Steve Concernig Xanax

[elvistcb]

Hi Steve,,  I understand what youre going through with the xanax. I have Panic attacks along with generalized anxiety. 9 years ago I was put on Xanax  .5   three times a day. A total of 1.5 milligrams. I took them at night. Like you faithfully and never had to increase my dose, and I never had interdose withdrawl or never had the need to increase my dose. I didnt know the withdrawl factor until after about three years after when i ran out and missed getting my refill. I kept on them for the next five years as prescribed. I will tell you that they improved my panic and anxiety disorder immensely. Then i decided to get off of those and go to something less potent. Valium. Now Valium has such a long half life in the system that you can actually miss a dose and not feel anything. Some might think that it is switching one benzo to another, but it has a proven track record of helping people get off of stronger Benzos. Xanax is ten times stronger than Valium in equivalency. I switched over to approximately 40 milligrams of Valium about 9 months ago. I now am down to ten milligrams of Valium and every now and then if my anxiety is real bad I will take a Xanax. I personally have not had a bad time at all weaning down on the Valium, And I might just stay at the ten milligrams. Youre equivalencey at what youre at is about 80 milligrams of Valium. Im telling you that it is so much easier to switch to valium and then taper because of its long half life. You need to go to WWW.benzo.org.uk   It is a site of Professor Heather Ashton who has been helping people come off of benzos for decades. She has a tapering schedule for every benzo and even at the dose you are at. This lady is phenomenal and has a ton of info. Im also on a forum for Benzos and they have about ten Moderators on the group who have come off of benzos and are very knowledgeable. Dont let your mind start racing about this,because it just puts you in panic mode. Go to the site and look it over and let me know what you think/                                 elvistcb

[woozy]

That's what my husband wants to do..is switch and do a controlled taper, but the doc won't allow it???
why the hell not??

[Steve L]

My doc wont add valium to the mix either. I was down to 3.5mg day but had a setback and had to restart at 4.5mg day. Doc says I'd be trading one addiction for another and end up on both drugs.Be that as it may THANKS for your responses.  Steve

[elvistcb]

It seems like your Doctors are very Knieve about benzos, which a lot of them are. Steve your doctor said you would be on both. Not true. Your replacing the Xanax with Valium, so you wouldnt be on the xanax. And if he knows youre trying to taper then he should know that the valium is an much easier way of tapering than tapering Xanax. I know if you searched around you would find a Benzo wise DR.    Or go to the site I recommended and print out a few pages and take it into your DR. so he can actually see the process.  Best of luck to you both.        elvistcb

[Steve L]

Thanks for reading my post. Keep in mind that 3 months ago I was on 8 mg day xanax and have done a direct taper. But I will try to find a benzo wise doc as you say. BTW equivalence tables vary widely during my searches anywhere from 5mg to 20mg diazepam to 1 mg xanax. But the average value is 10mg per 1mg. I have been making 0.5mg cuts. Steve
PS although difficult, have talked to people who successfully did a direct taper from xanax. Its hard and takes time.
Have been on xanax for 2 years