New and just figured out I have an addiction

So I've been taking Xanax 1mg for a little over a year. Two days ago I tried to stop cold turkey and that was a BAD idea. My friend introduced me to this board and talked to me about tapering. After reading some, I decided to let myself have .5 xanax yesterday and that it would be best to take .5 for now because to stop altogether is too hard. How long should I take this half dose? Is half enough for right now (it's early and I'm already kind of jumpy, I had .5 around 5pm last night and wanted to try and wait until 5pm tonight).

In addition to the usual withdrawal symptoms (anger, lack of interest in life, rage, depression, etc etc), I was also getting insomnia. So I have ambien for that and it helps but I feel drugged almost the whole day with ambien. Still I need to sleep, so that is another question. Is it ok to take ambien while I'm pulling off of Xanax? I also have my regular Rx for depression (200mg luvox and 30 mg prozac) that I'm not touching.  I'm starting to experience some perimenopause symptoms, and was on a low dose estrogen but it's only made my pms worse and to boot I was bleeding 10 days at once.

Anyway - it feels like I'm on a lot:

ambien at night

200 mg Luvox

30 mg prozac

Lo-loestrin

1mg xanax

I've heard good things about a supplement called DIM but I'm not sure if I should add more to the mix while I'm pulling out of Xanax?

Sorry, I know I'm jumping around. My mind is kind of racing and I'm having a little trouble focusing at the moment. Any advice/support appreciated.

I would suggest you take your 1 mg of Xanax, cutting 50% is not advisable, you're most likely going to hurt.  Once you get stable on the 1 mg then it would be better to reduce your dose by about 5-10% ever week or two or whatever your symptoms will allow.  It might be a good idea to begin dosing more than once a day, this will be very important as you taper. 

Ambien is similar to a benzo, and it will need to be tapered when you're free from the Xanax.  I was able to get off of Ambien fairly easily but there are many who suffer with it just as they do benzo's so just be aware.

Please continue to take whatever antidepressants you're already taking, we suggest only tapering one medication at a time.  I would also avoid adding in any supplements at this time, your central nervous system is highly sensitized right now and will remain so as you taper and recover, so adding anything new could backfire on you. 

Hi Ellwood,

Just  wanted to wish you the best. It’s the beginning of what may be a difficult journey, but everyone says there is light at the end of the tunnel. There are a lot of helpful people here but it seems more people needing help than there is time for people to always help. There is a lot of experience here to draw from but it takes some searching. Keep asking questions if you have them and people will be kind enough to answer. I’m new to the site, but Pamster always seems to give good advice, and from what I know, cutting 50% is not advisable.

Best wishes and keep asking for support I if you need it.

I would go back to 1 mg xanax a day too, but space it throughout the day. You still might suffer symptoms doing this.

While I was on xanax and ambien (2 years), I would take 0.5 mg xanax with breakfast, another 0.5 mg xanax 6 or 7 hours later, and then 10 mg ambien before bed, which was usually 7 or 8 hours after the second xanax.

I stayed on ambien (10 mg) while I was tapering xanax. I did come to a point where it suddenly became clear that I needed to reduce the ambien. It's all in my signature when that happened. I was able to reduce ambien pretty easily too.

I stayed on 20 mg celexa and 45 mg remeron the whole time. Lately I've reduced the remeron by half. Anti-depressants can be a good thing.