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Need help tapering from 6mg xanax. Can I decrease 1 mg right away?? HELP


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I am taking 1mg of Xanax 6 times a day (every 4 hours).  I have been taking 6 mg for the last 30 days and was taking 4 mg per day prior to that.  All prescribed by my mental health provider.  My question is can I take 1 mg every 5 hours instead of 4 hours for a total of 5mg a day without having any withdrawals or is taking away 1mg a day to big of a taper?  After two weeks on 5 mg, I was going to start reducing my Xanax by 10 mg every two weeks to be on the super safe side.  Is this a safe taper?
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No, this is not a safe taper.  It is recommended not to taper more than 10% of your dose every two weeks to on month.  There are many people here suffering horrible long-term consequences for tapering too quickly.  How long had you been on the 4 mgs? 

 

I assume when you wrote that you would taper 10 mg every two weeks, you meant 1 mg.  1 mg every two weeks is not safe.  Xanax is a very potent drug.  1 mg of Xanax equals 20 mg of Valium.  People do these fast tapers, but most of them don't do very well.  And for some, it is disastrous. 

 

https://www.benzoinfo.com/ashtonmanual/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7fuJBhBdEiwA2lLMYY7FQP8Hv-w-Pe5DBkECAjiJBSfW3EHeR5NlCl4UR3pWtXx_RyIVYhoCycQQAvD_BwE 

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Thank you so much for the advice.  I have been on Xanax for close to 40 years.  I was on 4 mg for over 10 years and then 1 month ago put on 6 mg a day by my mental health provider.  I was hoping since I was only on the extra 2 mgs for 2 months, I could taper quicker.  I will taper .50 for a total of 5.5 mg of Xanax a day and hold there for 2 weeks and then taper another 5 to 10 percent.  Would that be a safe taper?
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.5 mg would be a much better choice for now, but what I would really like to see is your taper to be guided by your symptoms rather than a ridged timeline.  If you feel fairly well on the .5 mg reduction, then you can assess how much your next reduction should be.

 

I would also suggest you keep a detailed journal of your symptoms and their severity, this experiment called tapering needs to be guided by good and accurate information, this process can be painful if we don't pay attention to our symptoms.

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2 months ago I had some horrible things happen in my life and my anxiety was out of control on 4 mgs so my doctor up dosed my xanax from 4mg to 6mg.  I have been taking the 6 mg and now feel stable.  I don't like being on such a high dosage as it scares me.  Since I have been on Xanax for close to 40 years, I just didn't know the side effects from stopping Xanax.  I have been on the internet researching all the horrible side effects and I am beyond scared.  I take 1mg every 4 hours.  Where should I decrease the .50 mg?  Would it be a good idea to take .75 in 2 of my dosages to bring me down to 5.5 and stay there until I am stable before I make the next .50 mg cut which would hopefully be in 2 weeks?  I just can't believe I am in this nightmare.  I appreciate your advise ever so much...
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I agree with Pamster that you should let your symptoms guide you.  This may take much longer than you might have expected.  Do you want to get off the pills completely, or just get back to the 4 mgs and stay there? 

 

If you do want to withdraw completely from the pills, I would suggest doing a very slow liquid microtaper.  As you've already been on them for so many years, it seems like the safest option to me.  I did this with my medication and it took quite a long time, but I remained stable and able to care for my family throughout the taper. There are two ways to do this.  You can either direct taper your Xanax by making a water solution and drawing off a little each day or every other day.  The other way is to do a slow cross over to a longer acting drug like Valium and then taper from that.  Some people do that if they can't tolerate a direct taper off of a very short acting drug like Xanax.  But it does seem like you managed to stay stable on Xanax for a long time, so a direct taper might be possible.

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I would love to get off the Xanax completely for the rest of my life.  I now understand it will take some time and I don't have a problem with that as I do not want any side effects or the least amount of side effects.  I have 1 mg tablets that I can break in  half.  I also have a pill cutter to cut the halves into another quarters.  I did Google how to put the xanax for the whole day in water and then break those up in cups but would rather taper by removing .25 mg per dosage or .50 over time and go from taking 1 mg to .50 tablets.  I was hoping to get down to 4 mg within a few months and then have my doctor prescribe .50 and .25 mg tablets so I could break those up to slowly taper down from there.  Tomorrow I am going to take 1mg 4 times and .75 mg 2 times to reduce my xanax by .50 for 5.5 and hold there for a month if needed and then take 5 mg for yet another month and then taper each month 10 percent or by how I feel.  This whole thing is completely overwhelming me.  I just never knew that I would have to wait months for only taking the extra 2 mgs of Xanax for 30 days it would cause this much of a withdrawal problem.  Appreciate all your help.  God will get me through this.....
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I know how overwhelming it can be when you first realize the magnitude of what you have to do.  So hard.

 

I think dry cutting can work very well at the higher doses.  But as you get to the low doses, you may find that there is no way to make the tiny precise cuts you will have to make in order to remain stable.  So my suggestion: go ahead and dry taper until you get to the point where it becomes to hard and then do the last bit as a liquid microtaper. 

 

My hope is that maybe you're not as sensitive as some of us and this will be relatively easy for you.  But if not, you can always come here and find knowledge, experience, and support. 

