Quote from GRDIAN28:

Has anyone tapered off alprazolam or gone Cold Turkey after 7 weeks on the meds? I was taking it for an anxiety attack I had because of stress ( A lot of it accumulated). I was taking .50 3x a day. About three days ago I started to taper off to .37/.25/.37. It's been 3 days and I feel like a drug addict because the med wears off after 6 hours, but I fight it to hold off at least to take the next one at 8 hours. My routine has been to relieve myself and then vomit first thing in the morning, even though it's dry heaving. My heart feels like it's going to jump out and my stomach feels like I'm trying to recover from the flu. I've lost about 15 pounds (which I wanted to lose after having my son but this is not the healthy way). Has anyone done the tapering for something this short amount of time?

Hello Grdian

Yes - sounds like you are experiencing withdrawal from xanax. (alprazolam)

You have been taking .5 mg xanax three times a day - that is the equivalent of 10 mg valium 3 * day.
In fact - guidelines in the BNF (British National Formulary) are for doctors not to prescribe benzos (the group to which xanax belongs) for more than 14 days. After this time dependency is likely to occur.

So - you have been taking the equivalent of 30 mg of valium daily for 7 weeks.

If you have been attempting cold turkey and this is day 3 off the drugs - my advice would be to re-instate immediately. Start taking the drugs at the dose at which you have been using. You must not c/t these drugs - very dangerous. You could suffer seizures. And in the long term you could end up with some very nasty long lasting withdrawal symtoms.

The advice is to taper off very slowly.

The fact you have been using for only 7 weeks is very much in your favour and a sort of general guideline is to cut by 10% every fortnight.(possibly every week) Xanax is difficult to withdraw from because of its short half life (6 - 12 hours)- and you will have noticed already that about 6/8 hours after a dose you will experience mild symptoms of withdrawal until you take another............ In UK patients are changed onto a longer acting benzo like valium (half life is 36 - 200 hours) which need only be taken once every 24 hours and then tapered off slowly. The idea being to reduce the blood concentrations slowly and evenly - to avoid as much as possible the withdrawal symptoms.
From 30 mgs - you would reduce by 2 mgs per week or fotnight until you got to 10 - 15 mg and then reduce by 1 mg until you reach 5 mg and then reduce by .5 mg. No hard fast rules.......... some people can taper faster, others find they have to go more slowly. These are only rough guidelines.

You should go back to your doctor who prescibed the xanax and ask for his advice re taper. This drug is not to be messed with.

You dont say where you are? If you are in the UK then your doctor will happily prescribe you valium for taper. If you are in the US you will have difficulty in finding a doctor who will prescribe valium - but there are people in the benzo org site (as below) who can advise about this situation.

The very best site to obtain information on the net is the benzo org uk site. Go to google and just type in benzo org and you will see the site. It has massive amounts of information. Also a private forum where people tapering discuss and help one another in this somewhat difficult taper. I would recommend it to you - you will receive just the best advice there. The method used is as per the Ashton Manual - which you will also find online now - you should read. You may download and print this Manual.

Please do be careful - what you are at present doing is very dangerous.

I myself - like you - learned the hard way - I tried to quit c/t - got to day 3 - shook so hard (amongst other painful and distressing symptoms) I could hardly type -

found the benzo org site - talked to the owner of the site who advised me to print off Ashton - which I did - and presented myself as an emergency at my doctor's surgery the next morning. I had been taking 2 mg ativan (=20 mg valium) daily - I reinstated - got stable for a week - crossed over to valium and then tapered off over 8 months.
Its hard but its doable - and with the support and advice from benzo org - you have every chance of success.
Please do try and inform yourself. And get acting now.

Good luck

Yinksy

Quote from GRDIAN28:

Has anyone tapered off alprazolam or gone Cold Turkey after 7 weeks on the meds? I was taking it for an anxiety attack I had because of stress ( A lot of it accumulated). I was taking .50 3x a day. About three days ago I started to taper off to .37/.25/.37. It's been 3 days and I feel like a drug addict because the med wears off after 6 hours, but I fight it to hold off at least to take the next one at 8 hours. My routine has been to relieve myself and then vomit first thing in the morning, even though it's dry heaving. My heart feels like it's going to jump out and my stomach feels like I'm trying to recover from the flu. I've lost about 15 pounds (which I wanted to lose after having my son but this is not the healthy way). Has anyone done the tapering for something this short amount of time?

I went to see a Psych with prescription authorization yesterday. She's been at it since '67. I wish I've would of known of her sooner. Come to find out that I've had Depression with anxiety for a while. I had no idea. I just thought of it being hard stress. I grew up with a Schitzophrenic mother and a younger sister. All those years I took the parent role. I might of had it since my teenage years. Don't know but I'm taking care of it now. My mother never had medical treatment up until last year. She is now 64. First step for me is to get off Xanax. She gave me Trazodone to sleep at night. I didn't like it because it made me have dreams. I woke up twice in the middle of the night. Got up just to really vomit this time around. I guess it takes time to adjust. I was also given Wellbutrin XL. I took my first one this morning. I'm a little nervous from the use of all these drugs. She told me I might have to be on these meds from 9 to 12 months before my own body does it's own thing. I'm new at this, so any advise will be greatly appreciated.

I tried to quit alprazolam c/t 2 weeks ago and on day 2 I had a grand mal seizure. I'm young and in good shape and have never had anything like this happen to me before. It started as an anxiety attack and then I felt myself loosing consciousness. I walked outside to get some fresh air, and all of a sudden everything went black. The next thing I remember, I was inside my house sitting on a chair with paramedics and my wife asking me questions like whats your name and what month is it. I had no idea what month it was or what day of the week it was.......I also didnt remember my wife's name. The paramedics told me that I quit breathing for about 2 minutes because of how my wife described my face turning blue. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. I have recovered now but the moral of the story is, DO NOT QUIT THIS DRUG COLD TURKEY.

Grdian,
I have been taking xanax (same thing as alprazolam) for three years now. I had been taking .5 milligrams 3 or 4 times a day.

One time I tried stopping it and found that I could not without feeling sick.

But I have managed to cut back to about 1 milligram a day (.5 mg twice a day) and I havent been feeling all that bad.

But I still get panic attacks so I cant stop it all together.

Good luck breaking away from it - but 7 weeks isnt long at all.