Alprazolam withdrawal

[GRDIAN28]

Originally Posted by 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.

[yinksy]

Just putting this up beside the other post by jamesj

yeah, i now of course admit that you were right about the benzos, sorry. up until that point i had never had any trouble(or heard of anybody i knew having trouble) with withdrawals. my arrogance toward the drug got me in trouble. benzos seem so mild until they slap you in the mouth.

[yinksy]

jamesj
Thanks for taking the time to put these two posts up. I think that took a lot of courage to do! You know fine that I didnt pull this thread up for any other reason than because you are living proof (as am I) as to how these evil little pills can turn on you. Once, having been the wonderful little pills which helped so much.
Many many people in here using them - OK - some have them prescribed by their doctors for legitimate reasons. Many (who may well get them from doctors, who in my book, are downright negligent) take them for no good reason whatsoever - claiming that they help them over a bad patch. Your situation just shows how deadly these drugs can be
Thanks james.................... glad to hear you are now doing so well. Hope no further symptoms of withdrawal will rear their nasty ugly wee heads!
yinksy