tnbrowneyes

[DutchessGolden]

Your post is almost on page two now so I'm posting to you up here, I just got your reply. I would agree with your doc. about not weaning you off the first time but what did you think about that? It was a stressful time and though tapering is going to reduce withdrawal it is still stressful especially coming off of a benzo. How is the melatonin working for you as far as sleep? It's a good way to get your body producing melatonin before you lie down in the dark and wait forever to fall asleep! Even if you do get off of benzo's cold turkey without stroke or seizures it most definitely causes damage to the central nervous system so you were very smart to listen to your body during that time. I know a lot of people who have stopped xanax specifically c/t and they were taking 10-15 2mg bars a day, some of them were taking more than that, it's not pretty. And as opposed to stopping opiates c/t, the damage done by stopping a benzo c/t is noticeable in their daily life. Just having a conversation with someone who came off benzos c/t you can almost always tell that some neurons just aren't firing properly (or at all). Opiates and benzo's taken together (as long as your body is used to it) has been shown to be extremely safe over the past 30 years so you should have no cause for concern about that it's getting off of them where you have to be careful. Has your doctor already started tapering you? How is that going so far, are you feeling alright? Do you have a good support system at home? And if you don't mind me asking, for what were you initially put on xanax? I've been at a steady .5mg twice a day for a little over 3 years. I was put on it after I lost my daughter (long story, most of the forum knows about it now that I finally had the courage to post about it) I'm just curious as to whether there might be a chemical imbalance so you can look into some natural supplements to help increase serotonin and possibly dopamine, just depending, since you are stopping the xanax. Yes I'm quite the rambler in this forum, my posts are very long winded, I always do this, I can't help it, it's just me so read what you want to so I don't bore you to tears in each of my posts!

xoxo- D.

[tnbrowneyes]

well to be honest..my mom takes about 5 or 6 xanax a day..she gets 30 a month and always would take half mine and say ok ill pay you back..so on my day 15 after getting my script i was like..ok i need my 15 back. she was also buying them and lied to me for over 2 months and said she didnt have any( i asked the person she bought from and he told me) he was taking on top of my 15 and her 30.. 6 every 2 days. my dr put me on them in 2002 when my dad was in the hospital because i was working 70 hrs a week as a mgr..single parent in the middle of a divorce and had somehow developed a hyper nature than spun to a lil obsessive compulsive thing. for about 3 yrs i just took them when i needed them. for the past 2 yrs if i didnt take one at bed time i was up all night and a nervous wreck the next day. ok..so the mom thing happened this month and i was like..ya know what..and i tried to kick them with the hydro's and realized alot of what i was thinking was wd's was really as you said damage to my nervous system. i was geeked out..shaky and couldnt comprehend anything said to me..reading these post were even dificuilt.
so on sat i got 10 from the guy who sells to my mom and started my own taper..2 a day but in 1/4's at a time. i can tell a hugeeee difference since i have them. i have asked my dr to taper me before and he said now wasnt a good time. one time i called the office to get them called in and the nurse refused..this was the day after they were even due..she said you need an appt before we can..i was like um ok well what time..she said oh next month is the closest one i have..well i am a very verbal person and let her have it..needless to say i paged my dr..he called me back and this is what he told her.." a person taking these meds for this long can NOT just stop taking them, it can be fatal" that day they were called in. but see i wasnt thinking about what it was i was just mad and tired of running out and then having to go try and get meds i need off the street. well i told my mom she is on her own and maybe she should see her own problems if she as a mother knew how fatal me not having could be and she lied about having them when i needed them. addicts will lie..this is a fact. ok so this morning i have 1.4 xanax but a freind of mine is giving me some ativan to keep me stable until i can get mine.
my dr has tried to get me to take effexor..i have loads of it here...i have thought about taking that but wanted to wait til my hydro wd's stopped so id notice if i had any weird side effects..ya know>? i get my xanax's the 25th , my mom's on the 16th and trust me im taking my 15 out of hers. but july 11th is my dr appt to dicuss my options if any about xanax. oddly he has put me on several other kinds of xanax..the real ones that disovle under your tongue and still i have to have the blue football ones( that just my mental but true)
thanks for asking..hope i answered everything..i just woke up and had a rough night..well not rough but something off the twigh light zone.

