• 💊 OTHER DRUGS 💊 Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads 1 Notable Threads 2
    Dangerous Combos Addiction Support
    Emergency Services Benzo Guide v.1
    Addiction Stories Scary Case Studies
    Biology, Pharmacology & Drugs 101
  • Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Benzos Insanity, xanax, need help with tapering schedule.....(life or death)

B

budsnbars712

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 15, 2011
Messages
166
Location
NY
I have been on xanax consistently for about 3 yrs now. I started it because I was constantly anxious from high marijuana use and did not realize at the time. For about a year now I put tremendous pressure on myself about my life as it did not turn out how I wanted it to, and I wake up panicky everyday (rebound anxiety). I returned from a vacation yesterday from the bahamas (majorly depressed the whole vacation/felt suicidal) and decided since I have been off of marijuana for a week now that I should just stay off or begin to slow down now that I am home....I realize now that this is all way too overwhelming for me. My lifestyle for the past ten years has been marijuana and for me to come home from a vacation and change everything in one shot is just unrealistic (for me atleast).

On my vacation, and this morning I have been waking up with panic attacks. Before that, I would just wake up extremely anxious, but now it is to the point where I had to call in sick to work. I sat in bed and though about rehab and death and everything (almost felt like I was constantly falling in my head as if I had a fever, did not feel human, inches from a mental breakdown).... The past three days I have been having horrible dreams also....Today was the last straw, I woke up and did not think I was going to make it at all as I was ready to die. Felt alone, lost and very suicidal. I have to get off the xanax. I am tearing up as I write this because it is taking such a toll on me. Now onto the tapering....I need help with a schedule.....

I started xanax taking anywhere from .5-2 mg a day 3 yrs ago....Now I am on average on about 3 mg a day. But one issue is that I binged on the vacation trying to counteract my depression. I never really took them at a constant time everyday and I know this is a problem because xanax has such a short half life. This past weekend I took up to 5 mg a day. A milligram here, 2 milligrams there, .5 anywhere in between. Before this vacation I was on about 3 mg a day. But even then I would still not take it on a schedule. I would just take .5- 1 mg every few hours. If anyone can help me with a schedule to start getting off of these pills today, it might be life-saving. I do not want to wake up tomorrow and have that mental breakdown that I am inches from having. I am prescribed 1 mg twice a day, but I obviously take more as I stated. I have 40 mg's besides my perscription which i get monthly to work with. I have heard that valium is good for getting off also, but I do not know how to go about that either as my doctor only thinks I am on 2 mg's of xanax a day. He does not know I binge or get them off the street to get the extra mg's I have been using....

People, please help me...Like I said, I feel like I am inches from a total mental breakdown and I cannot go to a rehab as It will only make my mentality and how I feel about myself worse. Someone please help me with a schedule PLEASE...I beg
 
145 views and no replies? No one has a tapering schedule or can help create one for on average 3 mg of xanax a day? 1 mg 3 times a day. Please I need to get off this stuff...
 
You are in a tough spot brother. I tapered from 10 mg a day but I used Valium. I would say if Xanax is all you have the slower the better. Go from 3 mg to 2.5 mg for 1 week then step down 0.5mg every week until you get down to 1mg a day. Then is when you are going to have to be creative. Maybe start halving the 0.5mgs. The problem is Xanax is so powerful and short acting it is a difficult drug to taper to small dosages. If you had access to the 0.5 mg or 0.125 mg it would help a lot. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Best of luck
 
i know this isn't what you want to hear probably, but PLEASE go to rehab. i tried to get off xanax by myself also, (2mg-6mg a day) and i had a grand mal seizure and ended up falling and cracking my skull open when i was home alone, and almost died. it is no joke. i was also having horriffic paranoid delusions for a couple days before the seizure, calling the cops on myself, thinking i was someone else, etc.

maybe if you can't stomach rehab, go to the ER and tell them whats going on. at this point it's not about your will to get better, you need a MEDICALLY SUPERVISED detox from benzos. they are one of the most dangerous substances (besides alcohol) to detox from.

trust me, you do not want to attempt to do this by yourself. it is pure hell.
 
^ Yeah, I should have said more on my taper. I was medically supervised. You may want to consider the medical route. I couldn't have done it on my own.
 
