Safe to take Xanax?

[HeroinHero95]

I’m in the process of getting clean and I’m going to knock myself out with Xanax til I can take a sub. I did my last shot of black tar about 4 hours ago, would it be safe to take the Xanax without fear of respiratory depression? And if so, or when it is safe would be a good dosage to put me out? If this isn’t the right place for this post please move it.

 

[burn out]

It will probably be safe but if you only did your last show 4 hrs ago you shouldn't be withdrawing yet, so why take the xanax? Why not wait till you are closer to starting withdrawal, like 7 hours? Heroin and xanax is a dangerous combination btw. I knew a guy who lost the use of his arm that way, he nodded off laying on his arm and he was out for so long his arm didn't receive sufficient blood flow and subsequently stopped working.

 

[Hodor]

Nothing erodes good intentions like benzos do. „Knocking yourself out“ with Xanax might just get you barred out to the point where you‘ll decide that maybe you should just score more dope after all.

I agree with burnout here - don‘t do it until you‘re approaching withdrawal symptoms.

Dose-wise... a normal therapeutic dose for someone without tolerance is .5 mg. 1 mg can stop more intense anxiety. Anything above that, and you‘re at risk of disinhibited redosing and blacking out (as in „too wasted to form any longterm memories, but still conscious enough to do really stupid things“).

As for „proper“ re-dosing... I wouldn’t add more than .5 mg of Xanax every ~6 hours. Yeah, it‘s still going to be unpleasant, but it‘s better than trying to get sober by going full bartard.

 

[Jabberwocky]

In any case, it's better to start low and work your way slowly up only as necessary. Only if the OP is already tolerant and knows how benzodiazepines will affect them under these circumstances would it be safe to take more than 0.5mg alprazolam per dose.

 

[Keif' Richards]

In any case, it's better to start low and work your way slowly up only as necessary. Only if the OP is already tolerant and knows how benzodiazepines will affect them under these circumstances would it be safe to take more than 0.5mg alprazolam per dose.

Precisely. Toothpastedog and I are almost always on the same page regarding this stuff. It's definitely best to go slow. Start with a small dosage, say 1mg and see how that treats you. If you are still uncomfortable and unable to sleep, you can escalate the dosage. If you'd like a slightly quicker onset, you can of course go for the sublingual route, but at any rate, you should wait approximately 30 minutes in between dosages. You seem to be an experienced user so I won't lecture you too much, but the effects of Benzodiazepines are known to be fairly subtle to the user, rendering the user incapable of understanding how intoxicated they are.

Go slow and low and you should be fine. If you were in a detoxification program, they would most likely give you some kind of sedative to help you sleep anyway. Are you beginning a Buprenorphine maintenance program, or are you just using it as a stop-gap? I just want to make clear that while Buprenorphine is relatively safe compared to other Opioids, you can still fatally overdose by combining it with Benzodiazepines and other CNS depressants.