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Benzos Taper off of 3mg xanax, 4-5 year daily use. 1mgX3 Advice needed

mn_freethnker

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Dec 12, 2016
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5
So for the past year or 2 at least i have been researching heavily different methods to get off of benzos. I am aware of the ashton manual. Valium doesnt Treat me the best, i think my doc never gave me a high enough dose.(40Mg tops). So i dont think i will go down that route. I have taken every benzo beside ativan and a few other very short acting.

I have tried 2 or 3 times to taper in the past with no success past 2 months out.

So basically i am thinking of cutting my 3mg daily dose down to 2.75 and stabilize for at least 3 weeks. The reason being is for me the mental agony of a larger cut had always basically scared me back into my regular dose. I figure if i can make small cuts and then stabilize for 3 weeks or more that i will have a larger chance at continuing my taper without loosing my mind. Time is not very important to me at this point, its been 5 years.

I may consider the ashton method once i get down to 2mg. I also do not smoke MJ or drink alcohol. I eat very healthy and only drink water.

i also take .2mg of clonidine and 30mg of remeron. Does anyone have any suggestions, experiences similar?

Goal=longer taper to avoid as much of the absolute crazyness that can happen. I understand i will experience WD, just hoping to make it more bearable. Also the more stabilized you are the easier the next cut will be correct?

Thank you for reading my short novel, any suggestions would be Greatly Appreciated.
 
How many times per day do you dose? I'm currently tapering off of etizolam, which is similar enough to alprazolam and also has a short half life. I found it fairly easy until I got down to exactly 3mg, and since then it has been difficult for me as well. What really helped for me was dosing 3x a day (every 8 hours) in smaller doses rather than dosing twice daily and dealing with hours of withdrawal hell in between doses. You are correct in thinking that a long, slow taper is the way to go. Yes, you should wait to stabilize after each cut before cutting again. I've been tapering for over 3 months now and started at 4-6mg, but have not been using benzos for years prior. Ideally though, I would go even slower. I'd also advise cutting by the smallest increments possible, but it appears you're already doing that. I'm cutting my dose steadily by .5mg only because I can't reliably cut my pills into smaller doses, but it's a big jump and the transition to a lower dose is very uncomfortable. So far it sounds like you're doing everything right, just be patient with it because it feels like it takes an eternity.

edit: sorry for the massive misread lol, just realized you are indeed dosing 3x a day. All I can say is keep doing what you're doing. I don't generally advise using more drugs to get off of drugs but I always use dxm when I cut my dose and it seems to help a lot. Massive doses are not necessary, 60-90mg is enough to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms for me.
 
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i am taking 1MG 3x a day, about every 5-7 hours. Thank you very much for your reassurance! I wish you the best of luck on your journey as well! We all know its a hell to get off of! i quit oxy 6 month habit cold turkey about 5 weeks ago, was a walk in the park. Im not entirely sure, but i thought i have seen DXM may not be good for withdrawls, but again not sure! Are you able to get Clonidine? im assuming you dont have a DR since your taking a RC ?
 
No problem :) it is definitely hellish, but it appears that you've done your research well and are doing everything as comfortably as possible. Congrats on quitting the oxy habit!! I CT'd a 6 month long opioid habit (primarily poppy tea/opium for the last month) last February and I agree with you that it was a walk in the park compared to this! DXM won't work (or at least shouldn't be relied on) for CT benzo withdrawal or anything like that, but I find it extremely helpful in alleviating the mental symptoms such as depression/anxiety. I only use it on the first day I cut, not continuously or anything. The best part is that the afterglow seems to keep me feeling decent for the next day or two after. I could search for clonidine online and might, especially for when I jump down to 0mg ;) but yes, you're correct in assuming that I don't have a doctor, hence all the self-experimentation with tapering. Wishing you all the best with your taper :)
 
Clonidine should help you immensely with blood pressure and surprisingly even more. i feel if i had found that sooner, i may have never had to take benzos! Congrats to you with cutting the opioid habit as well! That takes a lot of self control! I wish the best of luck to you!
 
Have you tried clonazepam ? The duration of action should be longer than alprazolam, so maybe you could take it only twice a day.
And your taper plan sounds good, as long as you're feeling comfortable it should go well, so take your time.

You should look into L-Theanine, ashwaganda and valerian root to help smoothen out the cut
 
Klonopin (Clonazepam) IMO is the best detox medication for benzos. It's very often RX'd for Benzo detox/withdrawal.

It's the same strength as Xanax (Alprazolam), but lasts much longer.. Which is what you need for detox.

Start at 3mg daily, where you're currently at, and go down 0.5mg a week, I think you would be ok with that route.
 
^^^Clonazepam is not a 'withdrawal aid' for benzos, it is a benzo, and a pretty strong one at that. It can actually be harder to get off because it is about as strong as xanax and longer lasting. Which means if you had to cold turkey withdraw, it lasts about 4-6 weeks rather than 2-3 weeks. It is very widely considered that the best benzo to use to taper down with is valium. You will be hard pressed to find a dr who suggests switching from xanax to klonopin if your plan is to taper off, they will almost certainly suggest valium.

Possibly low doses of phenibut could be used to help. But, that could just turn into another habit. Many herbs can help, like Valerian Root, but they will hardly touch a 3 mg /day xanax habit. These are things I wouldn't use until i got deep into the taper, so for now just throwing that out there for future consideration, but def be careful with the phenibut.

I hear you tried the Ashton method. Did you actually research it and read how to lower the dose properly. You don't go from 3 mg xanax to 40 mg of valium. It's a process of slowly incorporating lowering your dose of xanax slowly while substituting part of the xanax dose for valium until you get eventually are only taking valium, but that can be months into the process. Also, 40 mg valium and only equi-potent to 2 mg xanax. And if your body is use to having xanax everyday, and xanax and valium have very different mechanisms of action, you are going to not do well.

Thats why the transition from xanax to valium must be slow. I haven't look at it recently, but it'd be something like 1 week you drop .25 mg of xanax and substitute with 5 mg valium, next week you take away another .25 xanax but don't add any valium. That's just the general gist of it, not exactly how it goes.

EDITL:

CHECK OUT THIS PAGE THAT SHOWS HOW THE ASHTON METHOD USES A TAPERIGN SCHEDULE: http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm

BTW - I am in the same exact boat as you, OP, almost same exact habit (but I self medicate, so my doses are often erratic, not sure about yourself). I think I could do the Ashton taper, it seems very doable, the problem is I need a steady supply of accurately dosed meds. Basically would need a dr to go along with me in terms of doing this taper. And I have no idea if there is any dr who would do that.
 
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Well yeah, obviously Klonopin/Clonazepam is also a benzo... But that's the point.
You NEED a benzo to detox off of benzos..

Just like with opiates.. Suboxone is an opiate.. but people use it to detox/taper off of their opiate of choice.

Clonazepam is in fact RX'D very commonly for benzo withdrawal/detox.

Tapering is obviously the way to go... beats the shit out of cold turkey, that's for damn sure.
 
thank you all for your replies! in my previous attempts at tapering i had been on klonopin and made a .5mg cut and held it for 2 months, it was very hard! ive been hearing although it last longer it is actually harder with withdrawls and such. maybe not interdose but in general. i am highly considering trying a valium taper when i get around 2mg. my doctor wont prescribe me more than 40mg.. although he may be willing to now. He thinks i take 6mg of xanax a day but i only take 3mg. l theanine has helped me short term in the past so i may give that a try.
 
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