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WEANING XANAX XR O,5 ! Urgent.

774 views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  UltraShy 
#1 ·
Hello ! I take xanax xr 0,5 mg since november 2014 , and want to know about the weaning of xanax xr 0,5 mg, how can i do the weaning ?


Can anyone help me !


Thank you.
 
#2 ·
This is not something your doc would likely recommend but XR tablets can be split up or crushed. There's not any danger to it, the only thing that happens is that it will most likely be absorbed much faster than what an XR pill would (depends a little from pill to pill, some are almost as well absorbed as IR pills when crushed while others may still be metabolized slower by the body).

So you could in theory split it up in 5 parts. Then take 4 of those parts during the day (say one in the morning, one at lunch, one in the afternoon and one in the evening) for 1 (or if you want to go slow, 2 weeks). Then go down to 0.3 mg a day for 1 to 2 weeks. And so forth.

Obviously this is a lot of hassle and it would be easier to replace it with diazepam or something and take one single daily dose (considering it's long half-life). But since you asked how to wean xanax xr I gave you an example of how to do that. 0.5 mg is a rather small dose and could probably be tapered even quicker, however since you've been on it for quite some time might be better to go slow and ensure you manage to quit using it.
 
#4 ·
Detoxing from benzos can be very dangerous. I would def recommend going very, very slowly. I took Xanax for 11 years and during that time I never missed a dose...not one single dose. I started out being prescribed .25mg (which is a joke, imo) and went up and up until I was, at one point, getting it in other ways and was doing bars.

I've weaned myself off of it twice, once in a rehab facility where I was given something to help calm me down (could've been diazepam, I honestly can't remember what it was) and that was tough but not nearly as difficult as the second time where I did it on my own. I weaned myself off of it .25mg at a time, and it took me months. Side effects were pretty bad for me. I'd really recommend anyone at least do it under the care of a doctor, and if you do it completely on your own be prepared it won't be easy. I would keep in mind you don't want to rush it, it's probably going to take quite a while. Having said that, I feel like there were handcuffs around my wrist, shackles around my ankles and they've been taken off now. I wasn't even taking it to try to feel normal anymore, I was taking it because if I didn't I'd feel horrible. I'm so glad to be off of it. You can do it, good luck to you.
 
#7 ·
0.5 mg that's spread out over 24 hours in XR form is virtually nothing, so I don't see any reason why you couldn't simply stop cold turkey.

Is this talk of weaning produced by reading horror stories online of how horrific someone's Xanax "addiction" was? Keep in mind that all the folks who stopped without incident, probably aren't posting their boring tale of how absolutely nothing happened.

And, yes, I'm quite familiar with Xanax, having munched on so damn many bars over the years that the nasty medicinal taste doesn't even bother me.

I personally think you're worrying about nothing & will find that you're perfectly fine after stopping cold turkey.

Now I wouldn't give this cold turkey advice to someone on a serious amount of benzos, but 0.5 mg spread over a day is simply a joke. It's like asking how di I withdraw from my alcohol "addiction" that involves one can of light beer ever day. (Now if it was 1 liter of whiskey per day like my brother used to do, then rehab is going to be needed.)

This reminds me of a study I read of some years back where benzo patients experienced withdrawal symptoms simply by being told they were getting less benzos, when, in fact, their pills continued to contain the same amount of medication as they always had. This would suggest their is a mental component to benzos withdrawal where you get what you expect to, so if you expect withdrawal to be hell, then it just might live up to those expectations. Of course, I'm in no way saying that benzo withdrawal -- especially from long-term high dose use -- isn't real. It's definitely very real, just like withdrawal from massive amounts of daily alcohol intake is very real. I'm merely suggesting that there is a significant mental component to it, such that you shouldn't worry about going off a very modest dose as it's not likely to cause any problems & fearing the worst is simply going to make withdrawal worse.
 
#8 ·
0.5 mg that's spread out over 24 hours in XR form is virtually nothing, so I don't see any reason why you couldn't simply stop cold turkey.

Is this talk of weaning produced by reading horror stories online of how horrific someone's Xanax "addiction" was? Keep in mind that all the folks who stopped without incident, probably aren't posting their boring tale of how absolutely nothing happened.
I think it's more of a reasonable precaution. Most likely it is as you say that he won't experience any serious withdrawal effects from this dose but then again if he's already been eating it for over 1,5 years, what's the hurry, he might as well take some weeks to taper it down. It can make the process easier.

And, yes, I'm quite familiar with Xanax, having munched on so damn many bars over the years that the nasty medicinal taste doesn't even bother me.
I find alprazolam doesn't taste nearly as bad as a lot of people make it out to do... but zopiclone which I tried in the past, eh that metallic taste... also some antihistamines are extremely bitter tasting.
 
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