Benzos Am I going to exeperience wd or potential seizures?

[mtop2036]

Here's the deal. Ive been on an xanax binge for 1 and a half to 2 months. Only dose 1 time a day. Started with
.5mg and has grown to 1.5mg to 2mg. The only reason I started taking these is because I'm on mmt(and yes I know of the dangers of opiates and benzoes) have been tapering and starting to not feel so hot. Point is I'm going to quit the xanax cold turkey before I get addicted to it if I'm not allready am. Last week I was able to go 2 and a half days(about 60 hours) and don't believe I felt any xanax withdrawal. My main question is if I'm on a high enough dose and my frequency of use of xanax am I likelyy to exeperience seizures.

In the mornings I have wd from methadone but can deal with it since I feel better once I get my dose. And I also have gastroparesis so if I do get xanax wihdrawls it could potentaly be difficult to tell if am having withdrawal from xanax or just my gastroparesis acting up.

Thanks.

 

[aussie101]

I was in the same situation as you last year. You are very lucky if you have been taking it for nearly 2 months and have no withdrawals at all going without it for 2 days...what else were you doing? Do you take your methadone properly? I needed to take the xanax twice a day in the end. So I swapped to diazepam (which has a longer half life) and made it very easy to quit xanax then started reducing the diazepam. I think this is the general way doctors in the know deal with this situation. You are risking having a seizure by just stopping. One of my friends was taking 2mg a day and stopped after a month and had a seizure, he was also on methadone at the time.

Perhaps try tapering down slowly if you can deal with that?

 

[mtop2036]

I was in the same situation as you last year. You are very lucky if you have been taking it for nearly 2 months and have no withdrawals at all going without it for 2 days...what else were you doing? Do you take your methadone properly? I needed to take the xanax twice a day in the end. So I swapped to diazepam (which has a longer half life) and made it very easy to quit xanax then started reducing the diazepam. I think this is the general way doctors in the know deal with this situation. You are risking having a seizure by just stopping. One of my friends was taking 2mg a day and stopped after a month and had a seizure, he was also on methadone at the time.

Perhaps try tapering down slowly if you can deal with that?

I don't mess around with my methadone I tapered from 100mg to 72mg way to fast and had to go up to 85mg. Like I said I still have withdrawals in the morning but they are doable and I refuse to raise my dose any higher.

And It hasn't been 2 months of 2mg of xanax i started with .5 for a a week or so then bumped to 1mg for a few weeks or so then up to 1.5 and rarely take 2mg.

Like I said I have gastroparesis which basically means my stomach dosnt empty food as quickely as it should to start digesting. As you can imagine causes a number of physical issues like vomiting and having to greatly watch what I eat. I know for a fact that it does mess with medications because if I eat atlot of food the day before and then go dose my methadone my withdrawals start sooneer in the night/ early morning.

At the moment my 1.5 xanax does not really get me high but when I didn't take any for those 2 and a half days I didn't eat much and felt no withdrawals. But then when I dosed the same 1.5 it really fucked me up. 1mg probably would of messed me up as well.

I also smoke weed to help with my stomach issues. I'm hoping the same thing is going to happen when I go cold turkey and get no withdrawals for the first couple days. But am worried that perhapes on the 3 or 4 day the withdrawals will hit me out of nowhere. But we will see what happens.

And sorry about any typos if any posting on a small tablet.
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[mtop2036]

Could I please get some feed back. I am quite worried about the situation.


Thanks

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Have you ever been physically dependent on benzos before? That will make a difference. If not, with your duration of use and dosing it's very hard to predict if you will experience withdrawals, let alone how bad they will be if you do. There are a significant number or people who can use that long without withdrawals or with very mild ones, but the best idea would be to at least taper off rather than stopping abruptly.

As for the methadone, you should see if you would be allowed to take it twice a day instead of once a day, since it's not holding you for 24 hrs.

Methadone can cause gastroparesis by the way.

 

[HCandKROD]

I can only give my opinion not medical advice. I think you will feel some minor physical withdrawals and mental w/d. You have kinda complicated medical to say anything for sure. If you went 2 days without significant symptoms you should be ok. Mark my word you are walking a fine line with Xanax. I came off an 8mg a day for 4 years and it makes Methadone w/d feel like a cake walk. Good luck and careful with the benzos.

