Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Support Group

Hi! I am looking for some help. I am going to an inpatient detox center soon and don't know what to expect. I really want to know how they are going to "detox" me. I'm only there for six days. Will I be completely taken off Xanax by the time I leave? I'm currently on 6mgs of Xanax and have taken it for 7 years. Anyone have any advice?

May I ask who recommended the inpatient detox MsPickles78? I don't mean to discourage you nor scare you, but rapid detoxes from benzodiazepines generally end in failure and the patient ends up reinstating. I did this several years ago after I became tolerant to klonopin. The medical inpatient detox is safe from a medical standpoint but withdrawing from that much xanax in 6 days is a recipe for extreme suffering.

What these facilities generally do is withdraw you rapidly in 2-3 days and them pump you full of other psychotropics in an attempt to ease the withdrawal pain from the benzodiazepine. The only way to safely come off potent, short 1/2 life benzos like xanax and ativan is to slowly direct taper down the benzo as much as you can while at the same time make a transition to a low potency, long half life benzo like valium. Once you have transitioned completely over to valium and get stable or as stable as you can get, you then slowly start to withdraw the valium. This process could take a year or longer but it is the best way IMHO if you have any hope of ever coming off these drugs.

Here was my experience several years ago. I entered detox about 6 years ago. I was on 1.5 mgs of klonopin. I had taken this drug for over a decade and became tolerant just like what you are experiencing with xanax. They took me off in 3 days I think. They then gave me a bunch of other drugs like lamictal ,seroquel, gabitril, trileptal, lexapro, and a few others. They give you meds like gabitril and lamictal to prevent seizures. I stayed in the facility almost 20 days. At day 5, I was begging them to put me on valium or even a small dose of klonopin even tho I had become tolerant to it. The pain was unreal. All the other drugs did absolutely nothing to mask the horrendous withdrawal I was going thru from the klonopin. It was an absolute nightmare. I literally thought I was going to die. I was discharged after about 20 days not because I was any better but because my insurance had run out. When I left there, I was in far worse shape than I was when I was admitted.

The first thing I did after I got back home was make an emergency appointment with my PCP and begged him to put me on valium. I had actually become suicidal from the pain the klonopin withdrawal was causing me. I was actually able to stabilize somewhat on the valium but it took about 2 weeks for it to get in my system really good. Now, here it is several years later and I am still on valium but slowly trying to come off that.

I do understand your frustration of wanting to get off the xanax as quickly as possible because you are miserable now and you are still taking it. I felt the exact same way and I was desperate for help. The reality is these detox facilities are good if you are detoxing alcohol, opiates, or even heroin but are not good for patients trying to detox benzos. They only cause unbearable suffering and end up costing you a lot of money for nothing. Plus like I said at the beginning of this post, most patients end up reinstating anyway as soon as they are released. No other drugs can mask or stop the withdrawal from benzos. The only way to come off benzos is to slowly taper with benzos. Having said that, I have known a few people who were able to come off these drugs using rapid taper methods like inpatient detox or DIY methods like cold turkey and manage to stay off but it is brutal and can be dangerous. Most people simply are unable to do it like this. Good luck in whatever you decide. Please come back and update. I would like to know how you are doing if you do the inpatient detox.

Post edited by: LostInCyberspace12, at: 04/28/2012 09:07 AM

Post edited by: LostInCyberspace12, at: 04/28/2012 09:09 AM

Thank you for all the info. The place where I did the substance abuse assessment found this detox center for me. I've been told that they will completely take me off Xanax while I'm there. That means I will taper off 6 mgs in 6 days. I'm so scared right now. There's so much conflicting information about what will happen. I feel like they're setting me up to relapse because withdrawal is going to be so miserable.

Have you ever tried to taper down the xanax on your own slowly? If yes, what were the results?

