getting off xanax and IV drug use vein question

[lifeguardsleeps]

1. I'm a heroin addict and my veins are terrible. I'm currently shooting on my fingers/knuckles and feet. I already use a new needle almost every time, although sometimes it takes a few sticks to hit a vein, and I don't put my dope in a new needle thats ridiculous. I clean my hands and the area im shooting on with rubbing alcohol. So I'm sure some of you have dealt with this. How can I save my veins/find new useable veins?

2. I'm dependent on xanax. I used/abused it too much, and now I get terrible anxiety if I don't take it. I definitely don't crave it, usually I just want the anxiety to stop, and I use it to go to sleep at night and stay asleep, which is hard because I have overactive bladder. I am doing good staying at 2mg a night, but I find that the next day I get terrible anxiety, which I think is the xanax wearing off, because taking a little bit more xanax usually helps. I can make it on 2mgs a night, but the next day, the anxiety bothers me, and seems to get worse each day I stay at 2mgs. So should I spread it out to 1mg in the morning and 1mg at night? I'm not sure if I could go to sleep with 1mg. I usually either take .5 or 1mg during the day and 2mg at night. I know people to say taper with valium. I have some 10mg (i think) valium but not enough to taper with. I take them sometimes instead of the xanax and they help.

I know I have a drug problem, I'm just not strong enough to check into rehab right now. I really want to quit, but I do want to get off this xanax before I go to detox, so I'm not double detoxing.

My plan is to get stable on the 2mg a day for 2 weeks, and then to cut down from there to 1.5mg for as long as it takes to get stable on that dose and keep cutting down by .5 mg until i can handle that dose for 2 weeks and eventually get off the xanax. does anyone have any other ideas on how to taper xanax with xanax?

 

[Vaya]

TDS ---> OD

~ Vaya

 

[weekday warrior]

Ive never used thsi method but it sounds good, take a medicine dropper and a container, fill container with water that contains your drugs make it strong enough sothat a certain amount of liquid in the dropper equals your dose, take one dropper and replace that one dropper worth with equal amount of water. If you continue to do this the solution loses potency at the same rate eventually you will be dosing straight water (or according to Zeno you will never get to zero by dividing by 2 but that is neither here nor there). The advantage of this method is that it gets weaker at the same rate and you dont have to worry about taking 11/17ths of a pill which is hard and usually you just use the whole pill anyway. Best of luck i wish you success on you taper.

 

[livetheopiatedream]

careful using diazepam crazy halflife of like80hrs hard to properly taper

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I don't have a huge amount of knowledge about tapering benzos, but there are some people on this forum who do, so hopefully they'll be along soon to help you out. As for having trouble hitting your veins, you may think it's "ridiculous" to switch to a new needle after you've tried a few times without hitting the vein, but it is totally worth it. I have terrible veins and when I was using doing that reduced the number of tries it would take before I could hit a vein from around 20-25 to like 3-5, and really helped keep my veins from getting damaged further. Needles dull extremely quickly and it is much much harder to hit with a dull needle than a fresh one, plus it will damage your veins much more, making it more difficult to hit in the future.

Here is a post I just made in another thread with some tips on locating and hitting veins:

Medical professionals generally use, in order:
- the crook of the arm
- other parts of the arm
- the hands
- the legs (avoid groin, avoid deep veins close to arteries)
- the feet (feet are not ideal and can be painful)

I have had good experience with the inner legs (meaning the insides, not the backs, which can be more difficult and dangerous to hit), which a lot of people don't think of. I would highly recommend checking out some vein maps.

It's also really helpful to learn some tips to hit better, such as:
1. Use a fresh needle every time, meaning every single time the vein even punctures the skin (like if you try but can't hit a vein, switch the liquid into a new syringe and then try another vein).
2. Don’t just look, feel for a vein.
3. Use the "vacuum method" for registering.
4. Hold the vein taut. Apply pressure with your thumb/finger below the injection site to keep the vein from rolling.
5. Insert the needle at a shallow angle. The closer the needle approximates the actual angle of the vein, the easier it will be to land the tip inside the vein where you want it, instead of having it slide out of the vein or pierce through the vein.
6. If you are having trouble hitting a particular spot, know when to cut your losses, give up and try a new site.

 

[tricomb]

I'm your go-to guy for benzodiazepine tapers, so in an organized way I'll need to know this:

*How long you've been taking benzodiazepines?

*How many times a day do you take them, and at what dosages?

*Do you have a good amount of alprazolam to complete this taper?

*Do you have, or have access to longer-acting benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium) or clonazepam (Klonopin), or even flurazepam (Dalmane)?

*What other drugs do you take?