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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Tapering off of Xanax/benzos?

Y

yo0123yo

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
506
Location
Malibu, California
So i have been taking Xanax for about 3 years now about 4-6mg daily, this past month i have not gone over 6mg any day so i am kind of trying to taper myself off, i know not the best idea but i do not have insurance and doctors cost too much, i see a doctor who prescribes me 30roxis, 120 norcos, and 90 2mg Xanax bars every month for pain/anxiety but i want to get off of this because i heard it can cause seizures which really scares me. I am doing a .5mg taper down every week starting today..the first week i am taking 2mg daily and .5 down each week after that. Does that sound good? I woud appreciate anyones help regarding this issue..i have about 65-70 2mg bars left from my last prescription, not going to abuse them, going to taper down until withdrawal is bearable. Does anyone know after FULLY stopping benzo's which days will be the hardest after getting off of this stuff? i hate having to keep relying on a pill day in and day out this has fucked up my life from my social life to work, etc. I know for opiates i have suboxone which will help me but opiate withdrawals arent as harmful as benzos..any help is appreciated
 
If you've been using ~5mg daily for 3 years, you should probably taper more slowly than that. I think the recommended is 10% a week (may even be every 2 weeks), and you should start at the dose you're taking, not suddenly drop down to 2mg.
 
indeed, a drop from 6mg to 2mg daily will cause terrible withdrawals. Take it very slow and taper even more slowly during the end (say 2mg and down). 10% every two weeks isn't bad. It's a slow process but you can get through it. As well you may want to ask your doctor for assistance, switching over to valium (slowly) and tapering off of that is pretty standard.
 
You should really try to continue seeing a doctor to have them taper you off. I know that it is expensive, but it may be cheaper than your hospital bills would be if you seize from the withdrawal. Valium is a lot better to use for tapering, which is another reason why continuing to see a doctor is a good idea. The following advice is for if you don't see a doctor and try to work with what you have;

Tapering is always easiest in the beginning while you still have a larger amount of the drug in your system. See how low you can go in the beginning by taking just enough to get by. Sleep will be a big issue, so stay away from anything stimulating (caffeine, energy drinks, etc) an OTC antihistamine to help with this. Diphenhydramine is common, as is doxylamine, and along with being a good sleep aid, they may help with anxiety a bit.

I think that you can get that 4-6mgs down to 3mgs pretty easily. It's really tough to taper with xanax due to its short half-life, so something like whit grapefruit juice may help drag out the duration of the drug a bit. The best and most basic advice is to take as little xanax as possible, and I generally try to save my main dose for the night in order to help sleep.

Alternating days with the lowered dose has helped me transition to the lower dose. So lets say that you are at 4mgs, aiming to get down to 3.5 mg, (I think that .5 every 2 weeks is more reasonable until you get down to 1-2mgs in which I suggest lowering it every 3 weeks) I would do so by alternating days on 4mg and 3.5mg. So Sunday, 4mg, Mon, 3.5, Tues, 4mg, Wed, 3.5, Thurs, 4, and then 3.5 from then on until you wish to lower down to 3mgs.

How often do you take 4mgs as opposed to the 6mgs? If you mostly take the 6mgs, then alternate days with 6 and 5mgs until stabilizing at 5, and then do the same with 5 and 4, and then 4 and 3, and then from there you should only drop by .5 instead of 1.

I know that my posts have kinda been all over the place and some of the stuff is kind of conflicting, but any further advice will require knowing your current pattern of use a little better.

By the way, I was prescribed 3mgs of xanax for 4+ years before I tapered down to 1mg xanax, then switched to valium to taper, and now I take 1mg of valium daily. I figured I would mention that so you know I have personal experience with this.
 
