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Benzos Alprazolam

Xanflicted

Greenlighter
Joined
May 7, 2019
Messages
9
Hi everyone, I am new here to Blue Light and I have an issue. For about 12 years I have been taking Xanax 1 mg three times daily for panic disorder and I'm not getting any relief out of it anymore and my doctor will not increase the dosage. My new doctor doesn't even want me on benzos but he says I've been on them for far too long that I cannot stop. I was just wondering, is there any way for me to take my Xanax so that it hits me harder so I can sleep at night? I live in a halfway house and therefore could not snort or plug the pill but the nurse has stated that sublingual use could intensify the effects for me. Could I just get some hard candy and leave the Xanax under my tongue to get more of an effect? Thank you all so much for your help, it is very much appreciated.
 
You should basically not take it three times a day, but as needed. Taper down?

I would basically get off of them if I was on it for that long. Did you not notice symptoms of withdrawal if you missed a dose?
 
thank you for your reply, I tried to taper down by .5mg in the am and I was shaky and angry and without even asking the doctor put me back on my original dose.

Yes my teeth clench, i am at unease, I shake and have tremors and get sick without my xanax. I've been on them since I was 17. I am pitifully addicted to them and I just want to feel something at all from them like I used to... Now I'm on a maintenance dose so I don't have seizures from withdrawal but the doctor only gives me barely enough to function.
 
As Captain H said, you should definitely taper down.
Then when you get down to a lower doese, you'll feel relief from the occasional higher dose.uh
 
I can't taper down. I need 6mg to 12mg a day to be okay like I was at my apartment. I need more, or I need rehab. Just took it sublingually and starting to feel a little more calm than usual. However I will build a tolerance to this as well. Then what? I can't remain in this program while tapering down. I guess I will have to finish the program and then go to rehab. I can't do this anymore. Thanks all for the advice
 
If you only can have 3 mg per day and cannot change your dose (up or down) then no, you have no way of increasing the intensity or effects.

Putting it under your tongue has anegligible increase in the rate of absorption (at least for me I can’t tell the difference from orally).

Ask to switch to 3 mg kpin per day (even 2 mg kpin would probably be better than 3 mg Xanax for your purposes). The extended half life will keep you from rebound effects and withdrawal for far longer.
 
My doctor is one of the best doctors in town and if I asked him to switch to klonopin I think he would be skeptical. He would ask me why I wanted to switch and I would say that I wanted a less intense benzo but he knows better, LOL! Thanks all of you for helping me oh, I think I'm just stuck with these Xanax for now. Hey, it's better than none at all! Thanks again!
 
Alprazolam is a terrible benzo for chronic use, it's best used as an emergency med to interrupt panic attacks. I'm surprised you got prescribed it 3x per day. The long-lasting benzos like clonazepam/Klonopin are much better to treat anxiety disorders. One of the best doctors in town should know this. Clonazepam is generally considered less recreational/abusable than Xanax, too. Seems like "xannies" are the benzo of choice for abuse, as far as I can tell.
 
my doctor tried to wean me off of the Xanax because he said that I should not have been on it for more than a month maximum. After a failed weaning he put me on the same dose and he said there will be memory problems and consequences when I get older. He also said that I have been on it for too long and that I am addicted and that I need it for my Gaba receptor function. I'm not a doctor, I'm just taking what I'm prescribed.
 
the doctor doesn't even want me on Xanax anyway and he tried to wean me but it was unsuccessful and I was told that rehab would be a good option for me to come off of it completely and he doesn't agree with the use of benzodiazepines but he continues to give them to me because I am so addicted having been on them for so long. He says that my brain is so used to Alprazolam calming me down that it would be a very long process to come off of it and to do it on my own. I don't think he is a bad doctor, but when you have been on Xanax for as long as I have been there is not much you can do other than rehab.
 
He even said "shame on the doctors who prescribed xanax to you for this long. I wish sometimes it was never invented for this reason among others."
 
Well, weaning down from benzos is much easier with a long half-life benzo such as clonazepam. It's standard to switch to a long-lasting benzo and do about 10% drops every 2 weeks. it takes a long time but it's very doable with a proper taper plan. Look up the Ashton manual, it's sort of the gold standard of benzo tapering. If your doctor doesn't want to consider switching to clonazepam or similar, perhaps he'd change his mind when presented with good evidence that he should.

You're not stuck forever, it's just going to take a good plan. In my opinion, you should be switched to an equivalent dose of clonazepam, which you should only need to take once a day, and then drop 10% every 2 weeks. So if you start on 3mg, then you'd drop to 2.7mg after 2 weeks, then ~2.4mg after another 2 weeks, etc. When it gets down to a low dose, the drops will be smaller and you might need to take longer than 2 weeks to stabilize on each dose but that's okay, as long as you keep dropping and stay at the dropped level and never cheat and take extra, you'll keep making progress and eventually you can be free of benzos. This is not a life sentence for you. :)
 
Thanks so much, I had no idea!! I will present the idea to my doctor. I got prescribed Xanax because of having such severe panic attacks and was diagnosed with panic disorder, I never took them from a dealer off the streets not that that's wrong either, but I felt like the doctor made me an addict. I felt like I was doomed to take this medication for the rest of my life. I am only 27 and I'm already suffering from memory loss and it will only get worse from here if I don't stop taking the Xanax. Thank you for giving me hope in my life!!
 
Thank you for giving me hope in my life!!

That's what we're here for. :) It'll be a long road but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I really hope your doctor will cooperate. If he wants to keep you on Xanax instead for some reason, you could do what CH said above, cut down each dose by 0.25mg (so take .75mg each time instead of 1mg)... if you get a razor you can cut the pills pretty precisely, and just lower each dose a little bit whenever you feel stable enough to.

If you feel like you need some support, we have a Tapering Social and Support Thread in our forum The Dark Side, with a lot of folks dealing with tapering down benzos, opiates, or whatever. It can be a big help, and people there are very knowledgeable and can help you come up with a plan, and just be there for daily support. :)
 
I thank you all so much! Because of you guys I have hope that I can quit Xanax and have my life back again without relying on a pill that's only hurting me in the long run. I am so glad I found blue light and that there is so much support here, I am forever grateful to you all!
 
Maybe pair it with an opiate if you have that option.

I’m sure it goes without saying in here, but don’t quit cold-turkey.

I nearly died from doing that, including having seizures. It was the most miserable thing imaginable.
 
Hey mate welcome to bluelight!

All great advice above. I would add if at all possible try some other doctors and just be straight up and detailed about why your there, what you want to achieve then say I've spent hours looking for advice on the internet and I read a couple of medical professionals mention either clonazepam or lorazepam when changing off Alprazolam.

You will be surprised with some GP's when you are completely honest and detailed. It's worked for me in the past. I actually managed to get my GP to say "This is the first time I've prescribed this medication in my 11 years of practice" when dealing with a simular opiate (Not benzodiazepine) problem.
Good luck!
A.T
 
I'm benzo free after being prescribed 2mgs of xanax for the better part of 7 years. Just to reiterate what others have basically said, I would suggest switching over to clonazepam (klonopin) because of the longer life and then taper down from there if you want. I had the same thoughts before going off of benzos that I was doomed to be on them forever and that my gaba system would be fucked forever but it wasn't the case. My doctor just did a slow taper off of the clonazepam and it was really pretty painless.
 
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