long term xanax use

Sorry for your troubles. Considering your age and the length of time on the benzo, it is extremely hard for the brain to adjust to lowering/discontinuing a drug your brain has been bathed in for so long - the structures (receptors) in your brain have been changed, and are slow to change back to pre-benzo, if they ever do. I say this as a 62 year old with a similar benzo history. Clearly your psychiatrist will disagree with me, and I don´t want to go against doctors advise, but maybe consider and discuss with your doctor the probability that this (4 month?) taper was way too fast. That´s pretty common for psychiatrists to do, who lack and understanding of the effect of long term benzos on the mature brain, or any brain. They seem to have this formula that consists of taking away large percentages of the drug at a time - just, no. Consider a much slower taper if you are determined to discontinue, you´ve got to do it right this time, as multiple tapers and reinstatements can result in kindling, a neurological condition resulting from repeated withdrawals, seizure possibility heightened. You may have to think of your taper in terms of years rather than months. I did, and I still wasn´t able to come off completely; I hope you do better than I did, but in my opinion you´ve got to slow it way WAY down. Hereś an article that explains all this better than I can, and suggests cutting not more than 5-10% of currrent dose and holding for several weeks at a time. Some need to go even slower, 2-5% and hold for several weeks.https://www.benzoinfo.com/benzodiazepine-tapering-strategies/ Best ~

thank you

I've been tapering off Klonopin for 7 months, down from 1-1.5mg per night to .25mg. I reduce every 6-8 weeks. This last taper to .25mg has been the hardest one and I think I will need to reduce once more to .0125mg before going completely off. But I am doing it and can see the finish line and I need to do this to heal my brain. I've done this under psychiatric care. Good luck and get help to do it very slowly to minimize withdrawal symptoms. It has not been fun, but has not been awful either.

I truly understand how you feel, I too have a dependency on ativan, another brand of benzos and as I've said before, I didn't really have any issues with this med, it controlled my anxiety and panic attacks and I was never aware of any specific side affects. I always knew it was a drug that becomes addictive but no one ever bothered me about my usage...sometimes my family doctor would say that it's a tough medication to stop but he never enforced me to try. In recent years this medication started getting more attention and it primarily linked up with the pain medication epidemic because it was highly lethal to combine the two meds. Now everyone is getting on board with trying to eliminate these meds because they don't want a bigger problem so now they are putting undue pressure on patients who've been taking them a long time, in fact the majority of these people are in their older ages, it's just cruel to push all these desperate people away because the doctor doesn't want to be associated associated with these drugs, hence they abandon their patients without conscience... I've notice that doctors are more apathetic today, they don't really care as much anymore, they complain about being overworked, etc. I understand they are human but their job is to help people in trouble and to be there for them, instead they just want to sweep you under the carpet like a bad secret. Someone mentioned here a subject called med shaming, I was initially startled to see this but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was happening to me as well, I just didn't connect the dots at the time. I truly don't know what they plan to do with people like us, stopping our meds is just going to lead to more problems not to mention it's heartless and cruel, after all it's like they want to punish us as though we're solely responsible for getting into this mess.

thanks for your experience - i tapered off once before and the side effects were awful - i think it may have been too quick a taper - did your psychiatrist replace it with somthing else? Mine is trying to get me to take an ssri for anxiety to help with the taper?

I have run into that too - in fact I went back to the doctor who originally prescribed it because no one else would - he too want me to get off it now after putting me on it 15 years ago without ever telling me how addictive a drug it is. Had i known i would not have taken it to begin with. Most other doctors just say they don't know how to handle it - and blame everything thats wrong with you on anxiety - not taking your physical compllints seriously. I am so fed up with doctors . I want to get off so i don't have to deal with trying to get a prescription - so I can go to a better more competent doctor and not have to worry about being cut off and withdrawing cold turkey since that can actually cause serious harm - or death. The doctors know how to prescribe it but they have no idea how to safely get off

Ah yes, I too shared such an experience when my doctor took me off Zoloft. It would take too long to describe my experience being placed on Zoloft and being taken off Zoloft and the offer by my doctor to put me back on Zoloft at a point where I was supporting my wife’s efforts to address Pancreatic Cancer. Too often drugs are simply a convenient way for the doctor to address a problem they simply feel they can’t address correctly.

I’m shocked and appalled at how many people are going through this…I remember when my doctor reduced my supply of Ativan by more than half without even having a talk about it..he would even leave messages at the pharmacy for me and that’s when I realized I was being shamed by the doctor who made me sound troubled and uncooperative..this was not the case at all…I had to research to find out what was going on…it’s pretty much happening everywhere…I don’t want to say anything that will cause others more anxiety but the data is out there…now I ask myself what my solution is…I’ve battled lung cancer twice since the pandemic and you would think that the doctor is more sympathetic knowing my history but it’s not the case.. I don’t feel that I can cope with everything anymore and go through a benzodiazepine withdrawal.. I should also add that I’m 72 years old and definitely not as tough as I have had to be in my life

I understand and have experienced that the taper needs to be very slow to allow your brain to adapt. For me, it was about 6 weeks before I felt I could reduce again - my psychiatrist allowed me 8 weeks. He did prescribe Vistoril, which is a slightly sedating antihistamine, which helped a little to keep me calm, but not sleep. He offered a tyicyclic antidepressant (Remeron) but I declined as I do not feel depressed. I had taken antidepressants three separate times and I needed them then, not now. My main problem is with sleep, which is the primary reason I took Klonopin. He is not giving me a substitute drug for that, which is frustrating. You could try the SSRI, but it is just another drug you would have to taper off of. I will say tapering off antidepressants was not as difficult as the Klonopin for sure. So I'm basically trying to develop a new relationship with sleep and learning that if I wake at 3:30 and never go back to sleep, I can stay in bed, stay calm and meditate. It won't kill me. Good luck!

thank you