Tommyboy said:
You should really try to continue seeing a doctor to have them taper you off. I know that it is expensive, but it may be cheaper than your hospital bills would be if you seize from the withdrawal. Valium is a lot better to use for tapering, which is another reason why continuing to see a doctor is a good idea. The following advice is for if you don't see a doctor and try to work with what you have;

Tapering is always easiest in the beginning while you still have a larger amount of the drug in your system. See how low you can go in the beginning by taking just enough to get by. Sleep will be a big issue, so stay away from anything stimulating (caffeine, energy drinks, etc) an OTC antihistamine to help with this. Diphenhydramine is common, as is doxylamine, and along with being a good sleep aid, they may help with anxiety a bit.

I think that you can get that 4-6mgs down to 3mgs pretty easily. It's really tough to taper with xanax due to its short half-life, so something like whit grapefruit juice may help drag out the duration of the drug a bit. The best and most basic advice is to take as little xanax as possible, and I generally try to save my main dose for the night in order to help sleep.

Alternating days with the lowered dose has helped me transition to the lower dose. So lets say that you are at 4mgs, aiming to get down to 3.5 mg, (I think that .5 every 2 weeks is more reasonable until you get down to 1-2mgs in which I suggest lowering it every 3 weeks) I would do so by alternating days on 4mg and 3.5mg. So Sunday, 4mg, Mon, 3.5, Tues, 4mg, Wed, 3.5, Thurs, 4, and then 3.5 from then on until you wish to lower down to 3mgs.

How often do you take 4mgs as opposed to the 6mgs? If you mostly take the 6mgs, then alternate days with 6 and 5mgs until stabilizing at 5, and then do the same with 5 and 4, and then 4 and 3, and then from there you should only drop by .5 instead of 1.

I know that my posts have kinda been all over the place and some of the stuff is kind of conflicting, but any further advice will require knowing your current pattern of use a little better.

By the way, I was prescribed 3mgs of xanax for 4+ years before I tapered down to 1mg xanax, then switched to valium to taper, and now I take 1mg of valium daily. I figured I would mention that so you know I have personal experience with this.
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well as of now within the past 4 days i have NOT gone over 2mg so thats why i want to do 2mg first week, then 1.5 the second, and 1mg the third week then .5 the fourth week..if the withdrawals are BAD but BEARABLE i dont mind as long as i dont have a seizure..by the way how does someone know if they feel an oncoming seizure? or is there no symptoms for seizures also i have about 700 350mg somas which when i take 2 or 3 it feels as if i have taken 2mg xanax which really helps..i look at it as mind over matter, its all in your head, thats how i look at it. now the physical withdrawals i hate (waking up with sweats,cold sweats, runny nose, etc)
 
also in addition to my questions i have up top, lets say i quit cold turkey for a week, what day would be the WORST withdrawals? because i have gone 1 week cold turkey without benzos i felt withdrawals but they werent that bad..
 
O.K. As far as seizures go, I have never had one, so I can only speak about what I have read on here. Most people seem to just wake up in the hospital or in the ambulance, without any real warning signs. If you are feeling twitchy/shaky though, I recommend taking a small dose.

When I was tapering using xanax at first (I was away at school and the new doctor I was supposed to see there rescheduled on me, so I had to stretch out my prescription longer) I was breaking the 1mg pills into 1/4s (so .25 pieces) and dosing them as needed. I usually had to dose .25 pretty early in the day, and then another .25 around 1pm, then 7pm, and the last to sleep if needed. Before that when I was lowering from 3mgs - 1mg, I was mostly taking .5 at a time in the same fashion. I went from 3mg to 1mg in the course of 3 weeks, and it was pretty tough (were shaky arms, RLS, tension headaches, etc), but once I got down to 1mg and stabilized there, I was alright.

I really can't speak on lowering/tapering my xanax dose below 1mg, and I had switched to valium at that point, but I would imagine that I could have continued what I was doing (taking .25 as needed). From there you may try breaking it into .125 pieces, and dropping by .125 each week or so. Due to its short half-life, the withdrawals from xanax will start quicker than if you were on valium. This is especially true since you will be in mild withdrawal for most of the taper. Drinking white grapefruit juice [I think cimetidine (tagamet) will work in the same way by slowing the rate at which your liver breaks it down] so that is something to look into. The antihistamines should really be something to consider as well.

