I'm with binder..
I came of 10mg xanax, a few other benzos and a stupid drinking. I stopped them all on the same day, nothing comes even close to what happened.
I had over 150 symptoms at once, from hallucinations to a seizure on day 7
Now at 5.5 months off I still have 20 symptoms remaining.
The most annoying being a 5.5 month long migraine
I have cold turkeyed huge amounts of cocaine, meth and opium in the past and would gladly do each one again 5 times instead of this benzo withdrawal. My doctor was dumb enough to think that once the drug was out of my body the symptoms would stop, lol just like when you pull a knife out the bleeding stops......
So yes, it was terrible, have you seen the movie "Jacob's Ladder" with all the deleted scenes, it was like that mixed with the hell scenes from "event horizon" whilst being on PCP and acid. Frightening and well just frightening, everything else is certainly bunny rabbits dancing on a rainbow compared to it.
But that's just my experience, I've had people flippantly tell me they have taken "handfuls" of benzos for "years and years" and they have stopped without problem.
I hope you are one of them.
You should probably read the Ashton manual regarding benzo withdrawal, it is the most widely known resource:
benzo.org.uk : Benzodiazepines: How They Work & How to Withdraw, Prof C H Ashton DM, FRCP, 2002
and for an idea of symptoms, duration of withdrawal and other factors that SOME people experience there is a great survey here
Survey Contents Jun 2007
The more information you have your disposal the better equipped you are to deal with whatever comes your way.
Good luck
MHH