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Little, but extended period Xanax


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18 months ago , suffered Vestibular Neuritis. By far, the scariest illness I’ve ever had. After the Acute Stage (3 days )& chronic stage (no set duration) pending on the nerve damage in the ear, I began to have the IMMEDIATE panic response whenever I felt any thought of vertigo or equilibrium offset.  Started taking .50mg Xanax . Always worked. So, I got in the habit of taking 1 .50mg of Xanax everyday. Except for 1 or 2 occasions, I still have yet to ever take over .50 mg in a day. But I started to wonder why I felt like crap every morning waking up, got better as day went on & then same time every day 1-4 pm, I would feel like crap again. It dawned on me, I’d usually take Xanax around 5pm, sleep, it wears off!  I’m hypothesizing.  So, I know .50mg is very minimal, but I started feeling worse for longer durations throughout the day.  Need to quit.  I’ve cut the .50 into 4  .125 a day for past 5 days. It kicked my butt for 4 days because of the split doses instead of the 1 50mg dump. It’s day 6, still doing the .125 4x’s . Feel much better as far as just not feeling like crap, but have also felt listed X withdrawal symptoms. Thus far nothing I can’t handle.  Just would like to know what the next move should be! Every few days, lower the dose a tad or ???????  Thank you!
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Hello MattyMay, welcome to BenzoBuddies,

 

I'm very sorry to hear about your illness and now you're faced with another challenge.  You surmised correctly that the short half life of Xanax was the cause for your interdose withdrawals, good decision to split your doses.

 

We typically suggest reducing your dose by about 5-10% every week or two so cutting by .125 might be too much for you.  Here is a link to our taper board to get some ideas on how to taper.  Planning your taper (Taper Plans)

 

You may want to talk to others about your symptoms, you can reach out to them here:  Withdrawal Support (during your taper)

 

It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with  The Ashton Manual, it's a great resource for understanding this process and chapter 3 will list your symptoms.

 

We're glad you found us, let us know how we can help.

 

Pamster

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So, I do 4x’s .125 per day now. When I taper, should I taper each dose equally or can I taper the 2 midday doses or the two bracket doses ? Suggestions!
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You can design your taper to meet your needs, if sleep is an issue you might want to leave your nighttime dose heavy and taper your midday or if anxiety is a feature of your mornings then leaving that one heavy would be good.  It's all about you and your lifestyle.

 

 

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Well, it’s sort of a paradox. not sure what’s needed. Because of taking .50 at once, I feel like CRAP every morning & spiraled around 1-4 pm each day. Now, on the 4x’s, those issues have subsided a bit. TBH- it causes panic & stress just reading everything on line about the inevitable dark tunnel coming going forward. 
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I understand, this is a painful process for those of us who will suffer with this, not everyone does so many Dr's aren't fully aware of how difficult it is.

 

We have tools to get through this and if you make your reductions small enough there is a chance you'll have a fairly uneventful taper.  There are some who will cross over to a longer acting benzo like Valium or Klonopin but there will still be discomfort.

 

You're smart to get off the drug though because when we become tolerant it begins to cause the issues we went on them to fix such as panic, anxiety and insomnia but it's worse than normal,  much worse.

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Hi Matty

 

Welcome to BB.  Try not to be too anxious about tapering.  Many people taper these meds and do not struggle as much.  On BB, you will see the hardest hit.  Those who do better don't need to show up for extra support. 

 

As Pamster says, 5- 10% each reduction is suggested.  This minimizes withdrawal symptoms.  The idea is to take more time and be more functional as you go.  Hold each reduction 10 days or so.  You may be able to reduce more or hold for less time.  You will feel that out as you go.  As for which part of the pill to reduce first, again .. up to you.  You can gradually eliminate one of the daily doses, start with the one that seems least troubling to do without. 

 

The link as to how to reduce that little pill by this amount is in Pamster's response. 

 

The symptoms you may face will not be comfortable.  But you may not have much to deal with.  And you can handle it as it comes.

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So, one more question. Being that I have been doing .50 daily for an extended period already , can I begin the mild taper now or should I wait the 7-14 days because of the change to 4x’s a day?
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As Healing64 says, it's best to proceed cautiously, your body is already dependent so there's no rush to do this, the slower you do this the better.  There is healing as you taper and even more when you're drug free, your brain has to repair the pathways the drug disrupted and this takes time.

 

Some people can shave their doses with a razor others buy a jewelers scale so they can weigh their dose after crushing it, there are many ways to get the tablet smaller.  You might consider asking your Dr for a smaller dose tablet so you can taper easier.  You can also have him write you a script to a compounding pharmacy and Xanax also comes in liquid form. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov

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Just finding this site will allow quicker healing. Not physically, but psychologically. Lots of weight lifted off shoulders. The INTERNET will have you wanting to crawl in a corner and wither away.
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Fear is a huge withdrawal symptom, this process has us afraid of things we've never given a second thought to so combine that with the horror stories out there and it's a perfect storm.  Don't get me wrong, it's not all sunshine here, we have the worst of the worst but we try to temper this with hope while educating. 

