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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 7 of 7. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by keilia on April 25, 2002, at 14:57:56
I am on 2mg of xanax a day. I am sick of it, sick of needing them, sick of having to worry of running out. I want OFF. I do not have the money for a doc, I can taper off with the ones I have but I hear it is impossible to taper straight off xanax. I have been taking them for 4 years. Is there anyone who has come directly off of xanax and if so at what speed. Please I need info, I cannot afford high price docs. Any info at all. I am desperate. My email is onlymeisee@yahoo.com I tried to taper before at 12 percent a month, I was very sick. I am starting a job and I really dont know what to do. Thanks
Posted by Geno on April 25, 2002, at 16:04:12
In reply to Xanax, posted by keilia on April 25, 2002, at 14:57:56
Ya xanax is a bummer to come off. even at .5mg, i get bad withdrawls. Id say, switch to klonopin to help withdrawls, neuronitin, or an anticonvusant. Or start to wean down, say 1.75 mg for a week, when 1.5mg for another week, then down to 1.25, to 1.0.
may wanna see a pdoc to help you off. Benzo withdrawls are bad. What are you side effects if you stop the xanax. Do you get a head rush sensation, extreme muscle tention, sharp electical type surges through you head, panic attactks, like the end of the world feeling?
geno
Posted by Alan on April 25, 2002, at 19:00:01
In reply to Xanax, posted by keilia on April 25, 2002, at 14:57:56
> I am on 2mg of xanax a day. I am sick of it, sick of needing them, sick of having to worry of running out. I want OFF. I do not have the money for a doc, I can taper off with the ones I have but I hear it is impossible to taper straight off xanax. I have been taking them for 4 years. Is there anyone who has come directly off of xanax and if so at what speed. Please I need info, I cannot afford high price docs. Any info at all. I am desperate. My email is onlymeisee@yahoo.com I tried to taper before at 12 percent a month, I was very sick. I am starting a job and I really dont know what to do. Thanks
_____________________________________________Looking ahead, I guess the question becomes, with what are you going to treat your anxiety with after stopping the xanax?
Do you and your doc have a strategy? Klonopin to ease the tapering is always the first suggestion but when your underlying anxiety returns what alternative have you and your doc sketched out?
Alan
Posted by mikel on April 29, 2002, at 14:06:13
In reply to Xanax, posted by keilia on April 25, 2002, at 14:57:56
keilia,
Here's my story, I hope it helps.I was on xanax on and off for 3 years and I finally
got off just recently. I was taking it for anxiety
and depression. I believe the key for me has always been
the drugs I am taking with it. Prozac and Celexa both
work for me and once they kicked in, it was easy
to get off the xanax. The problem is the side effects
from the SSRI's lead me on a rollercoaster ride.
If I went off the AD because of side effects, the anxiety
and depression eventually returned and I would go back on the xanax
until the AD kicked in.The problem came when I went on Serzone. I thought I'd
found "it" when I got to 600mg of Serzone and had a positive
effect with no side effects. I had also been on 1mg xanax
for the 6 mos. before. So I tried to taper down and
got withdrawal, so I switched to 2mg Klonopin. No matter
how slow I tried to taper Klonopin I got bad withdrawal- surreal
feelings of depersonalization, irritibility, insomnia,
anxiety, nausea. You may ask me why I didn't
just stay on a low dose of benzo with the Serzone?
Well, once I started to experience the
withdrawal, my resolve to get off the benzos was stronger
than ever. I figured no way I am going to stay
on something that can make me feel this bad when
I go off it. So I suffered through withdrawal for
6 mos. until I finally developed breakthrough depression
and started having suicidal thoughts.This was too much for me to tolerate so I went
back on Prozac with .75mg xanax which worked
almost immediately for me. The key is this time
I went on only 10mg of Prozac instead of 20-30mg
that I had taken in the past, in combination with
800mg of SAMe. After 3-4 wks I had minimal side effects and marked
improvement in depression and anxiety.As I felt better, I decided to try to taper the
xanax, and to my amazement I was able to get off
in 3 mos. with minimal side effects. I decided not
to switch to Klonopin, but switched to the .25 milligram
xanax which I could easily divide into four. So I
went down 1/16th of a milligram every week, and
I did have some withdrawal, but it was like night
and day compared to when I was on the Serzone. I can
only come to the conclusion that the Prozac/SAMe
combination is what allowed me to get off- the
Serzone was apparently not enough to
treat my depression/anxiety and allow me off the
benzos.Some other things I found-
-caffeine is very bad. I gave up caffeine late
in the game, and I kick myself for not giving up earlier.
I only had 2-3 diet cokes a day, but once I gave them
up I found it stabilized my mood and was able to withdrawal
much easier. (Nutrasweet might also have had something
to do with it).-I tried Neurontin and Tegretol for withdrawal, and
neither of them seemed to help.-alcohol is also bad. I briefly tried to treat the
withdrawal with beer. My logic was they use benzo's
to withdrawal from booze, so you should be able to
use booze to withdrawal from benzo's? Bad idea. The
problem is that the benzo's actually gave me greater
tolerance to alcohol. So to get a few hours of relief
from the benzo withdrawal, I needed to drink large
quantities of drink, which lead to many hours of
hangover on top of worsened withdrawal symptoms.Anyway, I hope this information was helpful to someone
out there.Mike.
Posted by brianna62 on January 24, 2004, at 21:15:39
In reply to Re: Xanax » keilia, posted by Alan on April 25, 2002, at 19:00:01
I have been taking .25 - .50 mg of Xanax for the last year almost everyday. I want to stop. Today is the second day and I can't sleep and the anxiety is making it hard to breathe. Anybody out there withdraw for xanax successfully? Any words of encouragement.
Posted by Joy on January 25, 2004, at 13:23:05
In reply to Re: Xanax, posted by brianna62 on January 24, 2004, at 21:15:39
Hi Brianna,
I stopped Xanax for a couple of months once. I only take .5 at night now for sleeping daily. I also take Prozac. They work great for me together. You could take .25 xanax for a while and don't go to .5, and do this for a few weeks and see how you do. Thenreassess the situation. Good luck to you.
Joy
Posted by brianna62 on February 13, 2004, at 7:50:32
In reply to Re: Xanax » brianna62, posted by Joy on January 25, 2004, at 13:23:05
Thanx Joy...can't do it. Got so stressed out I got mouth sores all over my mouth! I'm never going to kick this thing!!!
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