I have recently been through a horrific experience with going off the EMSAM patch, a MAOI. My former pdoc who put me on EMSAM also put me on Xanax XR at night because of EMSAM's activating properties and insomnia side effects. (I realize benzos are not the best sleep med but trazodone hit me like a truck and I couldn't function in the morning, lunesta didn't work at all, and I stopped responding to melatonin quite quickly.) So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I terminated with that pdoc because he said ECT was my only option left since the EMSAM wasn't working anymore. It was also very difficult to convince him that my anxiety, insomnia, behavior, and mood swings were being caused by this medication, so I left his practice.

Now that the MAOI has finally left my body (it took well over the customary 14 days, I'm on Day 33), I found that 2 mg of Xanax XR became WAY too sedating. I noticed this all last week. Unfortunately, XR tablets are not scored and they don't come in anything less than .5 (unlike the immediate release). My pdoc agreed with me that I don't need as much. He wants to play it safe because other medication introductions haven't gone so well, my body is extremely sensitive to anything. He said he usually switches Xanax patients over to another med like Valium or klonopin and titrate from there, but given that I did not do well with the withdrawal from the MAOI nor the introductions of Cymbalta or Lamictal, we agreed that I should focus on titrating off Xanax XR first because the fatigue is pretty burdensome. Also, I would like to try Lamictal again but he told me to stop it 9 days ago because it was interacting too much with the Xanax XR, which you cannot just stop. I was so tired I was sleeping through alarms and missing work or showing up late.

I am on night 3 of 1.5 and it's not going so hot. 2 nights ago I slept for 10 hours straight due to all of the built up exhaustion, but when I woke up I instantly felt the "shakes", heart palpitations, tinnitus etc. upon waking up the first morning after taking it. I haven't been able to go anywhere all weekend, partly because my mood is in the tank and partly from this anxiety. It is almost bedtime here, I just took the 1.5 and I'm waiting for it to kick in, if it ever does.

Has anyone been able to lessen the horrible symptoms of a taper from Xanax XR, like spacing the dose out across the day, or adding a low dose IR? I do have 1 mg IR's that I use for dental visits and emergency panic attacks that are breakable to 0.5. My pdoc told me 2 days ago to check in with him in the next few days and that if I wasn't doing well he might see about switching me to the IR or a combo. He also wants me to try a baby dose of Cymbalta sometime this week but I don't know about that one.

I am under no illusions about benzos. I know Xanax (either kind) is the worst benzo to come off of. But I need to cut back because my system does not need as much of the drug anymore and I hate the interactions it caused with Lamictal. 2 mg was way too sedating. But it sucks just lying here dealing with these somewhat paralyzing withdrawal symptoms. I've got to go to work tomorrow. Thank you.