Hello Hopefaith
What a great name for you and the issue you face. There is great hope of getting off Xanax and you can have faith that you can, indeed, do it. I did it few years back and am totally off of it with no cravings at all.
A looooong and slooooow taper is most successful and safest for the body and mind. I regimented myself into four doses a day. I was at 4 tabs of .5 each when I began. I dropped to 3 tabs a day initially and almost went out of my mind with panic, anxiety and some seizures. It was terrifying. I went back to my doctor.. with whom I worked throughout the taper constantly. ( I tapered first off Oxycodone and then the Xanax). That first drop in the Xanax which he had advised was way, wat too great a drop. Your doctor's worRAB about 100 doctors not knowing what to do with a Xanax taper ring pretty true.
I did a lot of online research about tapering off a benzo, including a lot of reading here on this board. I garnered the wisdom of others who had been down this road and it seemed that using the 10% rule made the most sense to me. This means to cut the total day's consumption by no more than 10% Each time I made a cut, I would stay at the new amount for at least two weeks before making another cut. I made sure that my body and brain leveled out enough to allow me to feel strong and stable before another cut was made. If I needed 3 weeks sometimes, no big deal. Making consistent and steady progress in keeping the cuts is the key.
It took me months to reach my goal... probably 6-8 months. In retrospect, I should have taken even more time. Truly. It is important not to get antsy to get done. At first, I was way too hard on myself trying to stick to a time schedule and made cuts a few times before I was ready. I learned to listen to my body more and gave myself time to let the anxiety abate before attempting the next cut. My doctor was great with me and worked with me all the way. His viewpoint was also not how quickly to get through it, but how successfuly. As long as progres was made, all was good.
As I moved along, I began to stretch the time until I took my first dose of the day. Eventually, I was able to corabine the second and third doses into one single dose. Then the middle dose and morning dose got corabined and so on.
Anyway, I am around so ask any questions if I can be of any help.
Most importantly, this can be done.
With hope always
reach