 

[mtop2036]

Thanks for the replys.

I have never been dependent on benzos and mainly only ever took them for opiate withdrawls.

Swimmingdancer could you link me to some proof on the methadone causing gastroparesis. I'm not saying I don't believe you, before I knew what I had felt whatever it was was methadone related. I'm not ready to get off the methadone yet, but I strugle daily from the gastroparesis and have no idea how to deal with it besides changing my diet which only lessens the symptoms. Really any info on the subject would be great as for I have no insurance and dont know much about it besides what ive read on wiki.

Gastroparesis is 80% why i'm even in this messs with the xanax.

Edit: I truly hope that methadone is the cause of my GI issues because it means it should stop when I get clean from the done. But i'm somewhat not sure because i've had severe GI problems my whole life. I feel like something else is the cause of the gastroparesis but believe that methadone plays a huge role it in.

I've forced my self to go through 3 days of methadone withdrawl and to my surprise none of the GI issues got better. Obviously one of the opiate WD symptoms is horrible diarrhea(which i used to get years ago during WD), but during those 3 days I got the opposite and got bad constapation. So i'm not sure what to think.

 

[casualuser]

I had a similar benzo binge when I was first introduced to them. Though, mine was a little longer(about 3months) and I was taking about 4mg Xanax a day. My source disappeared on me suddenly(got put into rehab) so I was forced to quit cold turkey. The only w/d I felt was extreme irritability/agitation for the first two days but after that I was fine apart from the slight mental cravings... IME benzo withdraw is hard to predict especially for short/medium length binges, some people can have no w/d symptoms and others can have them pretty bad. Same goes with the seizures from w/d, it really depends on the person. Have you ever had a seizure before/are you prone to seizures? I smoked cannabis during my slight w/d and that seemed to help, though, I think I've read on BL before that smoking can increase the likelihood of seizures during benzo w/d but I can't verify that, maybe others on here can.

As others have said, since you went 60hrs without any w/d symptoms it's likely you won't experience any severe symptoms. My best advice would be try to taper starting now until you plan to stop completely(unless you already have) and stay away from any drugs that can lower your seizure threshold. Good luck and let us know how you fare.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Swimmingdancer could you link me to some proof on the methadone causing gastroparesis. I'm not saying I don't believe you, before I knew what I had felt whatever it was was methadone related. I'm not ready to get off the methadone yet, but I strugle daily from the gastroparesis and have no idea how to deal with it besides changing my diet which only lessens the symptoms.

Sure no problem

Opioids in general are well-known to delay gastric emptying, but methadone can be especially bad because it is given orally in high doses for opioid maintenance.

Factors making oral methadone less preferable to needle-using addicts include delayed gastric emptying. [source]

Opioids delay gastric emptying, which in turn may increase the risk of vomiting and pulmonary aspiration. [source]

(I can post more sources if you want, there are lots).

Suboxone is far less likely to cause this problem that methadone, but it can be pretty hard to switch to Suboxone from methadone so I don't blame you if you're hesitant to attempt to switch.

Changing your diet is a good place to start, it really does help in my experience. Let me know if you want some tips. Lowering your methadone dose and/or switching to twice daily dosing should help as well. You can also take digestive enzymes, probiotics, and things that are soothing to the stomach.

 

[tricomb]

^Yeah I was really surprised to find out they were taking methadone when they had that GI condition...

@OP, You're really at the point where you need to either stop taking them or start tapering and fast, because if you keep taking the alprazolam, you will without a doubt run a risk of seizure and potentially serious withdrawal symptoms upon abrupt discontinuation, so if you want to quit cold turkey with the least amount of withdrawal symptoms, basically it's now or never.

To minimize any discomfort, you could taper yourself down like taking 0.75mg tomorrow and then see how that holds you. Alprazolam is not ideal to taper with (not to say it doesn't work, but it's definitely less comfortable/smooth), if you need to, you should ask a doctor about tapering down with diazepam.

Benzodiazepines can be taken with great effect via the sublingual route of administration, alprazolam in particular, is therapeutically equivalent via the sublingual ROA as the oral ROA, and sublingual onset is even faster than oral.
If you end up tapering and swallowing pills is an issue, I thought this was relevant to bring up.

