Alprazolam withdrawal

[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?

[Hope12]

Grdian,
Yinksy here is the expert on benzo's,so hopefully she'll get to the boards soon-meanwhile-is this the first time you've ever taken these? Are you taking anything else? If so,what and for how long?You've been on the Alprazolams for 7 weeks straight?It does sound like withdrawal that you're going thru,and benzo's are the WORST drug to detox from-BUT-even though 7 weeks is long enough to cause a physical dependancy,from your post it doesn't sound like you've been abusing this med or have a years long history of taking this??Do NOT cold turkey off this drug, continue your taper,you are going to feel nasty for a while,unfortunately no way around it,but it is important to get off of this as soon as you can so you don't further increase any physical (or psychological)dependancy.
Can you contact your doctor and let him know you are experiencing withdrawal symptoms?Just because you are experiencing withdrawal does NOT mean you are a drug addict,prolonged use of a LOT of things can produce a physical dependancy.
Also,why do you vomit in the morning?Self-induced or is this because of withdrawal?By routine, do you mean just recently?And I just read back how much you've been taking before you started tapering,and it appears you might be tapering a little to fast.
You have to take benzo tapers pretty slow.Once again, I hope Yinksy steps in here.And I also think it is extremely important you contact your prescribing doctor.Keep posting,and keep reading,I'm sure there's a lot of good advice coming your way from the people here!!
Hang in there
Stacie

[KimRick]

DO NOT & I repeat, DO NOT quit this drug cold turkey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My fiance's doctor had him on 15 2mg bars a day and when he requested that he be tapered off of them, the doctor said no and rx'd him as much klonopin to take with it! Well, needless to say that p****d him off and he weened himself off of them. Little did he know that he weened too fast and he wound up having a violent seizure and hitting his head on a chair which required numerous stitches. He's okay now, with the exception of having migraines every day. Please ween under a doctor's supervision - don't do it yourself!!!


GOOD LUCK!

[luvmyboys]

I too, think you are tapering way to fast. I have been taking it for 1 1/2 years. I took .25, .125, .125. I now take .125 three times a day. I will stay on this dose until I feel comfortable. The first few days is hard. But it took me about 2 or 3 weeks to get to this dose. If I were you I wouldn't cut all three doses at once. I started cutting the higher one first which was my morning dose, but since you were taking the same amount all three times before your taper, maybe you should start with a dose that you may not need as much like the one in the middle of the day. I've read that you are supposed to taper only 10% a week and your taper should last as long as you have been on the medicine. I don't really agree with the second part of that though. I have successfully made my first cut, but don't really know where I'll make my second cut. I sometimes find myself forgetting to take my middle of the day dose so I may cut that one in half. I too would be interested in hearing from Yinksy.

[yinksy]

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?

Hello Grdian

Yes - sounds like you are experiencing withdrawal from xanax. (alprazolam)

You have been taking .5 mg xanax three times a day - that is the equivalent of 10 mg valium 3 * day.
In fact - guidelines in the BNF (British National Formulary) are for doctors not to prescribe benzos (the group to which xanax belongs) for more than 14 days. After this time dependency is likely to occur.

So - you have been taking the equivalent of 30 mg of valium daily for 7 weeks.

If you have been attempting cold turkey and this is day 3 off the drugs - my advice would be to re-instate immediately. Start taking the drugs at the dose at which you have been using. You must not c/t these drugs - very dangerous. You could suffer seizures. And in the long term you could end up with some very nasty long lasting withdrawal symtoms.

The advice is to taper off very slowly.

The fact you have been using for only 7 weeks is very much in your favour and a sort of general guideline is to cut by 10% every fortnight.(possibly every week) Xanax is difficult to withdraw from because of its short half life (6 - 12 hours)- and you will have noticed already that about 6/8 hours after a dose you will experience mild symptoms of withdrawal until you take another............ In UK patients are changed onto a longer acting benzo like valium (half life is 36 - 200 hours) which need only be taken once every 24 hours and then tapered off slowly. The idea being to reduce the blood concentrations slowly and evenly - to avoid as much as possible the withdrawal symptoms.
From 30 mgs - you would reduce by 2 mgs per week or fotnight until you got to 10 - 15 mg and then reduce by 1 mg until you reach 5 mg and then reduce by .5 mg. No hard fast rules.......... some people can taper faster, others find they have to go more slowly. These are only rough guidelines.

You should go back to your doctor who prescibed the xanax and ask for his advice re taper. This drug is not to be messed with.

You dont say where you are? If you are in the UK then your doctor will happily prescribe you valium for taper. If you are in the US you will have difficulty in finding a doctor who will prescribe valium - but there are people in the ********* site (as below) who can advise about this situation.

The very best site to obtain information on the net is the ********* uk site. Go to google and just type in ********* and you will see the site. It has massive amounts of information. Also a private forum where people tapering discuss and help one another in this somewhat difficult taper. I would recommend it to you - you will receive just the best advice there. The method used is as per the Ashton Manual - which you will also find online now - you should read. You may download and print this Manual.

Please do be careful - what you are at present doing is very dangerous.

I myself - like you - learned the hard way - I tried to quit c/t - got to day 3 - shook so hard (amongst other painful and distressing symptoms) I could hardly type -

found the ********* site - talked to the owner of the site who advised me to print off Ashton - which I did - and presented myself as an emergency at my doctor's surgery the next morning. I had been taking 2 mg ativan (=20 mg valium) daily - I reinstated - got stable for a week - crossed over to valium and then tapered off over 8 months.
Its hard but its doable - and with the support and advice from ********* - you have every chance of success.
Please do try and inform yourself. And get acting now.

Good luck

Yinksy