Weaning off of Xanax

Hi all,
I could use some advice, has anyone had to wean off of Xanax before?
See I was taking 1 MG of Xanax nightly for my panic disorder as prescribed from my P-Doc for a little over 2 yrs now. Well, I just found out that the price of the Xanax I take has gone up to an outlandish figure that I can not afford.
So I did some heavy research on the net about how to carefully wean off. I am going to try to do this by myself however I did leave a message with my P-doc (who is not at all reliable since she only gets 3 dollars a session) this is why I have taken it upon myself to try to wean off. I just started.
What I am asking from you all is there anyone here who had to wean off of xanax?
If so what did you experience as side effects?
How long did it take you to wean off?
If you have any advice as well I would love to hear it!
I am so scared.
Thanks

I don't know where you are located, but in the U.S. at Walmart and Target and other places with discounted generics, it is a $4 prescription.

I only take it as needed, and rarely, and less than the .5mg dose. If I take it more often, it makes me feel depressed.

I'm kind of surprised you were taking it at night for anxiety because it has a short life and is generally out of your system in a few hours. That is my understanding, anyway.

I think following the information you found on the pharmaceutical site about weaning off should be reliable. I hope you will be in contact with your pdoc so she knows you will be doing this and so she can offer her advice.

Hey, I this is my second week on weening off of Alprazolam my GP gave me 5 week program to help ween off drug I have been taking 2mg every night and 1mg every morning and 1mg every afternoon for over a year. I also started Sertraline in Nov taking 100mg every morning. I feel like I have been living in a fauge for quite some time my Pdoc said he would eventualy take me off of Alprazolam. Today is Saturday and I am off I slept all day just so very tired. I just pray to God I can Get off the drug and get my brain back where I can function better. I wish you luck I think it will be hard to get off of the drug but we have to be strong and do what we need to do to get off of the drug I beleive we should never have been on the drug for so long and such a high dose. I am also in therapy weekly to learn how to deal with Anxiety and depression. I wish yoy the best and let me know how it goes for you....I will keep you posted on how it goes for me....

I used to take Xanax at night to sleep, but it didn't really keep me asleep. I was given Trazadone instead. I guess I didn't really realize you needed to "ween" off of it physically. like Echoes said, I don't think it has a very lasting effect (hence it not keeping me asleep).

how are you weening off of it? lowering the dose or one night on, one night off?

If you try to wean off xanax tooo fast you can go into seizures ... its best to follow a doctors plan since it depends on your doseage , how long you have been on it ,,etc ..

Certainly nothing to play with .. Be careful

Good luck

My pharm book says there is a greater risk for seizures in those who have been taking 4 mg and greater each day.

The basic taper plan the book states is to decrease by 0.5 mg every 3 days. For hard to wean cases, it recommends reducing by 0.25 mg every week. For severe problems with discontinuation, it recommends reducing dose by 1% every 3 days. (Do this by crushing tablet in juice each day and drinking 1% less.)

I think it is best to check with your own doctor, though, for advice. If you can't get ahold of your pdoc, could you ask your GP?

that is good to know about your reaction to greater then .5mg. i usually take .25mg in the morning and usually once a week. depends on how i feel what my schedule is and if i just dont want to handle it in my non drug ways. i am quite concerned about getting hooked so my md has to remind me it is a very small dose and just use it when i have to.

1mg of xanax isn't very much. My pdoc told me (he put me on it for a short time so I had asked) that with 1mg you aren't likely to get hooked because its such a tiny dose. he said you wouldn't get physically addicted to it at that low dose. You may get psychologically addicted, in which case the weaning thing could be good mentally. So don't worry - you won't have any of those horrible physical benzo withdrawal things happening.

Sure you can get hooked on that little Xanax if you take it regularly. But it shouldn't cause seizures or anything that nasty, because the dosage is too low and I also assume you're tapering it out.

You will notice if you are physically addicted or not. There are a lot of different symptoms you can get withdrawing, some people mostly get rebound anxiety, others might more get physical symptoms like dizziness and headaches.

If you can taper the med out, fine, but if you run into severe issues (this is what my doc said), switch over to diazepam (Valium), which is seen as the easiest benzo getting off. Start at the dosage which is most similar to your dosage of the other benzo, in your case about 20 mg according to chart (Although this makes little sense to me, since a standard dosage can be around 10-15 mg a day). If you'd feel this is too much, you can of course start lower.

Diazepam is a cheap med. Also it comes in 2 mg pills (also 5 and 10), which makes tapering extremely easy. This of course assumes you can tolerate this med, no allergies or severe side effects and no interactions if you take other meds.

This is the course I'd take if I want to go off Xanax one day. As today I take 1-2 mg a day. This is still quite a small dosage. One reason why I'd swap over before tapering out is that the lowest Xanax is 0.5 mg and you can only split it once.

All I have to say is "good luck" at it is very hard I've heard from those who have done so.

Wow. I am glad I just read this. I had been taking 1mg of Ativan 4x a day for a while, when I ran out. Then I got the "flu" and my stomach was killing me. I couldn't get to the pharm for a day, then when I got the ativan I didn't take it because I thought it would bother my increasingly irritable stomach. I spent a few weeks getting worse and worse and finally booked an md appt. told her I couldn't even take my medications...sheesh. I have an endoscopy booked for next monday. Now I feel like a fool because all I needed to do was take that ativan to get better. I am still really sick and afraid to take it because it's been several weeks...the withdrawal must be almost over, right? GOnna call PDOC right now.

Don't know, I quit Xanax for three weeks and the withdrawal symptoms didn't even lessen.