How long does xanax withdraws last?
 

I've been taing xanax for the past three months (.5mg X 4 a day). I feel the symptoms of becoming addicting to the medication. I am suprised that in a short period of time, how the medication is missing up my life. I'm quiting cold turkey cause for one I cannot afford to go to rehab and two, I dont want to feel like this anymore. does anyone know how long the withdraw is going to last? does anyone have advice to reduce the withdraws? Does anyone now if smoing weed will help? from all the reading I've been doing, it looks lie I have a rough road ahead of me.....

Cold turkey is NOT advisable. Talk to your dr and taper off.

You risk seizures by stopping abruptly. and it does prolong the withdrawal and make it far worse.

Welcome :)

It's impossible to for any of us to assess you - but as a general rule I always recommend people seek expert specialised medical advice from a doctor when it comes to benzo withdrawal - it's really not a DIY job.

You'll no doubt hear from folks here with experience soon.

I doubt you'll get any yeahs on the marijuana tho - this is a recovery site after all.
See a doctor instead, seeingsanity.

D

I quit cold turkey from some benzos, and it truly sucked... It is dangerous too... Xanax is a short acting benzo and you will be missing them soon. Nasty things happen, the most common are seizures...

Don't just quit cold turkey... Get some help from a physician... it's not too difficult if you have some professional help.

Really... :)

Just to reiterate, xanax is a VERY dangerous drug to quit cold turkey.
Find a way to see a doctor right away who can prescribe the right course of action for you. There are medications that will help you get off of xanax.

Your thinking is right, and it's good you want to get off of a drug that's messing up your life, but often we don't know enough about the drugs we've been taking to simply "quit" them.

Please see a doctor.

I quit 7 months ago, cold turkey, ending up seizing.

I'm off them 7 months now and still have many withdrawal symptoms. Generally withdrawal lasts 6 - 18 months.

The only option offered to me to deal with any of the symptoms was to reinstate benzos lol or take a bunch of SSRIs until they found one which had bearable side effects, lol/

I'm sticking it out, at this rate of healing I hope to be back to near 100% by the 1 year mark.

Thanks for all the feedback... Its been 27 hours since my last .5mg of xanax. I went through my first night and only sleept a few hours if that. My heart is beating fast, I guess that is whats keeping me from sleeping. I know that my body and minsd is wanting the drug and I'm not going crazy... this is what is driving me to quit cold turkey. I Know I'm playing a deadly game, but I'm staying positive and keeping busy at home to help with the pain. PLEASE! dont stop responding. Reading your post is kind of soothing.

To MYHEADHURTS:
If you dont mind me asking, how many mg were you taking a day? and I know that the withdraws is going to take a long time to recover from but, how long did it take for the detox? how long was it until you were able to sleep on your own?

I can tell you I took 1.mg daily at the max.
I don't know what you mean by detox in reference to Xanax. Benzos are not like a simple heroin addiction. Be clear as to what you mean and I will try to answer.

currently I am two years since complete cessation and sleeping remains horrific

I went cold turkey from 10mg+ xanax and a few other benzos, so I guess it was a zero day detox. Many places offer inpatient detox services, many of which do a rapid taper over a few days then send the patient packing with a handful of phenibarbital to deal with withdrawal symptoms. Basically these places just get you out of the seizure danger zone (seizures are quite common with rapid withdrawal from benzos).

It took several weeks for me to be able to sleep again, and by sleep I mean 2-3 hours over the course of the night. Now 7 months off I usually sleep 5 hours, sometimes more, but I wake between each sleep cycle.


You mention "sleep on your own" does this mean you are taking something to help you sleep? If you are and it is a Z-class sleeping drug, they work on the same receptors as benzos and thus mitigate benzo withdrawal.

Good luck. Benzo withdrawal sucks.

Indeed, Xanax detox centers are basically a scam. It's not like heroin or...

Coming off 10 mg must have been horrific yet you are in better shape than I am now! How long did you take 10mg?

I took that amount of xanax for 3 months and lesser amounts for 18 months before that.

I just detoxed from Xanax at a center. I was on as much as 6mg a day. I once quit cold turkey and it took a week until the racing thoughts, racing heart rate, irratiablity, etc. wore off. But I went back so I can't tell you how long until I had normal sleep. This time I went to detox, actually, I was sent to there because I was really acting crazy, suicidal thoughts and they were worried that I was going to seize. It took me about three days for me to be detoxed in the center. They have other meds that help taper you down. It took me about 3 weeks until I could sleep again. I started taking melatonin and its working for me. It's a different kind of sleep then when taking xanax but it is actually more refreshing in the morning. Stick with it, after the body aches and everything else goes away things will get so much better. I am sober 29 days today and I feel a little better everyday but cravings do seem to come up out of nowhere sometimes but they wont be as bad as you feel with withdrawls. I found this site to be very helpful and I'm going to start going to meetings this week. I have been in an outpatient rehab center.