Posted by lady fever on April 19, 2003, at 17:08:45
Hi. I'm full of questions today :)
I've been on Xanax for 7 years. I started on .5 mg twice a day, and quickly worked up to 1 mg twice a day. Stayed there for 6 years. This year was stressful, and I worked my way up to about 4 mg a day total (in divided doses, usually just 1 mg, sometimes 2 mg at a time, I got to a tolerance point). I must admit, the in-between dose withdrawals were horrible, and I wasn't supposed to be on 4 mg a day, so I worked my way back down to 2 mg a day... it wasn't easy, but I did it over about 2 months.
That was 2 months ago. I am taking 1 mg twice a day, as prescribed.
And I am STILL having miserable feelings like I am in withdrawal, basically all the time now.
A little different than the ones I have read about, but I know my withdrawal pattern at this point all too well: I get really drowsy (that used to happen after the initial jitteriness of withdrawal started, about 12 hours if I had skipped a dose), spaced out, very irritable, my memory gets so bad it's like I have Alzheimers, apathy feeling and amotivation, and strong derealization (which I presume is my own form of anxiety or something, though I don't actually feel anxious at all) which can be the worst of it, along with the spaciness.
How long before some of the withdrawal feeling subsides? I'm being very patient. But it's been 2 months. I'm not going back up on my dosage though. And I'm not trying a different benzo, that's just silly at this point. What's realistic, after a year or so, for a withdrawal to go away?
A total withdrawal is far, far worse, btw, I get fevers, my heart gets bad, and I just get very very sick, and start seizing (I wound up in the hospital doing that once). This is different, obviously.
poster:lady fever
thread:220718
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030417/msgs/220718.html