• 💊 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 Xanax taper. Please help.

K

Kwerty

Greenlighter
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
6
Hello all, i know this forum is the #1 place for information.

I am nervous right now. So here's the story:


on December 10th i started taking .5 MG Xanax as needed usually before bed. well on the second night i took 1.mg of xanax.. and through out the week i was taking .5mg to 1.5 mg spread out through the day.. this goes on for most of the week.. well there were some issues the last two days, where i took 1mg and then maybe an hour or two later i took another 1,mg

My script was picked up on December 10th and it was 30 pills @ .5mg it is now December 20th and i have 5 and a half pills (3.5mg) left.. i wasn't sleeping tonight, and was feeling kinda hyper.... (mountain dew, Vitamin B, niacin) i was feeling the start of benzo withdraw.. and i'm scared about seizing and panic and axienty.. so i took .25 mg and 12mg of Melatonin (sleep hormone) that was maybe 25 min ago.. well i'm feeling slightly better..

again i only have 3.5mg xanax left (6 and a half pills) My refill wont come through until the 9th of November

how should i taper? i DONT WANT TO SEIZE!

I'm thinking when i cant stand the withdraw take .25 mg and wait it out.. and repeat as necessary..

What are my risks? I have used benzos before.. klonopin, ativan, temazpam etc... but by far xanax is the most scary for me.. as i have taken major doeses in the past and seized.. I dont want to seize again..

what's your opinion ? risks??

thanks in advance.
 
i've planned out many tapers for people to get off of benzos, who knows if they use my taper or not because someone always comes in the thread with this: http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha02.htm (the Ashton Manual) and it supposedly tells you how to taper off benzos.. i have never actually read it myself, maybe i should..

good luck with it!

and if you just started taking it 10 days ago i see no harm in stopping cold turkey.. nothing should happen besides you feeling a lil anxious and weird for a couple days.

EDIT: what do you mean your refill is in November?? that was last month bro. Next is January.
 
LOL i meant to say January 9th ..

To the person i couldn't send the pm to.. this is what i tried to send:

Thanks man for your effort and time! all great ideas.. yeah im not prone to seizes .. but years ago, i went though 75 .5 mg xanax in like a week or something.. and was also taking amphetmine after i ran out of xanax.. two back to back seizes , followed by a week in the hospital for rapid detox, then about 4 months of hell while the ssri's and klonopin was started and then removed.. So yeah.. i dont know if because of that (happened 3-4 years ago) it will make me more prone to fits.. i use to use alot of pot, booze, and downers.. not so much uppers only for my adhd.. I'll get some grapefruit juice come morning.. and only take .25mg if i get some tics (more so twitches) ( i have a pre dispostion to those anyway.. plus i've been taking ritilian during the day -5mg to 10 mg.. which ill stop) again thansk for the info.. i've been in the chem scene since i was 18... i wll be 27 come feb.. and i'm getting out now... this xanax thing was sposta be for help.. and my adicition came back....

Thanks again.. if there is ever anything i can do for you just ask..
 
^this.

I don't really have anything of value to add, but I wanted to highlight the good information directly above me.

Given the duration and doses you were using, you don't have much to worry about as far as withdrawals go.

I especially want to highlight this part below.

pontifex01 said:
Insofar as the withdrawals will most definitely be mostly psychological I'd say you're doing yourself more harm than good by obsessing about how you're going to feel.
Click to expand...
 
one thing u might want to check out since u were only scripted 30 pills- does it say something like (1) take one every 8 hours as needed for anxiety or (2) take one at bedtime as needed? if it's the former, you may technically have a 10-day prescription even though it's "as needed," which would mean you could pick your refill up today. not trying to get ypur hopes up or anything; it was just a thought.

also, you won't have any physical withdrawal from 10 days' use.
 
Yeah, get off sooner rather than later, 10 days isn't much and you can minimize any negative feelings with a dose here and there. Insomnia will probably be the most pronounced with minor anxiety maybe. I'd try not to dose more than every other day from here out, and then take a little break after you've gotten past this before taking any more benzos.
 
