit to get my tolerance down to where it used to be. I could take 1 mg and be completely sedated to the point where I'm falling asleep and now I can take 5-7.5 mg and not even feel the effects. I'm alright with taking a break from my Xanax and saving up on them so that they will actually work for me again.

Another edit to add: would taking GABA supplements increase the effects of my Xanax at all?

One more edit to add: I also take white grapefruit juice at least an hour before I take my Xanax to hopefully make it work better.

 

[billykoz!23]

when i first got on subutex in 2008...... i had a dr who was giving me xanax 2mg, 4 times a day and adderall 90 , 30,mg a month, so when i got better after withdrawling from norcos and oxys for 24 hours the half a pill worked so good, they gave me adderall 20mg x3 daily...and xanax xr 3mg...... let me tell you......the xr xanax is only good if you go up in your dosage. I mean those 3mg xanax, we amazing.

 

[Branggen]

Well it sounds like you are getting a temporary increase right, just that you are being forced to cut down soon afterwards? I took 4-6mg xanax a night for 6 months and it took like 3-4 months of a valium taper and I got off without any withdrawals. I don't believe benzos are actually very effective in the long term so its possible a different medication may be more beneficial. I completely get not wanting to stop using to feel high but that does sort of eventually get forced on you when the pills stop working aside from side effects, including increased anxiety. If cannabis can help you anxiety that is a lot better of a long term option imo. Sorry to here about your loss

 

[cottonxcandy]

Yes I got a temporary increase of the 1 mg XR Xanax because she thinks it will help me cut down on the regular Xanax. I'm assuming once I get cut down on the regular Xanax she will be taking away the XR Xanax which does absolutely nothing for me. I mean, 1 mg of Xanax released over the period of around 12 hours is pretty much nothing. I'm not looking to switch to any other medication unless it's a stronger benzo, I can't take anything that is SSRI based because of bipolar disorder. I also can't smoke cannabis because I'm on probation, and when I smoked for years it did nothing to help with my anxiety. Do you know of any stronger benzos than Xanax? And how long would I have to stop taking my Xanax to get my tolerance back down to baseline? Is that even possible?