Self-Medicating with Alprazolam after GHB addiction

[KaizenLifeImprove]

So here is the story.. SWIM has been GHB user for more then 1.5 year, 90% of the time 24/7. A month ago things totally spun out of control and he went into heavy rehab, on his own, supported with phenibut and xanax and slowly but surely getting back to normal (started 3wks ago). He almost hits 10 days of totally being clean now, but still uses the xanax daily.. on which he has some questions.

Now SWIMs doc knows his GHB addiction for months already. He sort of has a deal with the doc that he gets 2mg a day for sleep. So far SWIM has taken this subscription 3 times (45mg / time) every month. SWIM hasnt used all of the xanax, he has 65mg left.

Today SWIM was worried he might be 'addicted' to Xanax because he takes 1x .5mg & 1x .25/.5 per day to feel relaxed & ok to function. But to his 'relieve' this seems like a light dose when I look at recommended dosage for Anxiety Disorder. Btw this is no doc advise, SWIM does it on his own 'feel'.

Now then, SWIM wanted to goto the doc and take himself of the subscription and ask for a Valium taper program. But he now doubts if that's a wise thing to do. SWIM does not want to have benzo's long in his body. When he wants to use Benzo's he wants them to work quick, effective and not too long. Xanax seems perfect for that.

After this story SWIM has 2 questions:
The Valium subscription is not needed for 'tapering' purpose right, and SWIM better be off not fooling around with too long working benzo's?
When should SWIM look out with self-medicating with Xanax, what dosage levels / usage times&frequencies?

Bonus question: Would SWIY get another 45mg subscription of Xanax (Doc thinks SWIM took 1mg/day last month instead of 2mg/day) and then stop subscription?

[30dy]

bump... my buddy Fred is interested in your questions as well. He is considering using xanax to get off the G. pretty much in the same boat swiy were.

[Ilsa]

xanax (alprazolam) is, in my cat's opinion, one of the less effective benzodiazepines....this is just her opinion and experience with them. she's never been addicted to GHB, but has been on almost every benzo on the market, just due to the medication-tweaking process that is american psychiatry. she has found that benzo's with longer helf-lives, like klonopin, are relatively easy (and in her experience MUCH easier than xanax) to taper off with. perhaps the doc can prescribe something with a longer half-life and fewer potentially harrowing side effects. good luck!

[missparkles]

It might be easier for swiy to be honest with the doctor. This has three major benefits, as swim sees it.
Firstly, getting the right drug for this particular problem, secondly, if swiy is struggling at any point the doctor can refer swiy to other services, or even slow down the reduction. Thirdly, self medicating to get off one substance (benzo's are also addictive) can be dangerous if swiy doesn't know exactly what they're doing.
But swim wishes you luck with quitting.

[malsat]

Diazepam or chlordiazepoxide will be much better for tapering off than staying with the xanax. Any benzo discontinuation is usually done/switched over to a long half life benzo such as those mentioned. Hope SWIy is doing well.

GHB addiction posts should probably be directed to the GHB forum rather than the downers addiction forum as we have more people with knowledge specific to G addiction in our forum, I imagine, and thus can offer much more targeted help. Unless any mods have a problem with that.

malsat added 37 Minutes and 59 Seconds later...

In fact if this forum gets much GHB addiction traffic perhaps the mods would consider a sticky directing G addicts to the G forum? Forgive my presumptiveness, but I really do believe we can offer more help in the G forum, at least from a medical perspective. SWIM does not visit the downers addiction forum often and so cannot offer much help to any G addicts who choose to seek help in this forum.

edit:^^ I shouldn't be allowed to post when drunk... hope I didn't sound like a complete asshole.....

[superZi]

swim has beed addicted to gbl before and always finds it hard to retain from 24 usage wich causes horrific wd's.Swim still has psychological dependancy on gbl but has found out that combining benzos and gbl on daily basis wont get swim to physical hook.dosage as follows:
1.5ml breakfast
1.5ml meal
2ml when swim wants to chill out before going to bed maybe 0,5ml boost
then wait 3-4hrs after last dose and take your sleeping benzos and you can sleep without gbl and wont get physical hook,so youre basically treating anxiety with gbl/ghb withotu getting any withdrawals you would get from benzos.This gives swim a feeling of being in control of usage and can take days of from gbl when wanting.
Swim has noticed some wd like feelings when waking up dont know if its from the benzos he takes to sleep of from the gbl he has took 12hrs ago mostly sweaty hands and anxiety nothing serious.