Benzo Detox / Snorting 3/2mg Xanax per Day

[logwash]

SWIM passed on the following message....

Hello. My I would appreciate some help in regards to detoxifying myself from sniffing 3/2mg Xanax bars per day for about a month. I am curious if tapering orally might be effective. I no longer want to abuse the Xanax but simply am not sure of a safe way to reduce my dosage. Thanks in advance.

Logwash

[gundrun]

well logwash, I am not certain of anything. But i don't belive xanax is water soluble. Unless a drug is water solubile say like heroin or cocaine I don't think sniffing it would be very effective. so I doubt you were getting any additive effects from " sniffing" it. In fact maybe less than just swallowing it. It seems to me that the xanax probably had to make its way to your stomache before it could be utilized. Like I said i am not very knowledgeable sinece I have never taken xanax nasally. I never thought that xanax could be absorbed through the mucus membrane. I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong! If I am right you should have no unusual problem tapering off the X by taking it orally.

gundrun

[Uncle Getafix]

SWIM would stop snorting those bad boys and start taking them orally as it will give you a feeling of being "responsible", and not just getting wasted on them.

SWIY has picked the right time to come off. Tolerance builds rapidly on benzos after 2 weeks. Normally(SWIMS been there), SWIM would say after one month of benzo use SWIY should be pretty sweet to do a taper off the Xanax.

However, thats a fuckload of Xanax to be taking daily so I would NOT cold turkey it or boy you will feel it(along with risk of seizure and death etc).

My kitten reckons to decide whether to taper off Xanax or switch to diazepam and taper. if it was a long term habit, say a year, then a switch to diazepam and Ashton taper would be the answer. With a month under your belt, solid use, you may well be able to just reduce the dose daily staying on Xanax.

Cute kitten reckons keep busy and focused on something else, I am not sure if SWIY smokes high grade weed but that is a great substitute as far as sedation goes. Its not really an option unless SWIY is an experienced smoker tho, can cause paranoia etc.

I think I'm going to run with the creative writing, SWIM just feels impersonal.

Be glad its a month and not a year of that level of use dude, it can be very painful and nasty. Good on SWIY for snapping it at a month. Best of luck.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good advice warning of risks to watch for.

[humdroid]

Whilst waiting for someone more expert to come along, Y can tell you what he knows.
Xanax, being a short acting benzodiazapine, may be dangerous to detox from, as the withdrawals, in the worse case scenario, can cause seizures and can even be life threatening.
Don't let this scare you though. Valium is a longer acting benzodiazapine, with a longer half life, so, instead of detoxong off xanax, and putting yourself at risk, you could cross over to diazepam (valium) and then, slowly taper off to detox.
Y had a google, and came across the BENZODIAZAPINE EQUIVALENCE TABLE (see below)



From the above table, you will see that 0.5mg is the equivalent to 10mg of valium (diazepam)

From Your message, Y is not clear how much Xanax you are on a day. He took it to read 3.5mg xanax.
If Y read it correctly, this would be the equivalent to 70mg of valium (diazepam)
As this is a lot of benzo, in Y's humble opinion, he would suggest you cross over to diazepam, and arrange a slow taper schedule.
There are a few people on here who do taper schedules, you could request one. Definitely, do not withdraw abruptly from xanax though, due to the risk of harm.
I would also keep in close liaison with your GP/prescribing doctor.
Some people find that a course of antidepressants help but it is best to go on these in the early stages.

humdroid added 5 Minutes and 19 Seconds later...

p.s. Y had a quick look online and there are mixed opinions as to whether snorted xanax works.
Y never snorted benzos but some other types of stuff went up his nose, and very often, part of it would trickle down his throat to his stomach.
Y's guess is that even if xanax didnt work snorted, some would have trickled down to the stomach, so careful advice should always be sought.

[OsCarwild]

Benzos change the effects of GABA amounts in the body. This means that when taken over a long duration of time, they make the body produce less GABA. Quitting cold turkey causes the body to still be producing the low amount of GABA without getting any more from the outside (the xanax). This can be very painful and dangerous, with the possibilities of seizure and death (as swimmers have mentioned above). Because of these facts DO NOT attempt to go cold turkey or the outcome could be very bad. Tapering down and substituting drugs would both be good ideas... Xanax has a relatively low half life (roughly 6 to 12 hours), switching to one with a longer half life such as diazepam (valium), which has a half life of 20 to 100 hours would allow SWIY to go even longer between doses while still being safe. And yes, do switch from snorting to swallowing. Also, if SWIY wants to be extra safe, whenever they do wind up stopping completely, or get their dosage down to nearly nothing, trying to find an anti seizure medicine such as phenobarbital to take for a short amount of time would be one more safety precaution to take. Hope this was helpful. SWIY should be fine, good luck.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good advice.

[malsat]

Luckily a month is not that long. SWIM has taken ~300mg alprazolam(xanax) in a 3 week period and stopped cold turkey with the use of G for 1 week, then taken diazepam to treat the G WD's and come clean without any problems. This is only one person's experience and YMMV, but the point is WD's should not be *too* severe after that dosage and that amount of time.

Hopefully SWIY can get diazepam, chlordiazepoxide or phenibut. Any of those 3 would make the WD's easy IMO. If going cold turkey, SWIM would expect the WD's to last no more than 2 weeks total, which is no time at all by benzo WD standards. Again, this is only SWIM's experience and YMMV.

My whole point being that SWIY does not need to be *too* worried about what they are facing. With the right treatment this should be a walk in the park. That 300mg/3 weeks was the easiest physical dependence SWIM ever overcame. Beware of substituting one dependence for another though.