You can always make 1 more doctors appointment, tell them you want to taper using valium, but don't tell them that you have already tapered that low to xanax, this way you will get a larger amount of valium to taper with so that you don't have to spend as much money on doctors appointments.
 
yo0123yo said:
also in addition to my questions i have up top, lets say i quit cold turkey for a week, what day would be the WORST withdrawals? because i have gone 1 week cold turkey without benzos i felt withdrawals but they werent that bad..
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since xanax is shorter acting it will hit harder and faster, i think the worst day will depend on the person but the first week is usually the worst. Still a grand mal seizure can come out of nowhere (seemingly anyway), not to scare you or anything but you may as well take it as slow as possible. There are some people who can quit benzos without too much trouble, hopefully you are one of them.

the opiates you are prescribed could be helping quite a bit with the withdrawal too but there's still the risk of seizing up.
 
Have you tried switching to a weaker Benzo such as Temaze or Valium?, this will bring down your daily input without causing withdrawals. Also there is a medication Called Neulactil (not sure of its medical name) that doctors use to help amphetamine users quit, its good because its not really addictive and it helps contain withdrawals without getting you high. Good Luck!
 
ok i was trying to possibly use these last 65-70 2mg bars i have to taper down successfully without having to go back to my doctor next month again, also he prescribes me 30mg adderall instant release 2x daily, another thing i noticed is at night it is VERY hard for me to fall asleep without taking my ambien and when i do sleep, i get maybe 5 hours of sleep and i wake up at least 1-2 times at night having to switch shirts because of cold sweats..pretty annoying
 
I think it was only brought up once about white grape fruit juice…but I’ll give my experience with it.

For the last 3 months I've been drinking white grapefruit juice to make my Oxycodone last longer. The first month was the first time in 3 years I had a morning dose left on script day. Last month I ran out of my script about 24 hours before I got my next script filled. I had WORST WD's I've ever had!!! I tried taking some Kratom and it didn't even begin to take the edge off. I've also noticed that it's not really a normal slow come down between doses, but when it's gone out of my system, it's gone!!!

I'd say for tapering the GFJ is NOT the way to go!!! Even though you are taking less mg's/pills, it's staying in your system longer like you’re really taking more with tolerance building.

BTW, I have 30mg’s of Oxycodone left. Then about 12 hours later I start on my Suboxone with a side of Xanax, which will be followed by a cocktail mix of Cyclobenzaprine, Clonidine, Promethazine, and one for the road at night is Ambien. So other than the first 12 hours or so, does this sound like good mix where I may get enough placebo effect to want to live to see the sun rise?

Leaping Gnome

yo0123yo,

I wish you all the best with your kicking!!! Starting this fine day I'll be right there with you.


Leaping Gnome
 
^ I would wait longer than 12 hours before starting your Suboxone to be honest - you really don't want precipitated withdrawals! You need to wait until you are definitely in WDs really before you start - 24 hours would probably be a better bet..

Also, get some loperamide if you're going to be in opioid withdrawals for long. Apart from that you have a pretty impressive cocktail there, hope it goes well!
 
u cant taper xanax it has to short a half-life. u have to be switched to valium which has the longer half life & sort of tapes itself out of your body.

I was taking xanax, temaze, & val about this time last year & was taking quit larger doses & most days.
I actally found it really easy to taper off benzos despite other ppls experiences

yeah ive tried diphenhyhdramie, doxlyamine & promethazine as a sleep aid
Phenergan (promethazine) was the best. it was quite a strong sedative & didnt get me a hangover like dph did.

I also tapered 5mg a week with the valium & didnt get any w/d

stay away from alcohol that makes everything worse it always gives me insomnia for a few days after drinking so u may need to take a break from drinking if it's something u do.
if u smoke try to cut down or quit cuz it seems to cuz me insomnia. & limit the amount of caffine u have. on many websites it doesnt reccomend drinking more than 250mg which i guess is about 3 cups. swtich to drinking tea maybe.

