Kitty - You are lucky to be taking Xanax™ (alprazolam) for such a short period of time, but it will be a long haul to come off them if you don't want to risk withdrawl syndrome. Staying on sleep medication long term is not a good idea, unless you absolutely have to (eg in agoraphobia). The first while that you are off the Xanax, you may have trouble sleeping, but you do have to retrain the body to sleep on it's own.

BENZODIAZEPINE WITHDRAWL SYMPTOMS

COMMON - anxiety, insomnia, headache, dizziness, tinnitis (ringing in the ears), loss of appetite, tremor, sweating, irritability, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, heart paplitations, orthostatic hypotension (when you get up too fast, you faint).

RARE (usually when taking very high doses for a long time)
- muscle twitching, confusional psychosis, paranoid psychosis, convulsions, hallucinations, delerium tremens.

As was said in the above posts, lower the dose slowly (eg. decrease by 0.125mg per week).

You can still have problems because Xanax has such a short half-life. If you have serious problems with withdrawl effects, and can't lower the dose any lower, there are strategies like switching to a long-acting benzodiazepine (eg Valium) which leaves your body more gradually, thus it is less likely to cause withdrawl symptoms.

Since you are taking a relatively low dose already, and only for a short period of time, you may be able to stop taking the drug abruptly. I wouldn't, though. You really should just wean slowly from the Xanax over a week or two. This really should be long enough. Talk to your doc about it. Expect a couple of sleepless nights, as well, as your body adjusts to life without the drugs.

I hope that this is of some help. - Cam