 

[mtop2036]

Sure no problem

Opioids in general are well-known to delay gastric emptying, but methadone can be especially bad because it is given orally in high doses for opioid maintenance.





(I can post more sources if you want, there are lots).

Suboxone is far less likely to cause this problem that methadone, but it can be pretty hard to switch to Suboxone from methadone so I don't blame you if you're hesitant to attempt to switch.

Changing your diet is a good place to start, it really does help in my experience. Let me know if you want some tips. Lowering your methadone dose and/or switching to twice daily dosing should help as well. You can also take digestive enzymes, probiotics, and things that are soothing to the stomach.

Wow man, thanks a ton for the links, lots of great info there I wasn't aware of and it gives me a great place to start my own searches on the subject. I've learned more today about gastroparesis then when the doctor diagnosed me.(then again I was honest with her about my addiction and that blew up in my face and she became very unwilling to help an addict with no insurance) And yes if you have any tips i'd happily take them I've changed my diet to only drinking water, very little to no processed foods, and a lot of cooked veggies. Before changing my diet I would vomit 3 to 5 days out of the week.

As far as lowering my methadone dose I tried that. I was on 100mg, droped down 5mg a week to 80mg, then 4mg a week to 72 which was obviously way to fast and got some nasty wds but I stuck it out for about 3 weeks in hope I would even out with no luck. Ended back up on 85mg which does not hold me 24 hours but i'm able to deal with it. But while tapering it didnt really help out with the GI problems except that I am now able to have 1 bowel movement perday in the morning before my methadone dose.

I have no insurance and can barely afford my methadone so I know I cant afford suboxone at this point. But would gladly make the switch, so that could be a possibility in the future.

And I have allready started cold turkey again on the xanax, its been 24-28 hours and feel just fine so far. I take it seizures are more on the harder side of benzo wd. For say I would probably feel the other wd symptoms (anxiety, spasms, shocks etc.) before a seizure would take place. Its not like i'm going to have a seizure all the sudden out of the blue without feeling some of the lighter wd symptoms right?

Once again thank you all for the replys.

 

[HCandKROD]

^ Nothing is for sure in life but if you have gone 28 hrs and aren't feeling w/d symptoms,you are probably ok.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Wow man, thanks a ton for the links, lots of great info there I wasn't aware of and it gives me a great place to start my own searches on the subject. I've learned more today about gastroparesis then when the doctor diagnosed me.(then again I was honest with her about my addiction and that blew up in my face and she became very unwilling to help an addict with no insurance) And yes if you have any tips i'd happily take them I've changed my diet to only drinking water, very little to no processed foods, and a lot of cooked veggies. Before changing my diet I would vomit 3 to 5 days out of the week.

As far as lowering my methadone dose I tried that. I was on 100mg, droped down 5mg a week to 80mg, then 4mg a week to 72 which was obviously way to fast and got some nasty wds but I stuck it out for about 3 weeks in hope I would even out with no luck. Ended back up on 85mg which does not hold me 24 hours but i'm able to deal with it. But while tapering it didnt really help out with the GI problems except that I am now able to have 1 bowel movement perday in the morning before my methadone dose.

Most doctors seem sadly uninformed about the side effects of methadone (along with plenty of other things) in my experience.

If you're willing to make some more dietary changes I would recommend you:
- Eat smaller amounts more frequently.
- Greatly reduce starches: many grains (especially wheat), potatoes, etc. Restrict the amount of grains you get in one sitting, a bowl of oatmeal or pasta is a bad idea for example.
- Don't consume very much fat at any one time, and eat healthier easier to digest fats (fish is way better than pork for example). Make sure you get enough protein though.
- Avoid dairy.
- Try to avoid eating a lot of fiber or hard to digest things in one sitting (like raw fibrous vegetables or fruits) but make sure you do still get sufficient fruits/veggies and sufficient fiber in order to help prevent constipation. Magnesium is also helpful for constipation.
- Avoid processed sugar.
- Drink water with your food.
- Try going for a gentle walk after eating (I know you probably don't feel like it, I certainly don't).
- Don't eat late at night and don't lie down after eating.
- Take a digestive enzyme supplement and a probiotic supplement. Ginger tablets are also helpful for me for nausea.

