Xanax is generally a bad idea for general anxiety, because it only lasts a few hours and then you crash and feel worse that you did before you took it - just generally what I hear. For my anxiety, my Pdoc has me on .5 mg Xanax as needed for severe bouts of anxiety and 10 mg of Valium - which is MUCH longer lasting, twice a day consistently. Usually Xanax is only used for sleep for a week or so, or for extreme cases of anxiety or panic attacks. There's no harm in halving the dose if it gives you problems. As for the SSRI - those are pretty much hell for about a month, sorry about that. :-(