Help with slow easy Xanax taper. Scared from horror stories!

[Kwal3]

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By Kwal3 | 1 minute
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Hi there. I hope someone will read this and can at least point me in the right direction. I am 22 years old and have been on Xanax since I was 17 or 18. I started with .25mg 3x daily. Then shortly after began taking it only at night. I have been on 1mg per night for the past 3 years. I saw my psych and told him I wanted off. I felt like at this point I'm only taking it to avoid withdrawal. He suggested I go down .25mg a month. I have a fear of being sick and I've read so many horror stories that I just need something positive. I work full time and am the breadwinner. I need to be able to function while I taper. I decided to take it a little slower. I went to .875 mg instead of the .75. That was last night and will do this for a month then decrease to .75 and so on. I was wondering if I decrease at this rate do you think I will experience the horrible physical effects such as vomiting? I hope someone sees this and can just give me a glimmer of hope because I'm so scared of tapering due to all the horror stories. Thank you so much for even reading this far. I am alone with this and really could use someone to guide me in any way. Thank you again!
Also I have been on Prozac 40mg in the evening for years. Will that help the process at all? Again, I'm afraid I made myself freak out by reading too much. It's my understanding that this doesn't have to be painful as long as I don't cold turkey or taper fastly. I hope that is true and to receive some positive stories and help.
Peace <3

[Paxiled]

I don't think it was a bad thing you did by doing your homework -- most of the people, in my opinion, who have had the worst withdrawals have been uninformed.  I'll never recover from my Paxil withdrawal, but no doctor ever told me there was even a chance of getting one so I was completely ignorant.  I don't think your doctor's schedule was a bad one, and doing it more slowly isn't a bad idea, either.  Just taking one a night is a lot easier to quit than taking three a day, so there's that.  The Prozac won't make a difference because your brain is already used to it so it won't help or hurt.  If you notice at any point the withdrawal is more than you want to handle, and my guess is because you're prepared it won't be that bad, you're doing the right things and tapering off slowly, but if it does get out of hand then go back on the last dose at which you felt fine and taper off more slowly.  Expect a good result.  Don't expect a perfect result every moment.