I am having anxiety about tapering from Xanax

No, no history to speak of except looking back, I may have had one or 2 mini ones. One can never be certain with using xanax off and on for 20 years.

I'm just happy to be down to less than a MG per day.

I go to bed, take some melatonin and then .5 mg x and then I take .25 x at 5:30- 6 a.m. I fall asleep fine at night but wake up quickly. Then I guess fall back asleep.

Take thyroid med at about 4:30 a.m. wait an hour, eat a little something then take the xanax dose. Then I get quite sleepy almost at once but sometimes have a slight internal shaking. I sleep then about 3 hours I guess? It is hard to tell. No dreams really at night but dreams in the morning sleep. And I have completely lost the ability to sleep at all during the day from I suppose deep down the internal shaking has be fearful? That's why I am afraid of seizures.

Oh also, when I told my doctor about the internal shaking she said it was just from my anxiety.

And sometimes, when I feel it, I tell myself that and it stops so who knows. Plus it doesn't happen every day.

🤷

I have always had insomnia issues so it must be psychological partly plus maybe vitamin deficiency plus of course benzo use.

I used to call it internal trembling, I felt like I was hooked up to a car battery, it was miserable and my last symptom to leave, some members call it akathisia.  Its not your anxiety, its a withdrawal symptom and when you recover, it will most likely go away like mine did. Most members report feeling better as the day goes on, mornings seem to be the worst time, this could be because of cortisol levels so not shaking at night to me means this is a withdrawal symptom, not related to your anxiety.

You're so lucky you can sleep, insomnia is such a common symptom, I'm amazed you can sleep so much. 

Fear is a huge symptom but I feel it's different from the internal shaking, the fear is a mental symptom and the shaking is a physical one but they're both miserable. 

Thanks for the reply.

Well, I have battled insomnia aince I was a teenager and I am now 48 so I don't know if I AM sleeping "so much" or not. One thing that did help was reading that book "the worry trick". He talks about how a person cannot MAKE themselves sleep. You must try and set up the proper circumstances and then allow yourself to sleep.This of course does not take into account benzo addled damaged brains but I found it helpful. It just helped me to relax a little and I will take what I can get. Throughout this whole xanax battle I am learning and practicing and yes by the grace of God how to keep myself calm with the way I respond to things. Of course the big test will be when I am finally off benzos for good but as someone here said, be prepared with tools etc.

I guess I'm used to reading posts from members who are getting no perceived sleep or only one or two hours a night, I know what you're getting isn't enough to help you feel rested but every little bit helps.  I took Klonopin for sleep and before that I drank alcohol neither of which provide quality sleep.  I finally discovered that I can't keep chasing sleep, it has to come, this sounds like what you've learned too.

But you're right, those sleep tricks don't work so well while going through this, but its good you're filling that tool box.