I am kinda supervised. I speak to my doctor about these issues once monthly and get 2 mg a day prescribed. I was also thinking about asking for valium to taper. I took only 2 and half milligrams so far today and it is 6:30 pm and I seem to be ok. But this episode happened only this morning so who knows what tomorrow will be like. I am wondering if a valium taper is the smartest way to go....I can't do rehab, it will have to be my last resort if I do. I would like to try other things first. Any taper schedules would help ALOT.....
 
valium would be the smartest way to go. and talking to your doctor once a month is not medically supervised, fyi. not trying to be a dick.

you don't really start feeling the effects of xanax withdrawal until like a week in to it. when i was coming off 2-6mg a day my schedule was:
day 1 - 10mg of valium 4x a day
day 2 - 10 mg 3x a day
day 3 - 10 mg 2x a day
day 4 - 10 mg 1x a day
and then done. but i felt like pure hell and had a seizure, and was also on methadone during this time to come off heroin
 
Anytime i have heard of someone tapering, it was way slower than that mangles. Maybe that is why you had the seizure. You did it less than a week. I have heard of taper schedules of about .25 or .5 for a week or a couple of weeks, then another taper of .25 to .5 for another couple of weeks. I hear it needs to be ultra slow. This vacation fucked up my mentality to an extent I never thought possible. I came back home and was so overwhelmed and bugged myself out as I felt I needed to stop marijuana since I was off of it for seven days already and I have been using it for ten years only to see negative effects. Now that I am kinda getting back to things normally, I seem to be a little better. I do need to get off these though. I am trying to taper off pot slowly and not overwhelm myself as I feel this was the source of my panic attacks. But I think it is way easier to have panic attacks when you are taking a short acting benzo continuously as I overreact to alot now that I did not before I was on Xanax. This is why I want to get off of it. I think it is a matter of time until it forces me to the point of that mental breakdown if I do not get off them for good, and get off them slowly. For right now I guess I am just going to try and taper .5 every week or couple of weeks for now. Anymore suggestions are welcome. I am still not 100% stable...at all. I had to take a mg at 4:30 am this morning, otherwise I would not have made it to work today at 8. I would have not been able to go back to sleep from anxiety and then it would have escalated into a panic attack within those 3 and a half hours...Yesterday I took 1 mg in the early morning at 7 am, then 1 mg at 12 p.m, then I was able to keep myself calm with a baseball game until around 5ish and took another .5 mg. Then to make it the three full mg's for the day, I took the other .5 around 7:30...

I am trying to remember the quote "Thinking of the past will make you depressed, Thinking of the future will make you anxious."...and I am trying to live in the moment as this is very hard for me. But I am trying...

As I also stated, I haven't been on a rigorous schedule. I plan on taking 3 mg a day for this week. 1 mg at a SPECIFIC time three times a day and then start from there....If anyone has used or knows a schedule that is not dangerous and is recommended, please post it. Thank you.
 
thnks mrdrugbuddy, I believe I can be stable on 3 mg's a day. It is a little rough as I do not feel the "major relief" as I used to, but I believe I am "stable" enough on 1 mg three times a day. It was only a couple of months ago that I was on 2.5 mg's a day for a long time until I started binging. It is 11:24 am and I only took 1 mg at 4:30 am. I am about to take 1 milligram and then wait till tonight to take another. I will test the waters from there. I read on what looks like to be a reliable source http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha02.htm that I cannot use xanax by itself to taper successfully. I must switch to valium it says. What I am confused about is that it says to not do a full switch, but to do it gradually. Like, use xanax and valium, then eventually switch over fully to valium. I don't understand how that works. I have a doctor who prescribes me the xanax but he is not that familiar with benzos as he has only been my doctor (pediatrician) for my whole life and that is why I see him..... I need someone to explain to me how this works so I can explain this to him.....
 
you should try tapering with a longer lasting benzo like klonopin, valium, or librium. tapering with xanax is going to be rough. I've been through benzo withdrawl, it is rough, and at some point you just have to suck it up and deal with the w/d. there's no such thing as a soft benzo taper, once you get to zero your going to have to fight to not take more. but after you get past that point it only gets easier. talk to your doctor (if you have one) and either get him to switch you over to a longer lasting benzo or buy some on the street. if you feel at any point like your life is in danger check your self into the er and let them place you in a detox, at least in detox you are medically monitored and in the care of a doctor. good luck. dont be afraid to get help, and remember that this too shall pass. I would avoid marijuana while detoxing, that will make things so much worse.

and benzo.org is a very reliable source. for years people have used that site to detox from bzo's. what it means is dont switch to valium in one day, take 75% xanax and 25% valium (look up dose converters online and calculate how much valium = your current dose of xanax, do some math and write down a daily schedule so you can make the switch. 10mg of valium = .5mg of xanax (roughly) then the first day take 10mg of valium and 2.5mg of xanax, the day 2 take 20mg valium and 2mg xanax, the day 3 take 30mg valium and 1.5 mg xanax, day 4 40 mg valium and 1mg xanax, day 5 50mg valium and .5mg xanax, day 6 take 60 mg valium and zero xanax. this way is easy to remember because 1 = 10, 2 = 20m, etc. at this point you will probably start feeling more normal/sane because valium will last longer an your levels will stay more stable. you should split your daily valium into 4 doses a day (in my opinion, thats how they do it in detox) and as you taper you start taking less daily doses, like 4 the first day, then go down to 3. I'm not an expert on benzo tapers, but I've come off 60 mg of valium a day which is where you're at and although it was rough (since it was my first time going to detox they would only do a 3 day taper, which was dangerous to say the least) I still managed to stay off benzos completely after that 3 day taper. expect to lose your mind, but you'll get it back. a month after getting off benzos you will get tthe shivers regularly, jaw chatters, anxiety, all that, but you will be free from benzos, which is worth it.
 