I once dropped from 5 mgs to 4 mgs and had flu-like symptoms, a wicked headache, and a bit more anxiety for a week or so. I did that so I could hoard the extra Xanax and when I had plenty extra, I increased myself to 6 mgs. Dumb move, I know, but it made sense to me at the time. I'm in grad school working on my doctorate and the side effects of just being on Xanax are interrupting with school big time. My concern about a long, slow taper is that I won't get rid of this foggy feeling. I can't concentrate and my short-term memory isn't what it used to be. I'm just tired of this med ruining my life. I want it to be over now. I'm not exactly patient :-/

I know Miss Pickles. I wish I had done what you are trying to do now 15 years ago. The longer you stay on benzodiazepines, the harder it will be to come off these drugs and keep your sanity in the process. I have been battling this for 25 years now and may never be able to get off. The longest I have been off is 4 months but had to reinstate because the pain just never seems to end. Benzos did help when when I was younger before I started having problems with tolerance. Now, they are causing pure hell in my life and I find it impossible to stop even tho I feel like crap still taking the drug.

I am very uncertain about my future. If you can come off and use other meds or no meds, I say do it and good luck to you. I have not given up but it may now be too late for me sadly.

Benzos are truly a double edge sword. They melt away your anxiety and painic when you initially begin them. They are true anti-anxiety meds and they do work. There is no question about this. The caveat is if you stay on these drugs longterm for years or in my case decades, you will start to have panic and anxiety again even tho you are still taking the drug and most then find it almost impossible to stop even tho taking the drugs are causing tremendous turmoil in your life now.

Post edited by: LostInCyberspace12, at: 05/11/2012 01:30 PM

Well, tomorrow (Monday) I start detox. I have NO idea what they're going to do to me but I'm pretty sure I won't be leaving with any Xanax. That means I cut 6 mgs in 6 days, unless they keep me longer but that's not likely. I am expecting pure hell in terms of withdrawals but I feel like this is my only option. Can't have any access to Internet in detox so I'll check back in here as soon as they let me out.

Welcome to the group. Detoxing wont be fun but your going to have to go through the hell if you ever want to be off this med. If they need to keep you longer they will. Thats why its best to take benzo only when needed not every day. I hope you feel better.

I think we are all waiting to see how it goes. Personally, I'm with the rest in that I don't understand why you don't just taper down slowly on your own. 5 to 4 is a pretty big drop at once. Right now I'm coming off Lorazapam by cutting up the tabs and going very slowly. So far so good. MsPickles78, good luck to you and be well. Keep us posted.

I agree Lauri. Most people have taken benzos. Think about it. You go to the dentist. He gives you one valium tab to relax you before some dental procedure but does not hand you a Rx of the same drug to take daily for years. The drugs are wonderful short-term, PRN. Severe panic and GAD can be crippling mental health disorders and once these things manifest in your life, they seem to become lifelong problems. It was thought when SSRI's hit the scene, these would be better long-term disorder management options for things like anxiety and depression and were thought to be generally non addictive like benzodiazepines. The SSRI's benefit some people with depression. They seldom work alone in people suffering with GAD and Panic and are usually always prescribed in conjunction with a benzo and the side effects profile can also be quite troublesome to many people, unlike benzos.

The real irony with benzos is that when one first begins to take them, they come virtually devoid of side effects except for things like drowsiness which is often a welcomed relief for anxiety sufferers anyway. But over time as the brain slowly gets use to the drug and the liver changes the way the drug is matabolized, tolerance slowly creeps in and you find yourself addicted to a drug many people consider worse that heroin in trying to come off. There is a forum I use to post in a longtime ago. I do not recall the name right offhand. The people who posted there were all addicted to a variety of substances, some legal Rx drugs from doctors, some illegal street drugs, and many people had a combo of the two.

The same question would often arise in forum threads. Out of all the addictive drugs, which is the hardest to detox and recover from and without fail, benzodiazepines were the worst drugs of them all. This was even coming from the hardcore heroin addicts. Many people can just never seem to feel better after they come off benzos, altho some do. I think a lot depends on what you began taking the drug for initially.

Post edited by: LostInCyberspace12, at: 05/11/2012 06:56 PM