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I can see you're moving towards acceptance of your situation, its a difficult task to come to terms with what has happened and how its going to change your life for the foreseeable future, I'm sorry you're facing this.

 

I think you can dry cut for quite awhile and if you're paying attention you'll know when its time to make a change in how you taper, your body will let you know.  Rushing through a taper only makes it more painful, a slow taper will allow your brain to regain it's normal function a little at a time so that when you're finally done most of the healing will be behind you.

 

I like that you're thinking about shaving a little off of a couple of doses, we should design our tapers to fit our lifestyle and getting the smaller dose pills is spot on.  :thumbsup:

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Thank you so much Pamster!  I read what you went through and all the information you gave.  I want to thank you for sharing that information about my brain starting to rebuild itself as it took much of the fear away of what I have to do.  My only fear is I have been on Xanax for almost 40 years and I am praying that my brain will also be able to heal itself.  I believe what happened to me is that my Xanax 4 mg were working fine and then just one day, they stopped working at the worst time in my life and I almost had a nervous breakdown as I had no idea what was going on.  My doctor should have never updosed me 2 mg as it would have been easier for me to come off the 4 mg a day instead of 6 mg a day but I just couldn't settle down or function.  I thought I was losing my mind, But that is the past.  When typing yesterday, I mentioned I had been on 6 mg for 2 months, the correct time is 1 month if that makes any difference.  So yesterday, scared, I went down to 5.75 as I woke up from a deep sleep with heart palpitations and my heart rate went from 60 beats a minute to over 123 beats per minute.  I have had my heart checked out so I was not worried about my heart stopping it just was very uncomfortable and I was able to go back to sleep.  This morning, I was determined and I took my first 1mg dose upon waking and then 4 hours later I tapered to .75 mg.  I will again remove another .25mg at 8:00 this evening thereby tapering .50 for the day and will stay on 5.5 mg of Xanax for 2 weeks until I make another .50 reduction.  I kept busy today but I am anxious and had heart palpitations in the afternoon after working in yard and house.  I know I am scared after all I read on the internet about Xanax but I will get through this Slowly!!!  If two weeks is to fast of a taper, I will hold it up until I feel stable to continue tapering down.  I know this is going to take a year or more but I am so looking forward to getting this medication out of my body and my brain taking over again and doing it's job.  I am sure I will be screaming for help in the weeks and months to come and I thank all of you for your support as I will be doing this taper alone with no family as they are deceased to include my husband.  I keep telling myself Trust God!  And that I will.  I also am reading the D.A.R.E. book so I am not fearful of anxiety sensations. 
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I love your determination and I can see a great deal of strength in you so I have no doubt you're going to be successful. 

 

I know you're not happy with the addition of the 2 mgs but reducing by .5 mgs for the first couple of reductions will get you back down to your original dose pretty quickly.  The more important number is the 40 years, I still see recovery in your future but this makes a slow taper even more important, your brain is pretty much starting from scratch but its an awesome organ and it won't fail you now.

 

I love that you're not letting fear get the best of you when it comes to anxiety and your heart rate, these are common symptoms and Professor Ashton lets us know in chapter 3 of The Ashton Manual that we shouldn't fear them.  The trouble with this process though is its all about fear and we have to actively fight it so keep doing as you're doing.  :thumbsup:

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Thanks Pamster, I am determined.  So Day 1 taper was 5.75 mg of Xanax down .25; Day 2 taper was 5.5 mg of Xanax down .50 and now on Day 3 of 5.5 mg of Xanax.  Honestly, I feel ok.  I do have my anxious moments and I do have a few bodily sensations but I am trying to keep busy and not try and micromanage every single symptom I have.  My question is, since this is day 3 of my taper, when will the taper withdrawals peak?  I am really hoping to lower my dose at 2 weeks to another .50 taper to bring me down to 5 mg of Xanax.  I intend to stay on 5mg of Xanax for a month.  I am so looking forward to a year or so from now being able to say I am off Xanax completely and  have my life back.  It is one of the worst feelings in the world to be owned and a slave to a drug especially one that does more harm then good.  I have learned the hard way that I was only fooling myself for almost 40 years and it is only by the grace of God that I was able to live a blessed life.  So being new to this, will the taper be easier in the beginning and then get harder as I progress down?  Just wondering how this all works and when I try and Google results for this all I get is recovery centers that are not telling the truth. 
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I don't have experience with Xanax other that what I've read here, I wonder if you might want to ask the folks in the The Xanax Club about when to expect increased symptoms?  No need to start a new topic, just hit reply and someone will respond to you, they're very nice.

 

I do want to caution you, I know you want to rid yourself of this drug but patience is an important aspect of this process, our brains can only heal at their own pace so we need to allow it the time to do this.  This taper is going to be with you for a long time so try to incorporate it into your life and not focus so much on the end game because even when we taper slowly there is still healing to be done after the last dose.  Some can step off the drug with little to no symptoms but the majority require a bit more time before full recovery takes place.  I'm not trying to discourage you, just inform.

 

To answer at least one of your questions, many members report having to slow down near the end of their taper because of increased symptoms.  And yes, the recovery centers don't know what they're doing or talking about, they'll typically withdraw clients too quickly then send them home to suffer.  Most join our forum, reinstate and do a slow taper after spending all of that money and living through too much pain. 

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