Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

23,095 Members

43,240 Posts

1 Online

salvatop 04/03/2016

My doctor has started weaning me off Xanax. I had been taking 4mg of Xanax, 1mg 4 times a day. He has lowered me to 3mg of the extended release Xanax, 1mg 3 times a day. I started having withdrawals today and they are the worse, panic attacks, shortness of breath, restless, cant sit still, end up pacing back and forth from room to room, moaning like I am in pain, loss of appetite, dizziness. I was wondering if anyone out there has gone through Xanax withdrawal and how long it took to get off the drug similar to my dosage. Also if you can offer any tips on how to cope when going through the withdrawal. Thanks.

sepi 04/03/2016

I went through Xanax withdrawal but that was 28 years ago! I do remember sleepless nights and the other symptoms you mentioned. The only thing that helped me was being around other people as much as I didn't want to. It somehow diverted my attention elsewhere. Also deep breathing helped me.

Good luck and remember it will pass and its temporary. Hang in there.

sptrout 04/03/2016

I have not tried cutting back yet, but my day is coming. I have been on 1mg 3x per day (XR version) for several years and I tried to cut back to 2.5 mg per day (again XR version) and it was not good. However, we had really bad family problems at that time so it was a bad time to do a test.

I am surprised that your doctor switched you from IR version to XR (which you should have been on all along IMO). It is much more difficult to cut back on XR than IR since you have to drop down .5mg at a time since that is the smallest dosage available. With IR you could have literally cut the pills a little at a time, not so with XR.

I think you will be in for many months of tapering down from all that I have read about this drug.

FYI - - A doctor in England switches her patients from Xanax to Valium IR since it has a very long half-life (60 hours I belive) allowing the patient to gradually cut back both in number of pills and with a pill cutter.

Good luck!

salvatop 04/03/2016

sepi,
Did you do it on your own, or did you go to a detox facility?? What was the highest dosage you were on??

jsupercutie 04/03/2016

I went through Xanax withdrawal about a year ago and I did experience withdrawal as well. I noticed I had a lot of hot and cold sweats. For me resting helped if you're able to do that. Try to eat and drink lots of water. I was on up to 3mg a day (1mg as needed I could take up to three throughout the day). Good luck!

BonTemps 04/04/2016

I went through Klonopin withdrawls [ a similar Benzo drug] and experienced a lot of what you mentioned. I found the secret to be
going down VERY slowly. Your pace of reduction may be too fast.
You could talk toy your doc about going slower.

My doc sent me to a compounding pharmacy to have the drug made
in liquid form so i could literally go down 1% at a time using a measuring syringe . I would measure the correct amount and squirt it in my mouth.

Join the Conversation