Xanax taper and withdrawl

[missgrl2012]

Anyone who can offer any insight I would appreciate it. Here is some history of my situation, April 2015 I developed health anxiety and started having difficulty sleeping. I began taking .5 mg of xanax here and there. By the end of April I could not sleep a night without them. They worked wonders until the end of June. I started waking up so I then began taking 1mg of xanax. This continued every night until 2 weeks ago. I told my doctor I wanted off of the xanax. He advised me to cut my dose by 25% every seven days. He also advised me to take clonidine with my xanax dose at night. So I cut it down to .75 mg xanax took my clonidine and slept well for my week. Doc also prescribed me to take aetnolol daily. Then cut again .25% which now made my dose .5mg. So this past Friday night took my .5mg and clonodine and I slept 2 hours. I layed in the bed aching, sick at my stomach. Since this past Friday it is now Monday I have slept 4 hours. I am in misery. My doc said to cut .25% every 7 days, and I would have very few w/ds cuz I wasnt on it very long and my dose was low. What can I do??? My doc will not use another benzo to taper off.

[missgrl2012]

Thanks everyone for the great responses. I am about to slow this taper down. Slow and steady wins the race.

[gnarly_1]

Hi..well I was on xanex for years  and tapered off  xanex hits it own brain receptor  unlike any other benzo so switching is hard to do  your taper is way way to fast  it will take at least a couple of months to get off this med...you can try the taper your doctor gave you but it will be uncomfortable until your done  I would get a second opinion
.............................................Gnarly.................................

[Bob_from_Berkeley]

Correction.  She was addicted to lorazepam, not  loprazolam.  The half-life of lorazepam is similar to xanax.

[Bob_from_Berkeley]

A caveat - I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice.  It's opinion based on experience.

[Bob_from_Berkeley]

Your doctor's a jackass and doesn't know what he is doing.  Par for the course.

Look up the Ashton Method.  Xanax is short acting.  You'll eventually need to switch to diazepam with a longer half-life.  Which means you need to find a doctor who will prescribe the diazepam and who will work with you on the Ashton Method.  

My wife was addicted to Loprazolam after using it for two years for acute anxiety.  I knew about the Ashton Method but wife wanted a 'real doctor' to tell her what to do.  The 'real doctors' just gave her more Lorprazolam along with other meds and said to keep coming back two or three times a week.  
We had a long, hard talk about doctors, their motives, their arrogance, and the fact that an addict is a long term paycheck - and I told her she was going to taper.  I talked to our family doctor who's a good guy, and show him the plan.  He agreed to prescribe the drugs.  We first weened her from lorazepam to diazepam, and then tapered her down and completely off diazepam.  It took about a year.  I have nothing good to say about  psychiatrists at all.  Money grubbing pill pusher.  

Find a doctor who will work with you.  The Ashton Method will work, you need to be patient, and be able to get access to xanax and then diazepam.  Best of luck.

[Coperniki]

That dr is tapering you off too fast, I'd suggest finding a dr who has at least a little clue of how benzos act on the body

[Ruthy55]

That's way too fast! Tell him you are suffering way too much. Benzodiazepines are tapered much slower than that. You will get a lot of help on Benzobuddy site. They exclusively help people get off of benzodiazepines.