UPdate

Well when morning came, i drove my Gf car to the store for grape fruit juice, and it knocked me out. well last yesterday i took .25 mg and some more juice.. got nothing.. couldnt sleep.. so i took another .25 mg and more GF Juice.. still nothing.. waited until like 3 am (watched the exclipse) finally took .5mg and slept. well i wake up in the morning.. still feelign drugged.. well later in the day my wanting to get high came back, so i took 1.mg and went to the store and baought some mikes harder lemonade i drank almost one and slept... i woke up a few housrs ago.. i have .5mg of xanax left.. if i do start feeling weird, i will take half.. and then wait until i feel weird again.. and then take the last .25mg
ANyone think i will feel any withdrawl? I DONT WANT TO SEIZE!


Thats the update!!

Merry xmas people~!
 
Honestly, man, I cannot believe that you have seized before and even still you continue to abuse benzos. Having seized once before, I can tell you that it was enough to turn me off from benzos completely, especially xanax. It was the most frightening experience of my life, waking up, slurring my speech and not knowing what the hell just happened.

In my experience, the seizure came on about two or three days after a huge, huge xanax binge. The seizure also came on at the moment I truly felt anxious, needing to finish a paper for one of my classes just minutes before the class was scheduled to begin. So it might be worth a shot to lie low and avoid stressful situations, easier said than done, of course.

My understanding is that your body will become familiar with the substance, in this case xanax, to manage its anxiety. It expects the substance to help in managing its anxiety as it always has before, but once you have quit taking xanax without tapering, it short-circuits your brain because, alas, there is no xanax in your system to come to the rescue.

I would try to get your hands on some more xanax or, better still, klonopin or ativan, and slowly taper from there. If that is not an option, then all you can really do is lie low, try to avoid stressful situations, and be sure never to put yourself in this situation again.
 
You really should be consulting professional medical care ASAP if you have seized before/are concerned about this.... compared to me YOU ARE TAKING NOTHING, I am on 6-8mg of Xanax (XR) a day, plus Vallium when needed... and although this is not good at all of course, and I am in the means of getting off Xanax all together slowly... I trust my Harvard psychiatrist because I believe that he genuinely does care, but also because he does not want my parents to make HELL come down on him with malpractice charges if anything happens to me from his prescriptions... and I asked about the seizure risks at my level, and he said I really do not have to worry, and that even if I stopped cold turkey - he admitted it would be horrific and I would be absolutely miserable but even at my dosage, would not have a seizure.

So I think this is something that is different with your brain chemistry that you need to look into asap.

Not saying my doctor is absolutely right, but I'd like to think he knows what he is talking about after doing his job for 23 years and dealing with hundreds of similar Xanax addictions like mine.
 
i've never heard of anyone risking seizures from taking benzos at the levels and for the same short duration as the OP. OP: when u seized before, was it coming off of a much heftier amount taken over a longer period of time? bc 10 days taking 1-2 mgs a day or whatever u said is just really not that much to worry about for most people. at all. if you are already prone to having seizures, u may be in a different boat, so maybe check w/ a dr or something, but for the great majority of the world, just stopping cold turkey from what you have been doing would be nothing to worry about.
 
bluntedskier said:
You really should be consulting professional medical care ASAP if you have seized before/are concerned about this.... compared to me YOU ARE TAKING NOTHING, I am on 6-8mg of Xanax (XR) a day, plus Vallium when needed... and although this is not good at all of course, and I am in the means of getting off Xanax all together slowly... I trust my Harvard psychiatrist because I believe that he genuinely does care, but also because he does not want my parents to make HELL come down on him with malpractice charges if anything happens to me from his prescriptions... and I asked about the seizure risks at my level, and he said I really do not have to worry, and that even if I stopped cold turkey - he admitted it would be horrific and I would be absolutely miserable but even at my dosage, would not have a seizure.

So I think this is something that is different with your brain chemistry that you need to look into asap.

Not saying my doctor is absolutely right, but I'd like to think he knows what he is talking about after doing his job for 23 years and dealing with hundreds of similar Xanax addictions like mine.
Click to expand...

