Benzo withdrawl

I am so sorry that you are having to go through this... I know from experience.. it sucks. I never "liked" the benzos (I am prescribed 3 1mg xanax per day); and I took them as prescribed... until last year when I found out I was pregnant... they told me to wean off and I just did it cold turkey... which was easy for me since I didn't "like them".. not like the issue I have now.. but anyways, I felt like crap for about a week.. more like a cartoon... My head felt woozy and I just felt like I was walking around in a dream. It was awful.. so I sympathize with you!!! I just tried to keep my mind off it; slept as much as possible (with the aid off Tylenol PM's) and just tried my best to get through it.
The worst part is the Dr's don't tell you how difficult it is to STOP taking them when they initally prescribe them. I had the same issue with lexapro and cymbalta as well.

Good luck.. hang in there.. it will all be better soon...

Ask your Dr. for suboxone. It's a non-narcotic that will withdraw you from the pills, safely.

Hi everyone.

I have a question about the length of withdrawl from taking 1-1.5 mg of xanax for 40 days. I hear conflicting reports that you should only experience symptoms for about 2-6 weeks.
I'm still experiencing anxiety, ear blockage, tinnitus head pressure. Would this be normal at almost 3 months off the drug?

Thank you

Purely physical withdrawals still going on after almost two months clean ... pharmacologically speaking this seems improbable unless the drug's half-life is especially- and I mean especially, ESPECIALLY- long, and by this I mean 12-24 hours or more. Offhand I think Xanax has a relatively long half-life, close to 12 hours in some people.

Coach6666:
in terms of medication, half-life refers to how long it takes for the amount (or concentration) of a certain drug in the bloodstream to be reduced by half. The LONGER a half-life, the longer the drug's effectiveness.

Take for example a drug like heroin. When you take heroin, it goes into your system and goes out pretty quickly; its half-life is around 2 hours. So you take it, and in two hours half of the amount you took has already been eliminated from your bloodstream; in another 2 hours, half of THAT half is gone, and so on. This is a very short half-life, and it's one reason why heroin addicts need heroin as often as they do.

Methadone, on the other hand, has a half-life of as long as 24 to 36 hours. This is one reason why methadone is effective in treating opioid addicts, because its effects last so long. Although I'm not sure, I would imagine that this is also why a long-lasting drug like clonazapam (Klonapin) is used to treat addictions to Valium- because its half-life is longer.

When not managed, drugs with long half-lives can be very difficult themselves to be detoxed from because of that half-life. The longer a drug's half-life, the longer it spends in your body, the better its ability to be absorbed by deep tissues etc and go places you'd prefer it not go. For this reason, drugs with extended half-lives in general take longer to be detoxed from, which is why people detoxed with drugs like Methadone need to be closely monitored because it can take months for the drug itself to clear a person's system.

Hope that helps.
K

Thank you. I understand it now. I'm not quite sure what the half life is of xanax but it's effect only lasts about 4 hours or so, then you might need another dose. I don't think it's a very long half life. Thank you again

Hi Kopernica. You're right. Xanax has a half-life of 6-12 hours. Just checked it out. Thanks again