Tapering Xanax Tapering

[benzonomore86]

I recently filled my 90 day supply of Xanax on July 27th and I’m currently down to 5 1mg left. I did the math and I was taking about 5 a day with the exception of a few days where I took more. My max of all time is 9mg a day. I previously was in rehab and the doc did a 5 day taper with Valium but I don’t have that option right now. I do have a prescription of Keppra to help avoid seizures because last time I quit cold turkey (ran out) and ended up having a seizure on day 5 of withdrawals. I’m starting the keppra today (500mg twice daily). The best taper schedule I could come up with considering I only have 5mg to work with is:
Tuesday: 1.5mg (taken spaced out 3 times a day)
Wednesday: 1mg (again, spaced)
Thursday: 1mg (spaced)
Friday: .5mg (spaced)
Saturday: .5mg (spaced)
Sunday: .25 (once)
Monday: .25 (once)

Ofc I’ll be taking the Keppra twice a day unless anyone suggests I up the dosage. I have a large supply because I finally quit and was sober since May 22nd but kept getting the keppra filled. I also take propranolol 10mg 3x/day so hopefully that will help with the withdrawals but I’m not super confident in this.

For the spacing, since Xanax is a shorter half-life benzo, should I space it more, like in .25mg more frequently? Any advice would help. And please don’t tell me to go back to rehab or a detox facility because due to several circumstances, it’s not an option. I simply want to #1- avoid a seizure and #2- lessen any withdrawals as much as possible.

I should note I take Vyvanse daily. Luckily I don’t have any addiction to that but I’m unsure if stopping that while tapering will benefit me or exacerbate any withdrawal symptoms I may experience.

Any advice, please and thank you.

 

[vinsanity89]

So I'm curious what happened. I'm not nearly on that level with xanax. My problem (and I already know it's stupid) is I was snorting them. Started in January of this year very slowly. But the past I'd say 3ish months I had been snorting 4mgs a day. Well eventually I lost myself mentally and felt like a ghost just floating through my apartment. Lost my job. Don't even leave my apartment unless I have to. I decided to cut my dose in half over night cause I was tired of it. Was snorting anywhere from a quarter of a bar to a third 3 to 4 times a day. Started having really bad chest pain. Weakness in the legs. Shortness of breathe and yes very bad anxiety. At this point I did think it was xanax because I also take subutex 3 times a day and unfortunately I IV them. So I assumed an infection. Well I spent 3 days in the hospital and they couldn't find anything so they released me. It was there I wondered if it was benzo withdrawal. I wanted to be done with snorting. So I stopped and tried taking halfs under the tongue and straight to my blood stream that I read off a reddit user. Well after 3 days of no snorting I began to withdrawal like every 4 or 5 hours badly. The snorting must of messed me up neurological because I've never felt my mind like that. My girl suggested I was going through some sort of shock and suggested I snort a quarter every morning when I wake up and then take a half under the tongue through the day, then a quarter at night for bed and then cut 10 percent of that dose every 10 to 14 days. But I really don't want to snort them anymore at all. I feel like the snorting really had something to do with the chest pain, but it's either that or I have to put a half under my tongue every 5 hours which is uping my dose not downing it. I'm sorry no one replied to your comment and your cry for help. But I'm hoping you can tell me what happened and maybe some advice on how I can beat these benzo withdrawals without snorting. Thank u and sorry it was so long.

 

[benzonomore86]

Hey there - I did what I could to taper but even the short taper wasn’t enough to avoid massive withdrawals, but I’ve been clean since then. I’m never touching that stuff again. It’s just too dangerous. I ended up getting strep throat on the same day I took my last dose and the withdrawals hit hard on day 3. It definitely sounds like you’re having withdrawals. A couple tips from someone that’s had plenty of withdrawals - don’t consume any caffeine at all, that just ramps up the withdrawals. Nicotine is the same, stay away from that as well. Sleep will be hard to come by. I usually ended up not sleeping for a good 3 days when I’d run out. Since you don’t seem to be as bad off as I was, I’ll tell you when I was hitting around 4mgs a day and ran out, it took a good 2 weeks for most of the withdrawals to subside. It’s not 2 weeks of hell, for me it was about 2 days of hell and then it would slowly start getting better. Just know the first couple days won’t last the whole 2 weeks. The not knowing how long it will last can turn into relapse pretty easily. And you’ll lose your appetite, but try to eat at least one good nutritious meal a day. That was one of the things I failed to do each time and the 3 days following my last dose would lead to like 12lbs lost. Usually I’d just try to stay home, watch really laid back tv shows, nothing that makes you excited. I’d find if I watched anything that had a lot of violence it would send me into a panic attack for some reason. The biggest thing is try not to leave the house until you truly feel better.

One thing I’m curious about - you said bars. To my knowledge they don’t manufacture Xanax bars anymore. You typically only find them through someone dealing them, and they get them from someone that has old equipment that isn’t used any longer in pharmaceutical manufacturing. If that’s the case and you’re buying them from a dealer, there’s a good chance they’re not produced using alprazolam. This isn’t always 100% of the time, but I’ve used Xanax for a very long time and have had to resort to buying them off the street, and they didn’t make me feel the same, they were similar, but not the same for sure. I’ve found a lot of the bars being bought are actually manufactured using something called etizolam. It’s super cheap but never hit our markets here in the US. As far as I know, they still produce it and use it in other countries, but I can’t remember.

All my withdrawals from my last dose of Xanax took about 24 hours to begin. You’re saying about 5-6 hours and that tells me what you’re using has a shorter half-life, but it could just be dependent on your metabolism. Taking that into consideration, I’d say depending on how much you’re currently taking and how much you have available to you, I’d taper to .25mg less for about a week, then repeat that each week. If you’re able to do that, it’s going to help you not feel as bad. It will take longer, but trust me - going cold turkey, even from 4mg, is really uncomfortable.

One really scary thing, and I’m not trying to scare you, but people can get seizures during withdrawal even after taking normal therapeutic doses. It doesn’t happen often, and I never had a seizure at 4mg then quit cold turkey, but the seizures are completely unexpected. When I had mine I didn’t feel bad at all and there were no signs until it happened.

Just be really careful, listen to your body and try to treat it well and with extra care during this time.

I’m sorry about losing your job. I know it’s tough and trying to quit this type of drug when things aren’t going well just adds extra stress to the situation. I wish you well.