I now occationaly take benzos to relax. so once ya addicted it doesnt mean u always will be. im living proof of that. thats if ya wanna take em occationaly but im someone who can do that.
had 250mg of temaze tonight. a bit excessive i know but i can occationally have a sort of binge with benzos now & than without fully back into addiciton.

yeah 6mg of xanax is to much. u dont wanna cause damage to ya short term memory or anything.
way to much to be taking every day. benzos are great meds if ya just take em when ya at ya worse otherwise i dont think taking them every day is a good idea. they stop working anyways

dont worry i was addicted to em for like 6 months or so & if u work with ya dr. get swtiched to valium & try to live a healthy life style, exericise, avoid alcohol than it should be pretty easy. was for me anyway
I was addicted to taking 150-200mg of tramadol too which i tapped off before quitting the benzos.
u quit the opiates, than the benzos in that order
 
I would advise not to do a taper on Xanax, because of its short half-life and short duration of action. I would advise switching to another benzo with a longer half-life if you are serious about a taper (preferably Librium/Valium), and slowly reducing your dose on that benzo. Make sure you don't start on too low a dose of another benzo, you will want to switch to a "comfortable" dose, and then taper. Also, while Soma is a Gaba-ergic CNS depressant, it DOES lower seizure threshold, something you don't want to do while getting off benzos.
 
The thing is, if you don't do a proper taper you will only put yourself through pointless suffering and extended withdrawals. This happened to me because I was impatient and wanted to quit as fast as possible, which in hindsight was a dangerous mistake. Although it doesn't work exactly like this, think of it this way: would you rather competely stop eating benzos and suffer 3 months of evil withdrawal symptoms or taper your dosage during those 3 months, then quitting your minimal dosage avoiding vast majority of the hell this way?
 
FnX said:
The thing is, if you don't do a proper taper you will only put yourself through pointless suffering and extended withdrawals. This happened to me because I was impatient and wanted to quit as fast as possible, which in hindsight was a dangerous mistake. Although it doesn't work exactly like this, think of it this way: would you rather competely stop eating benzos and suffer 3 months of evil withdrawal symptoms or taper your dosage during those 3 months, then quitting your minimal dosage avoiding vast majority of the hell this way?
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Agreed.

I also say that the $ one might save by stopping too quickly and not having doctors appointments may be minimal compared to the amount that they may end up paying if they end up in the hospital, whether it be for mental reasons, a seizure, or detox.
 
effie said:
^ I would wait longer than 12 hours before starting your Suboxone to be honest - you really don't want precipitated withdrawals! You need to wait until you are definitely in WDs really before you start - 24 hours would probably be a better bet..

Also, get some loperamide if you're going to be in opioid withdrawals for long. Apart from that you have a pretty impressive cocktail there, hope it goes well!
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Effie,

I wrote you a kinda long PM and my PC went into an update and shut down with the PM going with it. I'd been postponing that update all day. Yo0123yo, I didn't want to take over your thread, but since I'm now on my way, I figured I'd do an update here of how I'm getting along.

At 9 hours I went to my consultation on how to start the Suboxone. She did the COWS test and said I could probably take it now and would be fine. At 10 hours I took the Suboxone and all was fine. Started off with about 1/3 of the film. In an hour I took the rest. At 13 hours I took another 1/2 film along with a Xanax and Ambien and went off to bed. I just woke up after 11 hours of SOUND sleep only getting up once to the bathroom. I don't know how many YEARS it's been since I slept like that!

The ONLY WD's I'm having now at 24 hours was shaking. I took the other 1/2 film and the rest of my cocktail and the shacking has stopped. I'm almost thinking it's the cocktail and not the Suboxone that's doing the most good. That's because I took some of the cocktail during my first 10 hours before the Suboxone and felt pretty good without the Oxycodone. All in all I felt better this morning than I have for YEARS! There was no sweeting/chills/etc. running for my first 30mg to start my day.

But remember, just because I started my Suboxone early dose NOT mean you can and screw the WD's outta their payment! Also remember, I was checked out "RIGHT BEFORE" I started it at the doctor's office!

Leaping Gnome
 
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