how to taper from xanax

Hello everyone,

 

I have been on 1.8mg of xanax per day distributed through the day for a month and then i started to taper... in two months i am now down to 0.7 mg per day... I take 0.4mg before bedtime for my insomnia along with seroquel 50mg, eszopiclone 2mg, 3mg melatonin. My psychiatrist told me to taper a quarter of the tablet at a time... currently, I am taking 0.2mg (half of the tablet) at noon, and 0.1mg at 6pm, 0.4 mg at bedtime.

 

My psychiatrist told me to just keep on cutting a quarter from the dose. Before I used to take 1 tablet at 6am in the morning, i completely tapered off after a month. She told me that I can just taper off and remove my dose, she doesn't want me to spread the dosage nor she doesn't want me to cross over to valium, she just wants me to directly taper off xanax.

 

Any suggestions for the taper. My husband said I should eliminate my noon and 6pm dose before i touch the bedtime dose. Is this ok?

 

Anyone who has done the same taper?

 

We have many members who have tapered directly from Xanax, its absolutely possible.  You can lower or remove any dose you need to according to your needs so your husband is right, it's totally up to you.  In the end, they'll all be removed but you might as well use your dose to your advantage.

 

I want to let you know that you'll need to taper the eszopiclone when you've recovered from your Xanax taper, it's technical term is a non-benzodiazepine but it works on the same receptors as benzo's.  It can cause interdose withdrawal symptoms because the half life is so short.  I took Ambien which is another z-drug like Lunesta and it caused me to have severe inner trembling and depression among the many symptoms it produced.

 

 

Thank you so much for your input and suggestions... I have to taper from these two meds because I might have to return to my country and these drugs are considered prohibited drugs and only specially licensed psychiatrist by the drug agency can prescribe... i am not even sure if these drugs are available in my city's pharmacy, as these kinds of drugs are not usually given to address mental health issues.

 

Oh dear, I hope you'll have enough time to do a proper taper, how are you feeling?

I cannot focus actually with my jo, having little or shallow sleeps for the last 5 months with the aid of a concoction of drugs just to get this. How can I get my sleep back without taking so many dangerous medicines?

 

Can you help me taper from my meds?

I've chased sleep throughout my life, I've used alcohol, Ambien and Klonopin and my sleep kept getting worse and worse, when I finally gave up the chase sleep has found me, this can happen for you too.

 

It looks like you're doing a good job of reducing your Xanax, are you asking for help with the eszopiclone?

Whenever  I try to sleep without taking my concoction of sleeping pills (xanax seroquel, melatonin, and eszopiclone) I always get hypnic jerks and it's like as my legs kick or arms jerks, so does my heart and my brain...huhuh!

 

How did you find your sleep finally? Did you experience the hypnic jerks that are so bad that they won't let you sleep?

Once I finally got off all of the drugs I was able to sleep.  I was like you, I thought I was broken, thought I needed all of that to sleep but once I got off all of it, my body knew what to do.

 

Hypnic jerks weren't a huge problem for me but I did experience them as I was recovering from my cold turkey. 

Thank you Pam,

 

Are pains in the arms, GERD and irritable bowel syndrome results of the benzo withdrawal or symptoms of anxiety?

Its difficult to separate anxiety from benzo withdrawal because benzo's cause anxiety once we become dependent on them, only it's about a 100 times worse than the normal stuff.  I'd blame it on the benzo's, chapter 3 lists symptoms.  The Ashton Manual