Benzos Tapering off paxil and using xanax, safe?

I been on and off paxil 20 mg for about a year now. I am currently tapering off paxil, I am taking paxil 10 mg for 1 week and then lowering it to 5 mg for one week then after that I'm going to stop taking it completely. While tapering off paxil, I been taking a lot of xanax (about 4-8 mgs) a day. Is this safe to do? I only been taking the xanax for about 5 days straight only. I been taking the xanax a couple of other days on and off too so I probably abused the xanax about a week or more. Would I get hooked on the xanax instead and have to taper off the xanax too? My plan is that once i completely tapered off paxil and stop taking it, then I will stop taking the xanax cold turkey. Just to let you know, I was not prescribed the xanax, I buy them from my dealer, they are the blue football and white bar ones. Also, I am going to a rave in a few weeks I'm going to pop some XTC and I am wondering if it is safe to pop xtc after I stopped taking paxil and xanax all together. Would I get any negative reactions or side effects if i pop xtc about a week of not taking paxil and xanax? If anyone has any good or bad experience with this please share. Thank you

And also, I was prescribed Paxil mainly because of social anxiety

Here is the recorded dosage of how many xanax I've been taking.

August 31 – 2 mg
Sep 2– 2mg
Sep 3 – 6mg
Sep 5- 4 mg
Sep 6 - 4mg
It is currently Sep 7 at 2:43 am right now and i'm still thinking if I should take the white bar xanax.

I got 3 white xanax bars left and 5 blue xanax footballs left. The white bars are 2 mgs and the blue football is 1 mg. I'm planning to take the white bars for daily for 3 days straight until it runs out and same thing for the blue footballs, i'm going to taper down to the blue footballs which are 1 mgs daily for 5 days straight. Is that a good way to taper off? And then after this i'm going to the rave in a few weeks to pop some xtc pills and after the rave is no more drugs for me..i'm going to get back on either paxil 20 mg oor 10 mg and just live a normal life and stop abusing drugs.

Who thinks this is a good idea?

It's probably not a good idea to self-medicate with benzos if you have anxiety problems. That's an excellent way to end up with a long-term benzo habit.

I know it is not a good idea to self medicate with benzos if I have anxiety problems but i been taking paxil 20 mg for anxiety on and off for almost a year and now I want to taper off the paxil and I think the xanax could help me in the process of the paxil withdrawal...don't you think? The only thing i'm worried is that if i use the xanax to help me taper off the paxil, would I get hooked on the xanax instead and would I have to taper off the xanax too??

Let me get this right....

You're tapering off of an antidep with a notorious withdrawal syndrome, which you are self-treating at high doses with a drug(alprazolam) which is even more addictive and has an even worse withdrawal syndrome, so you can take a different drug(mdma)....then start the whole process all over again???

OK, I know there are no stupid questions, but...

I'm kidding... sort of. Anyway...

Paxil is some potent stuff. May I ask why you want to stop taking it? It probably isn't advisable to taper off Paxil exclusively with Paxil, and using Xanax to supplement is just a really terrible idea. Get some Prozac, reduce the Paxil exactly as you planned, but three days before your next reduction of the Paxil add 20mg of Prozac. Then taper the Prozac. It is a much longer acting SSRI and will really smooth out the ride.

Morphling said:

Let me get this right....

You're tapering off of an antidep with a notorious withdrawal syndrome, which you are self-treating at high doses with a drug(alprazolam) which is even more addictive and has an even worse withdrawal syndrome, so you can take a different drug(mdma)....then start the whole process all over again???

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Yes. The reasons why i'm tapering off the paxil is because im going to a rave in 2 weeks and i wanna roll and have fun, also the paxil makes me feel like a robot with no emotions which is another reason why i want to get off paxil.

DexyDevil said:

OK, I know there are no stupid questions, but...

I'm kidding... sort of. Anyway...

Paxil is some potent stuff. May I ask why you want to stop taking it? It probably isn't advisable to taper off Paxil exclusively with Paxil, and using Xanax to supplement is just a really terrible idea. Get some Prozac, reduce the Paxil exactly as you planned, but three days before your next reduction of the Paxil add 20mg of Prozac. Then taper the Prozac. It is a much longer acting SSRI and will really smooth out the ride.

Click to expand...

I've heard that some people use Xanax to help them with the anxiety while they are tapering off paxil. I've read on other forums that people use xanax to help them get off paxil and got the OK from their doctors to do so..that is why i decided to try it but i started abusing the xanax and taking about 4-8mg a day which is stupid of me, i admit.

Today is my last day taking xanax and i only took 1 mg of the blue football today and after this i'm not going to take it anymore and i already started tapering down the paxil to 5 mg on september 6 and will continue to take the paxil 5 mg for the next 4 days so september 12 will be the last day i take the paxil 5mg and then i'll be competely off of it.

Now here is my MAIN concern. The rave that i am going to will be on september 21st. That means after september 12, I will have 8 days for the paxil to get out of my system, which means i'm fine to roll at the rave (i hope) since my doctor said that paxil gets out of the system in a week. BUT, i am worried about the xanax withdrawal effects though...i learned that xanax boosts up the chemical GABA in your brain to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety...so when you keep abusing xanax and stop cold turkey, your brain will not produce enough GABA because it is already depended on the xanax to help produce the GABA. Now lets just pretend I have low GABA levels already because I been taking a lot of xanax lately, my main concern is will I be safe to roll at the rave if I have low GABA levels and xanax withdrawals? Because i am afraid that with low GABA levels i won't be able to enjoy my roll and im scared taking an E pill would cause me to have a panic attack..

shawty26 said:

I've heard that some people use Xanax to help them with the anxiety while they are tapering off paxil. I've read on other forums that people use xanax to help them get off paxil and got the OK from their doctors to do so..that is why i decided to try it but i started abusing the xanax and taking about 4-8mg a day which is stupid of me, i admit.

Today is my last day taking xanax and i only took 1 mg of the blue football today and after this i'm not going to take it anymore and i already started tapering down the paxil to 5 mg on september 6 and will continue to take the paxil 5 mg for the next 4 days so september 12 will be the last day i take the paxil 5mg and then i'll be competely off of it.

Now here is my MAIN concern. The rave that i am going to will be on september 21st. That means after september 12, I will have 8 days for the paxil to get out of my system, which means i'm fine to roll at the rave (i hope) since my doctor said that paxil gets out of the system in a week. BUT, i am worried about the xanax withdrawal effects though...i learned that xanax boosts up the chemical GABA in your brain to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety...so when you keep abusing xanax and stop cold turkey, your brain will not produce enough GABA because it is already depended on the xanax to help produce the GABA. Now lets just pretend I have low GABA levels already because I been taking a lot of xanax lately, my main concern is will I be safe to roll at the rave if I have low GABA levels and xanax withdrawals? Because i am afraid that with low GABA levels i won't be able to enjoy my roll and im scared taking an E pill would cause me to have a panic attack..

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Paxil has a very brief half-life. You should be able to roll but there's no guarantee. You're GABA levels will not be much of an issue. If you're taking pure MDMA anxiety shouldn't be a concern anyway. However, your serotonin is going to be all out of whack. Are you feeling any discomfort withdrawing from the Paxil?