Honestly, man, I would say that quitting 6-8 mg of xanax XR cold turkey would put you at serious risk for seizures. I am not a doctor, but that is quite a bit of alprazolam you have in your system.
 
verso said:
Honestly, man, I would say that quitting 6-8 mg of xanax XR cold turkey would put you at serious risk for seizures. I am not a doctor, but that is quite a bit of alprazolam you have in your system.
Click to expand...

And that's how I feel as well... (I am not going to be allowed to go cold turkey so this is just hypothetical) but I have showed him stuff just like this from bluelight and a lot of experienced members thoughts on this. But he really just waived it off...

Trust me I am plenty cynical of doctors at times, but I really find it hard to believe someone would have a seizure from w/d from such a low dose of Xanax.

Also a lot of you have never heard of, or don't understand the difference of taking XR versus regular Xanax is.... I used to be on 6mg of XR AND 2mg IR bars at the same time... but we stopped the IR bars. But although your ingesting the same amount of Xanax taking a 2mg IR and a 2mg XR... one is released at like .2 per hour over a long period of time, while when you take a 2mg IR it just hits your system all at once and then just as hard, drops out after several hours.

So I am not saying Xanax XR is safe. But it definitely is without a doubt far safer, less addictive and easier to come off of than regular Xanax.

It also has the additional psychological aspect: I take one 2mg in the morning, one 2mg around 2-4pm and one 2mg around 8 or 9pm, as if I were just taking antibiotics or something - as opposed to falling into the constant pill popping routine where you are training your brain to ASSOCIATE feelings of anxiety with taking a pill... If this makes sense to people.


Trust me, I don't think Xanax is a good drug to be on for a period of time longer than a couple weeks.... and very much regret becoming addicted to this severe level. However, it is not the end of the world, and I am lucky to have the best medical care in the world and people who care very much, so I am confident that in the near future I will be able to completely taper off Xanax... then eventually all benzos whatsover.

Life chained to benzos is not a good one.
 
See, I am not sure exactly why anyone would want to take xanax xr in the first place when, essentially, klonopin is xanax xr and less likely to cause seizures.

The reason why I switched from klonopin to xanax ir is because the klonopin was too long-lasting. Even a small dose would have me tripping up stairs. I am a college student and need to bounce around from place to place all of the time, and driving after having taken klonopin became a scary task. The xanax ir, on the other hand, I could take as-needed and it would be short-acting enough to allow me windows of opportunity to drive around or do whatever else.

I don't know, but that was my rationale at the time; then I had a seizure, and now I stay away from benzos. lol
 
Blunted, don't listen to your doc. That dose could definitely cause seizures.
 
Pegasus said:
Blunted, don't listen to your doc. That dose could definitely cause seizures.
Click to expand...

Right? Because I am thinking that, even despite being extended release, alprazolam at 6mg or 2mg three times daily is still quite a bit of alprazolam.
 
The fact is...You CAN seize after a WEEK of everyday xanax use. PERIOD...I seized after taking xanax SPARINGLY over a course of a few months...meaning .5 here and there, maybe 2mg one day, none the next, maybe again in 2 days, then I went on about 1 mg for a week straight...Nothing right???? Your all wrong, I had a grand mal about 24hour after my previous dose....I really like to think it wasnt the xanax, but yeah, I think it was.

I'll tell you what my doctor told me. If your going to do a benzo, switch to ativan because your going to get anxiety releif without the worry of getting a seizure. Ativan is used for seizure disorders supposedly. Thats what im doing.

Xanax is no joke, especially if youve had a seizure before...you can easily die. I would highly suggest changing your choice of benzos.
 
benzos are a nightmare to come off as most of the bluelight crew know and should be done as slow and as long as your pills and willpower will allow you to. sum people can take as long as 12 months or even longer to get over a long term/high addiction to benzos. of you search the net you can find sum good detox plans by doctors. good luck though for the benzos escape route is long and difficult both phsicaly and mentaly. good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top