JTele

Hey all! I guess the title speaks pretty much for itself, but when I became ill about six or seven weeks ago, I wasn't sleeping very well. Long story short, the illness is in the past, but at the time I decided to start taking Xanax almost daily in small doses (.25mg with an occasional .5g dose) to relieve my insomnia. While that seemed to have worked pretty well throughout the duration of my illness, I thought it would be a good idea to get off of it while taking my final dose last Saturday. I was fine on Sunday, but by Monday I felt a little anxiousness with Tuesday being a little more so. By Wednesday, though, I was in a full-scale anxiety attack with chest pain, heart palps, nausea....the works. My primary doc suggested that I take a 1/4 tablet to calm things down a bit, and that worked pretty well. I had a good day yesterday, but today I'm feeling as though I'm on the verge of another intense attack.

I fully understand that weaning off this drug is a good idea. However, when considering the low doses as well as the duration of time I had been taking them, I had really hoped that I could go off of them cold turkey. I might also add that I'm quite sensitive to nearly every drug I take, so it seems very likely that I became dependent on it.

With that being said, has anyone else had this type of experience? Did you wean off slowly or go cold turkey? And, how long did it take for the withdrawal symptoms to disappear? I really don't think I'm in any danger of having seizures or any major health concerns, but being in this uncomfortable state is certainly no fun, not to mention that I'm unable to concentrate on work.

Thanks in advance!

AnvilheadII

i'd ask my doctor and then follow his advice to the letter. since you already have had some intense anxiety, physical reactions, do not MESS with it, get medical advice.

i noticed you said "you DECIDED" to take the xanax.....so that was not prescribed? leftover? otherwise acquired? your story is a very good demonstration of why we should not just "decide" to start using a pharmaceutical agent for a symptom when it is not prescribed for such.

JTele

Yeah, I should've explained in more detail what my situation is. First, I was prescribed Xanax as needed for insomnia by my doctor over a year ago. I did indeed start to take it on nearly a daily basis since I wasn't able to sleep while I was ill. Needless to say, this was a mistake.

Secondly, I have spoken with my doctor, and she said that I should take a 1/4 tablet of a .5mg dose in the event another anxiety attack occurs. I have yet to take one today since things have resolved a bit since I posted.

It's become very clear to me that I made a mistake to start using this drug daily, for it obviously isn't meant to be used this way. However, it is what it is, and at the moment I'm just trying to get past these final stages of getting off the drug. I'm just really curious to know about how long I can expect for the withdrawal issues to subside. Thanks!

teatreeoil007

JTele-I'm so sorry you are feeling this way! Anxiety is just not fun to live with and anxiety attacks are awful. The sense of foreboding is yucky too. Withdrawal highly varies, depending on different things. I agree, consult with your Dr. and follow his/her directions. Abrupt benzo withdrawal can cause seizures.

BetterNow2017

I don't want to start too much trouble but how can you have over 7600 posts on this website, read 100s of stories and miss the part where half these doctors are clueless and actually created the addiction and drug dependency so many members of this website experienced ?

What happened with me is Xanax caused my anxiety to get worse causing me to need more and more of it, then when I went and took more to relieve the anxiety from hell they turn it around and make it my fault and say I am 'abusing' it. No that stuff was abusing me.

What happens to many people with Xanax is tolerance goes up faster then the prescribed dose so you find yourself in basically constant withdrawal, anxiety much worse then before you ever took the stuff and like I already said when you take some extra for relief from this absolutely hellish situation they usually pull a blame the victim and claim you are "abusing" it.

sugarangel

I am currently in Xanax wds, and have been off and on for a while now. They are like a rollercoaster, and hard to predict. Loss of sleep, appetite, and massive anxiety are pretty normal for the first two weeks or so, then it starts to get better. It will come in waves after that. And, sometimes it can be pretty intense, but not as bad as those first two weeks.
This is how the Xanax wds affect me, but everyone is different. I hope this helps in some small way. I am 10 days in this go round, and the wd symptoms are the same as before, but not nearly as intense. Best advice I can give is go with it. Don't fight the wds. Try and work through them,. They will get better. Worrying about the wds and how bad they were going to get and how long they would last only made my already massive anxiety worse. I had day long panic attacks, and the only way I got through them was to keep telling myself that it was just wd symptoms. That I wasn't really going to die or go crazy. I had to give in to get calm. This worked for me, and I just wanted to share it with you.
Good luck, and keep posting. Let us know how you are doing. You aren't alone.

Forward12

Doctors often times foolishly give people benzos for insomnia and while it does work, often times gets people hooked on them, especially xanax which is one of the, if not the strongest and most addictive benzo on the market.
Tapering down would be a good idea and I perhaps would speak with another doctor. If you still have insomnia issues, there are plenty of non-addictive medications out there that are designed for that.

JTele

Thanks for all the replies, everyone! Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of research over the weekend about benzo addiction and withdrawal. One thing for certain is that I never saw this coming. I feel as though I was blindsided by it to some degree. Although, it was my own fault for taking it every day for six weeks. I should've known better. On the other hand, it has certainly given me some insight as to what this benzo business is all about, and I never realized how it can literally strip away your life. I may be one of the lucky ones when considering my low dosage and short-term usage.

The good news is that I had a decent day today.......not good, but certainly not horrible. I'd be thankful if I can get a few more of those in the upcoming days. Also, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to try to ride this out cold turkey as opposed to tapering. No more rescue doses, either. If I've come this far, I can make it to the end, right?

Thanks again.........

BetterNow2017

I think you did well and escaped part two of the benzo nightmare.


Part two is where they put you on all the anti depressants and mood remover pills to "help" with anxiety.




I did the benzo nightmare I know how the story usually goes. The worst part is where they tell you the anti depressants and mood remover pills are "non addictive" but you get sick with withdrawal reactions if you don't like the effects and try and quit.

The term "non addictive" DOES NOT mean no withdrawal reactions.

JTele

Hey Better Now,

Yeap, you've got that right! When I saw my doc last Thursday, she thought that it would be beneficial for me to take Zoloft. Yeah, right! The first words that came out of my mouth were "NO WAY!" I'd rather deal with a bit of mild anxiety and insomnia than to go on yet another freaking prescription drug.

I'm even having a better day today than I did yesterday, so I'm hoping the worst is over. While I'm still feeling much of the muscle tightness all over while also not getting enough sleep, I do feel as though I'm on the upswing. It seems that I dodged a pretty nasty bullet.

And hey......thank you for your support through a rather difficult time! I went through this withdrawal dilemma several years ago with alcohol, and while I told myself back then that I'd never allow myself to have a problem like this again, here I went and did it with Xanax. Thankfully it wasn't as severe this time around. Still, I would never wish it upon anyone. Five days of hell were enough for me.

BetterNow2017

Yep I know, I lived it. I meet new people in recovery all the time and know the story before they even tell it.