Last edited:
honestly im scared as shit to detox like that down508. That last sentence you wrote scares the shit outta me as I am already in a very fragile state of mind. On top of all of it, I have not heard from my ex gf of 7 yrs in 4 months. And if I hear something is going on with her or what not, I will just completely have a mental breakdown. Its sad to say, but I am very weak. I have 2 people to turn to and they are my mother and sister, and they never touched drugs in there life so they don't understand...

I was already thinking about switching to valium to taper, but I want to do it where very slowly so I don't have to experience the worst of the withdrawals. I am going to do more research on benzo.org.uk tomorrow as right now just thinking about it is making me panicky. I took my full 3 mgs today (1 mg three times), and I still feel overwhelmed..but I am also not smoking marijuana right now and I have been on that for ten years straight. I am just afraid of having a mental breakdown now, and/or during taper. This vacation fucked me up. Doesn't sound like it makes sense right? but all I did was dwell on what I did not have and what I was watching (girls, happiness). I suffer from severe depression. Especially right now..since the vacation, which was only three days ago.....I feel like I am just one incident or bad wake up from breaking down completely.
 
I doubt you will experience much if any withdrawls during the actual switch to valium, that's the easy part. You need to decide if it is worth it to detox. it is going to be a trying time for you, if the benefits are worth it then you need to follow through. if they aren't then it is best to stay on them until a better time to detox comes around. the benefit of doing a long taper is it is less painful in the short term, but you will drag it out. no matter how you slice it, it's going to be difficult, but a month after you jump off completely you will be thankful you did. there are outpatient detoxes that work especially well with benzos. in patient your insurance will only pay for 4 days tops if its your first time, they will get you to a point where your life isn't at risk and turn you lose, outpatient can be done over the course of several months.

do you have any specific questions? you might want to look into seeing a therapist, your mother and your sister are a good resource to have but you want to have someone to talk to who you aren't related to, someone who can be objective. you might also want to look into support groups such as AA, the people in those rooms have been where you are and are willing to help without any financial compensation. good luck
 
I was always against therapist as I always felt they are just friends you pay for, but at this point, none of my friends want to hear it anymore and I cannot take this way of life anymore. I put an incredible amount of pressure on myself all the time as I am not where I want to be in life, and it did not turn out remotely positive like i wanted or expected. I am going to attempt to see a therapist as I really have no choice at this point unless I want this mental breakdown to occur, and I am going to attempt to switch to valium, the problem is that a lot of therapists do not have as much knowledge about benzo tapers and what not. Atleast I feel like I will have to search for the right therapist, and I don't have time to search. I am prescribed the xanax from my family doctor (a pediatrician). So he knows very minimal about it. We agreed to start my taper this month even before I started having these episodes. I do not think he was planning on switching me over to a slower acting benzo like valium. I think his plan was just to lower the dosage slowly, but that sounds like torture and I read on benzo.org.uk that it is not really possible to taper off of xanax just using it by itself and that you must switch to something with a longer half-life. I am sure if I get the right info, and show him, he will not turn me away..but I must be correct on the information I give him. I feel like I might be able to handle getting off as I do not feel relief anymore from xanax at this point anyway. And I used it to escape my depression and anxiety. It does not relieve those effects anymore, it just enhances them I guess because of the withdrawals I experience from decrease in use as I would binge in the past, or mini withdrawals between doses. Now all xanax does is make me overreact to everything....and I hear that is also because it is a short acting benzo...is this true?
 
^ Yeah, I was taking Xanax for a few years starting at 3 mg a day and my doctor kept upping my dosage to 8 to 10mg a day. It was working till it wasn't working. I would take 2 mg and a couple hours later I was feeling panicky and just downright strange. I told my doc I didn't wanna take them anymore and he basically dropped me (wrote me a script for 1 month and 'suggested' I find another doctor). I found an outpatient place who took me and explained I was in "tolerance withdrawal" and showed me how they were gonna taper me with Valium. It was easy at first I would go in once a week for a dosage adjustment and an important thing is they let me tell them if I was ready that week to drop dose or wait till next week.
I kept at this for about 6 months. The slower the better IMO. I got down to Valium 10mg a day and there's where the hard part started. I was wanting to get off of the Valium so bad I jumped from 10mg a day to 5mg a day for a week then 2.5 for a week then stopped. Big Mistake!! I didn't listen to them telling me this was going to be the hardest part, I just wanted off. It took my brain probably 6 months to get back to normal and it sucked. But, I am so glad to be off of Xanax I can't even tell you.
I see people on BL talking about how they are taking X amount of benzos a day blah,blah,blah and I am thankful that is not me. Benzos are great for very short term use but I advise anybody now unless you have to be on them long term stay away. Best of luck.
 
