New girl

I found this forum and I wanted to join to share with other people my story so I can find support and opinions about my treatment. Doctors,sometimes, are very narrow minded and I find myself alone against a wave of sensations with my medication.

I was taking, since 2002, 1 pill of alprazolam .25mg at night, and 1 pill of paroxetine .20mg at mornings. I had various attempts to tapper but i found myself not been able to understand the synthomps of withdrawall, neither my doctor, and got started with more doses or even another kind of benzo.

Since March 2013 my doctor change my medication from alprazolam to clonazepam, 1mg at night. But i never felt good, had horrible nightmares, my sleep was no good, i woke up with fear and shiverings.

Since Friday, october 4, my doctor change my medication again, from clonazepam to alprazolam: 1 pill at morning and one at night, both .25mg...and my morning paroxetine.

I started therapy on March 2013, once a week. I'm looking for a future withouth drugs

Hi Yuzuriha and welcome to the forum.

This is just a welcome message from me - there will be others who will go into detail with you about your situation.

There are many of us here who are in various stages of benzo use and withdrawal, and together, we have a collective understanding of real-world benzodiazepine recovery. I know that it can be intimidating and difficult to post here about your benzo situation. If you keep posting, it will get easier as you learn your way around and make friends here. The more you post, the more we can help you.

As soon as you can, please add a signature with your history of benzo meds/doses etc. so that we can reply to your posts with more relevant responses. This link will show you how  Create a signature

Here are some links to get you started –

The Ashton Manual is an authoritative source on benzo withdrawal and recovery.

Here is a link to the  General Taper Plans 

Here also is a link to the  Withdrawal & Recovery Support  board where you can post questions relating to your symptoms.

The usual recommendation is to taper 5-10% every 10-14 days.  This is just a basic guide, you can adjust the percentage and length of days between cuts to make this as easy on your nervous system as possible.

The optimal rate of withdrawal is the fastest one that can be reasonably achieved without causing intolerable withdrawal symptoms. There will be great variability in this, but most people can taper off as per Ashton's protocols or faster. Some find they have to go slower.

I highly recommend reading  What Is Happening In Your Brain  by parker

I hope you keep posting so we can help you, ok?

River

hi Yuzuriha,

you have found the right place to get all the help and support you need to come off benzos.

the buddies here have a lot of experience and knowledge.

i am glad you have found us and wish you all the best with your taper.

ciao claudia

Hello Yuzuriha,

I too would like to welcome you to the forum 

I'm sorry to hear you have previously failed at your attempts to taper from the benzos, you're not on your own with this though, many members make several attempts at tapering before they finally succeed, I'm sure you will be successful this time.

When you changed drugs did you do a gradual crossover ? The gradual crossover is advised to allow time for the new drug to build up in the bloodstream before the existing drug is completely withdrawn so avoiding withdrawal symptoms. In view that you have only very recently changed drug again I think it might be an idea for you to wait a couple of weeks until you are feeling more stable before you begin tapering from the xanaz (Alprazolam)

I will give you a link to a dedicated support blog here for members who are tapering from xanax, perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself there. The memers there have a good knowledge of xanax tapering and I'm sure that they'd be happy to assist you with sage tapering advice to ensure that the taper this time will be as smooth as possible.

Here is a link to The Xanax support blog : 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=43272.msg1180755#msg1180755

It is usually recommended to taper from one drug at a time beginning with the benzodiazepine which in your csse is the xanax (alprazolam) Members normally wait a few months after completion of their benzo taper before starting the antidepressant one.

I'm glad you found us and I wish you success with the taper.

Debbir

Thanks everyone for welcoming me

My doctor change my meds suddenly. Since March, that was when we did the change to from alprazolam to clonazepam, I developed a kind of allergic reaction to Alprazolam: my tongue starts to swollen, my skin burned and my mouth too. So one doctor from the ER told me that it was the Suerum Syndrome, that sometimes a protein in a medicine causes that reaction, and it can happend after a looooong period of taking it or sometimes the "allergic reaction" happens after a long period too, not necessarily instantly. 

Because of that, my Psychiatrist change my med from Alprazolam to Clonazepam, I don't write labels because I take the generic. In this case the lab is Apotex.