Will Xanax withdrawl be hell off a small dose of .5mg? Also quit alcohol

[Macphisto]

O.K., so it's been a couple of weeks that I've been off alcohol and now I'm considering getting off the Xanax that I've been taking for about 5 years for GA (generalized Anxiety).

I'm only taking .5mg in the morning and have had the same dose without the need to take more for the 5 years. It was only when I had a bad hang over that I would get panicky and take another .5mg tablet but not very often at all. I've now been doing fine off the alcohol and want to be free of all medications. I've doe a search on the forum about Xanax and how to get off of it but most people posting seemed to have been taking quite a bit more than I'm taking. I guess my question is should I still tapper or is .5mg low enough to just quit all at once? Should I wait till I have more time off alcohol so it's not such a shock to my system or since I'm feeling fine 2 weeks completely sober can I address the Xanax issue now? Just for reference, my normay routine would be to take the .5mg Xanax in the morning before going to work and I would drink between 6 and 8 beers in the evening. Obviously weekends there was considerably more drinking but the Xanax amount stayed the same.

I now really believe that my drinking and the anxiety it caused the next day is what kept me taking the xanax. so now that I have decided and am taking steps not to drink anymore I want to cut everything out.

I know the logical answer might be take half for a week or two and then half of that for another week or two but I just wanted to get opinions from someone who has stopped at .5mg

Thanks

[Barto]

What does your doctor say?

[emmer]

This is something you should be talking to your doctor about ,Macphisto.
I've gone off small doses of xanax and it felt like i had the flu for about a week or so.
Talk to your doctor though. Best wishes ...

[windysan]

The doc should tell you to reduce the dose slowly. Make sure that he knows about benzos and the problems people have getting off of them.

[jbit]

plan for the worst, hope for the best, and consult with your doc.

[leeside]

I took about 4 times that much over 20 years and have had seriously bad withdrawal. It took about a year for me to taper off and I stopped after I was taking just about .5 mg a week. Then the withdrawal symptoms hit after the effects of the drug wore off. I also quit drinking and it was almost 4 mo. before I stopped the benzos. HTH