Wow - wake up call...

[my_mayberry]

Ok, I know a lot about benzo's and barbiturates...however, when it comes to xanax, i may not know as much as I thought. for the past couple months, I've been taking one-half to one tablet every night to help me sleep. These are the 0.25mg tabs...so a very low dose. this is the longest continuous period i've taken them for. prior to this, i'd taken them off and on for maybe a couple weeks at a time. i've never abused them or felt a need to...the reason i was taking them for this long was because i was discontinuing a few other meds (non-narc) and it made it much harder to sleep. so to the point....this morning my vision in my left eye went kinda funny. hard to explain, but i thought my blood sugar was low. i went and sat down and ate something to raise my blood sugar. i felt better. then i started getting a headache/migraine on the RIGHT side of my head. i've always had them on the left...never the right. also in the back of the right side of my head and behind my right eye. then i started having panic attacks and getting really shaky.

long story short, i'm at home now and i feel like i'm going through withdrawal and i'm pretty sure it's from the xanax. i have taken half of a 0.25mg tab and feel a little better. i seriously doubt it is anything beyond withdrawal...but WOW am i surprised. it hit me like a ton of bricks and i totally wasn't expecting it from such a low dose.

anyone else have any experience with these kind of withdrawal symptoms from xanax? i'm kinda freaked thinking i might be dying of something else....but my logical brain tells me that it's very likely to be the xanax. any thoughts would be appreciated...especially from those who've had similar symptoms from d/cing a low dose.

[dominosarah]

Keep us updated on how you are doing.  You know how some of us worry!

Hope you are having a better day~~sara

[tgtiffany]

Let us know what your doctor says after the appt. okay?  And what your plans are :)  Good luck!

[my_mayberry]

yeah...most doctors DO say to jump. it's kind of annoying, really. for around a month, i was actually taking .25mg three times a day while i discontinued my imipramine and zoloft...had absolutely no problem lowering that down to just .125 to .25 mg at night....so i was assuming that also would not be a problem to stop. the only thing that scares me is the visual disturbances and migraine.....if it weren't for those, i'd 'tough it out'

i'll make an appt with my dr before trying this again and see what she says. i'm sure she'll have no problem helping me out with a longer acting benzo taper...and HOPEFULLY that works out a little better. no more xanax for me once i'm off! the physical withdrawal is even worse than barbiturate withdrawal, in my opinion.

[gnarly_1]

HI....people dont realize just how strong .25mg of xanex really is....it dont sound like much but it can be ruff coming off it even in low doses what your feeling is pritty normal for xanex it was like that for me I detoxed off 4mg very sloooowly and it was still a grind I think like a lot of drugs it gets harder in the lower doses at least thats how it seamed to me hang in there
then just tuff it out for about a week wish I had better news for you most doctors will say jump at .25

[my_mayberry]

well i'm on such a low dose that it shouldn't have been such a problem. i know my migraines VERY well...i know this it all could have been migraine related, except for the fact that MY migraines have never behaved that way. it's always on the left side and if i have aura, it's always in the form of little zooming dots. however, as i mentioned, it stayed right in the zone between bad headache and migraine. it was weird....and it went away after i took the xanax.

it almost felt like opiate withdrawal. shakes....weakness......lots of nasty stuff. i expected anxiety, etc...but not that....not from such a low dose.

yes, i know all about tapers and longer acting benzo's. as i said though, this is the lowest dose you can even take....so i guess i will have to ask my dr about diazepam and going lower with that. i tell you one thing, if i stop this drug again...it will be on a weekend!

[Ashelen]

actually everything you described can be the result of a migraine precursor...I've had all of the above symptoms simply from a migraine with no meds involved.

however, I agree with xanax is probably the culprit. switching to a longer acting benzo is just going ot make it harder to quit because it takes so much longer for it to clear your system...but you absolutely 100% must talk to a doctor about stopping benzos as I'm sure you know because of the seizure risk, so I'm glad you're planning to talk to him.

good luck, and it sure is scary! I took xanax for about 3 years and when I stopped taking it I felt awful - I didn't realize how dangerous it was to stop cold turkey and my doc never warned me, and I was on a pretty high dose. I actually didn't even realize it was withdrawals that I was going through until about a year later when one of my doctors was helping me taper off of a pain med I was taking and I Mentioned the xanax. withdrawals do stink...but it does end eventually and you feel better.

[my_mayberry]

sarah...last night was the first night in 2 months i didn't take any. this morning is when it hit me. it triggered the headache/migraine (somewhere in between those two) on the right side of my head. obviously, i was worried it was symptoms of something MUCH worse. also, visual disturbances prior to the headache which i knew to be an indication of a migraine.....then the shakes started. my whole body felt like it was crashing. then panic attacks and fuzzy thoughts. this all happened about 12 hours of when my last dose should have been.....but honestly, i average .125 to .25mg of this stuff a day...you can't even go any lower than those doses unless you change to something else! who woulda thought it would be this bad. so i went home and because of the neurological events, i took half a xanax. with the migraine visual issues, i didn't want to take the risk of a seizure on top of it. now, i'm feeling MUCH better so i know it was the xanax. lesson learned about cold-turkey even on a low dose!

i guess the only option is to ask my doc about a longer acting benzo and taper....

i didn't think i'd need that, but guess my body says otherwise. it really IS crazy what drugs can do to you even in a low dose. the headache is even gone now. i was worried about other things being the cause...but i think i can rule that out now.

thanks everyone for your responses....i was pretty freaked there for a while.

[dominosarah]

When did you stop the xanax?  Headache gone?  It's crazy what these meds do to a person when you stop......Hope you are feeling better.

[tgtiffany]

I agree.  I took xanax for a little while after my daughter was born, not a lot, like half a peach at a time or a quarter of a blue one (not sure the mg of them) but I got panic attacks and stuff when I stopped as well as headaches.  I knew then I wasn't going to take them ever again.  Especially if such a low amount could cause stuff like that.  It's crazy!  Hope that you are feeling better though :)

[kimrenee]

Yes, I can tell you about the xanax, I took it for about a year and not everyday.  But when I got off of it and the lortab both, yes it was hellish for me. What you are experiencing is withdrawals, in my opinion.  They arent fun.  Hang in there in time we all will get better. Feel free to pm, me if I can answer anymore questions

[sudie58]

i am sure it is the xanax too, and i have also withdrawn from it, they were low dose ones given to me in hospital, after a 4 night stay, they gave me some to take home to help with sleep , just for a fortnight, and then i went into withdrawal! i read up on it, and i also recognised it, luckily it didnt last long approx 5 days i think, it was a long time ago, i dont remember it being very bad. we have to be so aware of everything. take care.