Xanax Question: I quit taking Xanax two days ago after 2 years of taking 40 mgs/day. Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life, and today I feel even worse. I feel incredibly anxious, generally miserable, and I almost want to die! How can I quit taking this drug without so much pain!
Answer: It’s dangerous to quit Xanax (Alprazolam), along with all other drugs in the benzodiazepine class, by going cold turkey. Quitting a large, long term dosage of Xanax can cause dangerous seizures leading you to being carried off in an ambulance. Not only that, you are subjecting your body and mind to a tremendous amount of pain that you simply don’t need to go through. I suggest slowly reducing your dosage. Take 35 mgs/day for a week, 30 mgs/day the next week, 25 mgs/day the next week, 20 mgs/day the week after that. Spend 2 weeks at 20 mgs/day. Then spend 2 weeks at 15 mgs/day. Spend 3 weeks at 10 mgs/day. Spend 2 weeks at 7.5 mgs/day. Spend 2 weeks at 5 mgs/day. Spend a month at 2.5 mgs/day. Spend another month at 1.5 mgs/day, and another month at 1 mg/day, and another month at .5 mgs/day. Then, quit taking the drug. It’s a long process and it won’t be completely pain free, but you are stretching the process over such a long period of time that your body will adjust easier.
If you make a few other lifestyle changes, your body will handle even better. I recommend: going to bed at the same time every night (10 pm). If you go to bed after 10 pm, make sure your room is completely blacked out so you don’t get woken up prematurely by the sun. If you need an alarm to wake you up, you are going to bed too late. Getting plenty of outdoor sun exposure during the day (wear sunscreen with zinc-oxide). You can be outside in the shade, but you need to be able to see open sky (and not through a window). This tells your body it is daytime and keeps it awake. Make sure you get 20-30 minutes of direct sun exposure on your body, without sun screen. Feel free to cover your face. Take a Vitamin D (4000 IUs) and Vitamin B complex (100 mgs)/day). Eat meat every day at 5 pm. Exercise for 30 minutes every day at 5:30 pm. Another 30 minutes of morning or mid-day exercise is a plus, too. Eat pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds at night. Eat carrots, tomatoes, broccoli every day. On top of that, try to generally eat a healthy diet. The reason you started taking Xanax in the first place is because you had out of control stress/depression, which is linked to a bad sleep cycle and a lot of other problems in your body which are easy to solve with proper discipline.
Those steps should cause you to get a much, much better quality of sleep which will balance out your body, provide numerous health benefits and reduce anxiety/stress. Xanax withdrawal causes stress and anxiety, so any natural steps you can do to reduce anxiety are a big plus.
Filed under: Xanax Withdrawal, Xanax Withdrawal