Lowering the methadone dose may take some time to help significantly and your digestive system needs to heal. Being really careful about what you eat and how much can help a lot.

 

[tricomb]

You're most at risk for seizure at 72-96 hours without dosing, if I recall those figures correctly, but I'm pretty sure that most seizures occur after 24h, not during the first 24h.

It is very likely that you would experience other withdrawal symptoms before a seizure coming out of nowhere, but I can't say that it couldn't happen with certainty.

 

[coastin]

i do a shit done of bars for a month or 2 at a time.. i would take them when coming down off aderall and i have had seizures before but it was only for 1 night.. i thought i was being possessed or some shit.. but i think you may be good. only way to find out is to stop and see

 

[TaSiPtR]

Don't bet on it man I had a seizure after 48 hrs after last alpraz dose and I didn't feel particularly bad or have any warning it was going to happen was eating dinner and BAM fell down hard woke up to paramedics.

Wow man, thanks a ton for the links, lots of great info there I wasn't aware of and it gives me a great place to start my own searches on the subject. I've learned more today about gastroparesis then when the doctor diagnosed me.(then again I was honest with her about my addiction and that blew up in my face and she became very unwilling to help an addict with no insurance) And yes if you have any tips i'd happily take them I've changed my diet to only drinking water, very little to no processed foods, and a lot of cooked veggies. Before changing my diet I would vomit 3 to 5 days out of the week.

As far as lowering my methadone dose I tried that. I was on 100mg, droped down 5mg a week to 80mg, then 4mg a week to 72 which was obviously way to fast and got some nasty wds but I stuck it out for about 3 weeks in hope I would even out with no luck. Ended back up on 85mg which does not hold me 24 hours but i'm able to deal with it. But while tapering it didnt really help out with the GI problems except that I am now able to have 1 bowel movement perday in the morning before my methadone dose.

I have no insurance and can barely afford my methadone so I know I cant afford suboxone at this point. But would gladly make the switch, so that could be a possibility in the future.

And I have allready started cold turkey again on the xanax, its been 24-28 hours and feel just fine so far. I take it seizures are more on the harder side of benzo wd. For say I would probably feel the other wd symptoms (anxiety, spasms, shocks etc.) before a seizure would take place. Its not like i'm going to have a seizure all the sudden out of the blue without feeling some of the lighter wd symptoms right?

Once again thank you all for the replys.

 

[mtop2036]

Swimming dancer thanks for all the tips I'm willing to try anything to help my gi issues.

At about the 52 hour mark of no xanax I starting having a lot of issues so I'm definitely physically dependent. I cant believe I let my self get in this mess especially while on mmt. I felt exetreme anxiety/panicky limbs felt light and airy. At one point I ot quite dizzy and was losing balance. My stoomach started turning inside out.

I don't know if its because I was reading online about seizures as was scareing my self but I felt like I was heading for a seizure since things were gradually getting worse and worse. I ended up takin .5mg which gave me great relief almost to the point where I felt high.

I guess the best thing I can do is go as long as I can go without taking any then take. 5mg at a time until my body accepts only. 5mg. Then try again to go cold turkey.

Everybody was right again wds from methadone is a walk in the park compared to benzo wds cant believe what ive gotten myself into.

 

[tricomb]

You aren't very deep into a habit, should be a silver lining.

Maybe take 0.25mg for a few more days.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Don't panic! Obsessing over it is very likely making things worse. I think tricomb's idea of just taking 0.25mg for a few days is a good one, then you could space out the 0.25mg doses a bit more or even take 0.125 if possible. Since you haven't been using benzos very long a quick taper this way should really help. Hope you are ok

 

[mtop2036]

Due to a unforeseen event I had to go about 50 hours with no methadone and I ended up taking 1.5mg of xanax through out that time to fight off the methadone wds. But I got my dose today and the plan is to wait until I feel really bad again and try the. 25 taper plan when needed.

Seriously thank you all for the support and kind words this is uncharted territory for me as wds go and I would be much more panicky without you all. Thanks again ill let you guys know how it works out.