[DutchessGolden]

That's a pretty damn stressful situation. There are quite a few people on here who had been denied refills not realizing that they CANNOT LEGALLY DO THAT!! I have never had to sched. an appt. to get refills on xanax. Because it is a controlled substance, in some places they want to enforce the appt. thing but the risk of losing a medical license, a huge mal-practice suit, and possible jail time depending on what happened to the patient vs. not making an appt.????? Yea, not a difficult choice. A nre guy came to work at mt Doc's office and is taking care of refills and is about to get fired b/c he tried to deny my refill on xanax, it's VERY good that you spoke up! no doctor is going to let a secretary, or medical assistant risk his carreer. Needless to say, he can no longer have anything to do with my refills for the duration of the time he works there. Had I have not known all the info. and gone to the ER they would be fored to report my doc. for that all b/c his new medical assistant screwed up to the point that it could cost him his license b/c everything they do is done under the doctors name so good for you!  I have quite a few patients myself who's docs I have had to report for the same thing but only after confirming that it came straight from the doc and not a nurse or medical asst. b/c I'm not going to get the doc in trouble if he had nothing to do with it.

You said that your doctor wants you to take effexor? is it? If I remember correctly. You are smart to see how you feel after the hydrocodone withdrawals, it can be very difficult to weed out withdrawal symptoms from the effects of another medication or to even reassess how you feel once you are off of them both. People aren't only born with chemical imbalances they can easily be triggered by stressful and traumatic events. It took over 2 years on xanax before I had any withdrawal symptoms when I didn't take it (yea I know, very rare-it's just the way my brain chemistry works, it took over 7 years of liquid hydrocodone before I had any w/d symptoms not taking it) so for those first 2 years it was clear to me how I felt without it and I only feel normal when I would take it. I had a pretty serious nervous breakdown when I lost my daughter, changed a lot in me, obviously mentally and emotionally but it changed a lot in my physiologically. If you feel fine and sleep fine once you are tapered off the xanax then you might not need the effexor. You should have a pretty good feeling of what you might need anyhow. You are obviously very in tune with your body like myself. Effexor is an SSNRI (Selective Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor) so instead of just increasing serotonin like the SSRI's do it also increases norepi. the problem with the selective reuptake inhibitors is that they can cause a decrease in dopamine at certain receptor sites specifically in the substantia nigra (small area in the brain packed full of dopamine producing neurons) this is the area where dopamine neurons die off in the beginning od parkinson's disease. So if there is an issue with dopamine the effexor has the possibility of making it worse. Even if there isn't an issue with dopamine it can still cause yukky side effects, most common would be a lack of energy. The selective reuptake inhibitors have a lot less side effects than the tricyclics (elavil etc) and are safer as far as you need a lot more of a selective reuptake inhibitor to be fatal than a tricyclic, which is why they became so popular. Now there are a lot more benzodiazepines and tricyclics being prescribed because these won't interfere with any of your monoamines (dopamine, norepi, and serotonin) but are still much safe than the MAOI's. Just some things to think about and look out for as your coming off of the xanax and hydros and possibly starting a new antidepressant.

I am terribly sorry to hear that your own mother is lying to you about a medication that she knows you need and can possibly die without. Benzodiazepines in themselves are very safe, it's the addiction that can be dangerous, addicts do things they would never do otherwise. I'm just sorry about all of the stress. Be very careful and monitor yourself. Stress can be much more harmful to the body than most medications can (in proper doses). Benzodiazepines have actually been shown to prolong life espeially in chronic and terminal cases: less stress. Most people underestimate what stress does to the body aside from taking years off of your life. Over 80% of doctors visits in this country are patients with moderate to very severe physical problems with absolutely no physical cause- stress is the culprit 99% of the time. So taper as slowly as you can on the xanax if at all possible.

xoxo- D.

[tnbrowneyes]

yes all so true..honestly i never took more than 2 xanax a day in 5 yrs..but when i had to get these a cpl days ago i had to take 2 in one day just to get the chemical in my system and slow my nerves down. i dont think ill ask to taper them yet..this is what i think ill do..odd as it sounds.. i think ill ask for 60 ..where i was getting 30..1 a day..and take 2 a day and taper myself down to a half a day within a period of time. i dont feel it being safe to taper too fast.
the hydros were my main concern, still are..i can live without them but like you said the xanax and if i have a chemical dependence to them ..going off them could do more harm than good. ill try to keep you updated on that..maybe someone else here will need the info you have given me too.
thank you so much for all the advice..taking the time to help me understand better about this.