Last edited:
Fuck, thats bad. Thats the equivalent of tapering etizolam down to 1mg, 0.5mg, 0.25 mg which was my long term plan. If you're still fucked up for 6 months afterwards I'll despair with my dsps if they wont give me diaz to finish my etiz taper.

On second thoughts I suppose i could use powdered phen or etiz and measure in liquid to get the doses lower and lower.

Last time i bought powdered benzos ended quite disasterously though. :?8(:\
 
Last edited:
I know what you are experiencing very much. Except that I had decided while I was on 3mg of clonazepam daily 2 years ago that feeling like I did (emotional zombie, not having any feelings while what I wanted was to stop the hppd from psychedelics and weed, which thankfully is gone now..) Switch to an equivalent dose of valium and quick, whoever is prescribing you the xanax has the moral obligation to do this now. I always hear how xanax = clonazepam in potency so, here's what I did, had myself switched to 50mg of valium for a week, then 45 then 40 then 35 etc. and then stopped at 20mg...which is where I am now...I wasn't able to get myself rid of it completely but I will eventually. Now back to your case...you should talk to whoever is scripting you the xanax about the Dr Ashton method if the doctor is unaware of it, be prepared and arrive with her methods printed from benzo.org.uk (just google that if it's not the exact same url) and use all that brain power of yours (I find you quite strong to have done what you've done right now, I'm unable to get rid of the little of my last dose, which is still 66% less of a benzo addiction...which I do not feel too, it just makes me feel normal now). The point is reducing your tolerance and valium saved me here, it truely does work, i was unable to go lower than that then because I was constantly listening to the news and I cannot care about the outside world while I need to heal myself first of all. But that's how i did it, and I didn't even follow the exact Ashton method because the psychiatrist was already finding the schedule I had sorted out with him to be a bit too slow so I succeeded in having him stabilize me at that dose.

I really know what you are experiencing, I hardly can handle the situation I put myself into every month where the pharmacy will not renew my val script earlier than 27 days after I got my monthly script....I always end up taking more than I should and then take 5mg and then have none for a few days....but that's my problem.

Good luck man.

P.S. Also try asking for hydroxyzine to help out the tapering, no doctor usually has objections against an anthistamine that's good for anxiety ( I mostly find it good to potentiate my opis but thats still just me)
 
He's right and you should try and detox on something more long lasting which will give you the feelings he said although if you don't it will and possibly is producing manic and depressive states with psychotic episodes. It's rough and if you can taper with K or another long lasting drug you will lessen the effects. Either way its a long road of tapering, and if you want to shorten it you will be in for a world of pain. I would look for a year and stop binging. You can still have fun but really its no fun anymore, is it.
 
Thanks for all the support, I finally feel like I am myself a little more as for some reason I was SOOOO overwhelmed when I cam back from my vacation and put so much pressure on myself. I felt obligated to change my life that minute, and that made everything worse. Now I realize that stopping marijuana that fast was unrealistic for me as I was already not in a stable state of mind. I am smoking way less, (was everyday, whenever I can up to 6 times a day) and now I am smoking once a day or every other day for now. I also got rid of my own marijuana so I am not tempted to smoke by myself as that never made anything better....

I am back to the normal routine of life, work, gym, and what not....I was stable a couple of months ago using 2.5 milligrams so I am currently trying to stick to that until I begin to taper when I see my doctor next. I am taking .5 milligrams every 3 hours starting at 9 am. So .5 at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and one last dose before bed at 9 p.m. I feel back to normal (atleast how I felt before this mental breakdown I had during/after the vacation). Still, this made me realize that I do not want to go thru anymore psychotic episodes like I experienced. I am now fully willing to not binge as much, if at all, and begin a taper next doctor visit...thanks everyone.
 
I am in the same boat with you as far as the xanax usage. Ive been using xanax for the past 5 years, but daily for the past 2 years. I use about 2-6MG a day (sometimes more , like on weekends) but ive never experienced xanax withdrawal before. When I know im running low I start to taper.

I go from 6mg one day,
to 2mg the next day (1mg AM, 1mg PM),
next day 1mg (.5 AM, .5 PM),
next day .5mg
and i make sure i have one or two bars just incase I need it.
but this taper always works for me (knock on wood),
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top