I can't comment on the opiate stuff from experience - but my advice would be to go back on the last stable dose of xanax you felt 'fine' at, and address the opiates first.
Withdrawing from both isn't the best option. You won't know what is causing what side effect, and will take 10x as much willpower.
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Have you tried a liquid Titration method for xanax? It will remove the need for a longer acting benzo like diazepam if you do it correctly.
You can reduce 0.3-1% daily and do it very very gradually.
If it becomes too hard, you can pause for a day or a week. But personally I've found sticking to schedule very easy.
Along with splitting your dose into 3-4 daily doses like you're doing already, this will produce the least side effects.
You'll stabilise the levels in your body throughout the day and not experience the interdose withdrawal that xanax causes.
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From a FB Benzo Group that I've found Helpful (
https://www.facebook.com/groups/112449132147409/):
Liquid titration (LT) is seen as a preferred method of tapering off benzodiazepines because it allows for micro-cuts and often has fewer and less intense withdrawal symptoms than dry cutting.
Take as much information as you can get!
The following is for an average 10% per month reduction taper for approx. 10 months.
1. Using the 100 ml graduated cylinder to measure, carefully pour 300 ml of water into the large primary mixing jar. A 300 day taper means we start with 300 ml of water.
2. Place the crushed or solid pill(s) into the water (pills dissolve into a suspension by themselves over a few minutes), let the pill dissolve in the primary mixing jar, then put the lid on top, and shake for 30 to 60 seconds.
3. Take the lid off, and syringe 1 ml of mix out of the main mix jar, and shoot that 1 ml into the sink. (Day two, you syringe out 2 ml of mix, day three, 3 ml of mix, and so on.)
4. Place lid on, shake again, then pour equal amounts of the benzo/water mix into three separate dose containers. (You can usually get away with 2-3 doses per day with Valium, but with Klonopin 3-4, Xanax 4-6, & Ativan 4-5, as they're short acting, and more doses during the day lessen the chance of interdose withdrawal.)
5. Take the first dose now, and save the other two for afternoon and evening. That's it!
Please note that the 10% reduction method we recommend is a 10% reduction on the CURRENT reduced dosage per month.- If you started at 10mg, the first reduction would be 10% of 10mg, or 1mg, over the period of a month for a reduced dose to 9mg.- Your second monthly reduction would be 10% of 9mg, or .9mg, over the period of a month for a reduced dose to 8.1mg.- Your third monthly reduction would be 10% of 8.1mg, or .81mg, over the period of a month for a reduced dose to 7.29mg.And so on.This ensures that your nervous system is eased down a gentle 10% slope at every step of the process. It's important that drops become smaller, not larger, as you go. Once you find the rate at which you can comfortably taper, you don't want to jolt your nervous system with a larger drop than it can handle.Mathematics whizzes may recognize that the 10% reduction formula is a geometric progression (asymptote) approaching but never equaling zero. At a very small dosage, likely less than 0.05mg V equivalent, when reductions no longer cause any withdrawal symptoms, you may want to simply stop.
For those who've been taking benzos for a significant amount of time, and or at high doses, you can slow your taper down to as long as 20 months by simply making your dose cuts every other day.
Video of LT Process
https://youtu.be/EGNb5LetgDw
How to calculate the percentages of your dose as it fluctuates
EXAMPLE - -
300 Mls of water
1 mg of medicine
26 mls discarded
300 - 26 = 274
274/300 = .9133 which is 9.13%