 

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There is a nutritionist here in the U.S. that touts Niacin, GABA  & Vitamin C while going through X drawals.  Any thought ? I don’t know if it helps, but if it doesn’t harm, then is it worth a whirl?
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To allay your fears a bit, going from one dose daily to splitting it into four doses was quite the accomplishment.  In my opinion, the worst is behind you...now you’ll need to cut small amounts from one dose at a time until you’re low enough to jump.

 

Here’s how I did it: I started cutting from the dose I felt I least needed.  At .125mg I’d cut it in half (.0625mg) and leave the other three doses as is.  I’d wait until any amped up symptoms subsided and then cut from a different dose.  Once all four doses were down to .0625 I began dropping a dose until there was only one dose left then I quit completely.

 

Again, I suspect you’ve already done the hardest part by splitting your once-daily dose into fourths.  Xanax lets you know immediately if you’re in trouble, unlike long-acting benzodiazepines.

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You are so right “Xanax let’s you know”. As long as I was taking Xanax, I never had “WD symptoms”. Yeah, felt like dung getting out of bed and in the afternoon, but no “side affects per se! Until last week! Face was burning up, no fever- tingling in legs, head itching! So, it was kinda like screw this. Don’t know if it was the RIGHT thing to do at the time, but figured that balancing doses seemed to be a good starting point.  Well, this is. Day 6. First 4 days were pretty brutal. Yesterday and today are not symptom free, but 80% better. I thank you for your post & if gives me a light going forward.
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There is a nutritionist here in the U.S. that touts Niacin, GABA  & Vitamin C while going through X drawals.  Any thought ? I don’t know if it helps, but if it doesn’t harm, then is it worth a whirl?

 

I'd search the Alternative Therapies & Supplements board to see what other members are saying about supplements, or start a thread.  Many members have bad reactions to supplements, our central nervous system is pretty amped up and we can't tolerate things like we could in the past. 

 

If you do decide to try something, add only one at a time so you'll know what is causing what.  I'd avoid any miracle cures people are touting out there, some have found a way to make money off of us which I find distasteful and morally bankrupt.

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You probably have no lack of GABA, it’s the inability of the GABA receptors to utilize it for the time being. Chamomile was my supplement t of choice.
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So, right now it appears to be  evening/early night intensity level is higher. I’m at 8am, then I can go to 2-3pm (sometimes with no symptoms), can feel the WDs around 6-7 & then around 9-10. The final dose between 9-10 gets me through the night. I’m guessing because I was taking the straight 50 at 5-6ish is why the 6-10 time frame seems to be the hot zone. Does sound logical?
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With the WD intensity a bit stronger in the evening, I’m trying to figure which of 3 routes I should go. 1) Being that the intensity is very low in late morning through 5 or 6pm. Should/can I 1) lower the day dosages, while keeping night dosages the same? 2) combine the day dosages (i.e. go to 3 doses per day ! Or 3) or 3) lower day dosages & raising night dosages? Although the the WD intensity is highest between 7pm to 10ish, they are manageable up to this point?
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So, right now it appears to be  evening/early night intensity level is higher. I’m at 8am, then I can go to 2-3pm (sometimes with no symptoms), can feel the WDs around 6-7 & then around 9-10. The final dose between 9-10 gets me through the night. I’m guessing because I was taking the straight 50 at 5-6ish is why the 6-10 time frame seems to be the hot zone. Does sound logical?

 

Most likely, yes.

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With the WD intensity a bit stronger in the evening, I’m trying to figure which of 3 routes I should go. 1) Being that the intensity is very low in late morning through 5 or 6pm. Should/can I 1) lower the day dosages, while keeping night dosages the same? 2) combine the day dosages (i.e. go to 3 doses per day ! Or 3) or 3) lower day dosages & raising night dosages? Although the the WD intensity is highest between 7pm to 10ish, they are manageable up to this point?

 

People are going to give you different takes on this.  Personally, before I joined BB and was tapering on my own, it worked fine to dose when I began feeling withdrawal symptoms.  I’d use the least amount that would make the symptoms tolerable, sometimes just crumbs.  I was careful to keep my total for the day at or lower than the days before.

 

In other words (and in my opinion) it is not always necessary to dose on schedule with short-acting benzodiazepines. Unlike long-acting benzodiazepines, short-acting benzos work almost instantly to relieve symptoms, no waiting for them to metabolize.

 

Does that help at all?

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Yes, ironic that you say that, because last night in my last dose, I took it, basically on time because it was when I started feeling WD’s! I didn’t have the exact cut . Had some broken pieces that didn’t actually add up to .125. A tad less. 25 minutes later, hot face, twitching & tingling gone. Went to bed.
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Good deduction, I agree.  That alone can guide you through a taper.  The main idea is to drop over time, as long as you’re doing that you’re going in the right direction.
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