Xanax

[Dan]

I have been on Xanax - 2mgs a day for 9 years.  In July of this year I started coming off this drug.  Today I am down to .5mgs a day.  But my problem is I can't seem to get any lower. I try to reduce (.37mgs a day) but the withdraw is so bad I go back to .5mgs. Any suggestions on how I can continue reducing the dose without the withdraw?

[Julie]

Is Xanax basically the same thing as Ativan?

[Frankinscense]

Both are short acting benzodiazepines. Both produce equal dependence and addictions if taken daily over a period of time.

[To sick and scared from Neena]

But why would they allow me to continue to take them even just at night knowing that I became addicted to codiene?  Now that I have gotten over the codiene withdrawals, I have no shaking, etc.  The Xanax does allow me to sleep.  I was sleep deprived for a long while and even Ambien did not work.  Will I need to ask my doctor to ween me off the Xanax?  As far as I know Ativan is the same as Xanax, Julie.  I was given that also for panic attacks during a family emergency.  I am tired of PILLS.  I want my life back.  I don't want to depend on anything, not even for sleep.  But, the docs don't seem to think that it's bad for sleep for long periods of time.  Maybe they have plans to help taper me in the future.  I refuse to relive the Hell that I suffered with Vicoden ES withdrawals.  Neena

[tom to thread]

listen to Dan regarding the dangers of abruptly discontinuing benzos like ativan, xanax, valium, klonopin, librium. Prior to back surgery in 1993, my orthopedic surgeon had me on ativan for a year. After a successful surgery that eliminated the need for the ativan, I let myself run out of the stuff during the Christmas holidays. Not wanting to disturb my doctor over Christmas, I reasoned this was as good a time as any to quit. Four days later, Christmas night to be exact, sometime in the night I went into a seizure, causing my chest and stomach muscles to contract violently. Of course, I was unconscious during the whole thing and don't know how long I was in seizure. The following morning, my wife got up and headed toward the kitchen to make some coffee. She thought she'd close the bedroom door and let me sleep in. As she was about to close the door, something told her to look back at me in the bed. As the paramedics loaded me into the ambulance, they told my wife that, had she closed the bedroom door without glancing back at me, it would have been a sleep I would not have woken from.

The chest and stomach muscle contractions from the benzo seizure were powerful enough to leave me with two compressed vertebra in my upper back. The muscle and nerve damage in my chest was so extensive that I could not walk upright for two weeks and had to literally crawl to the bathroom on my hands and knees.

It took more than a year to recover from this experience. And, as I said, I still have two compressed vertebra which will never heal.

If that doesn't convince you, how about the nurse I know who bit her own tongue off during a benzo-inspired seizure? True story.

[Brian to Sick and Scared]

Just out of curiousity, anyone know how much oxycontin 40mg goes for on the street?  Doc just gave me script for 200!!  Bet you're all drooling right now. :-)

[for Sick and scared/beware of Vicky!!]

To sick and scared
You came to the right place. Everyone here has, is, and will be going through the same thing you are and that is what this is all about.
Vicky, you said you were sorry yet you keep this going by making comments in your last post that NOBODY else seems to want to answer "sicks" question. Maybe because you are the only one sitting here checking on the posts, waiting to attack someone else. My god you are sick in the head woman. GROW THE HELL UP!
You are not worth this. I hope nobody else responds to your posts and argues back with you. You have a serious attitude problem!!!!!