How to detox from Xanax XR safely?

I take all these medications, as prescribed (most of the time I only take 1 adderall a day, occasionally 2, but rarely 3) and I still have severe anxiety and depression, still have racing thoughts, and heart palpitations, I am completely unmotivated to do much of anything, I rarely leave my house. The crazy thing is I am a very social person by nature so this is very abnormal for me. I got divorced 3 years ago(my choice).

I do not want to go back to my current psychiatrist, I am not comfortable with his ability to safely wean me off the medications. I can only go to the other psychiatrist once I’m weaned off or at least way down.

I do not want to have to be admitted to the hospital to be weaned off but that seems like the quickest, safest way. My insurance is really good right now. I pay a fortune for it but it covers most everything with little to no out of pocket expense. The problem is that it is December and Christmas is right around the corner. I don’t know where to go or what to do but I know I don’t want to be on all these medications the rest of my life and they don’t seem to be doing the best job helping me anyway.

I appreciate the comments already posted. They have been very helpful. I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how I should proceed.

My first step down on Saturday (I take my Xanax XR at night), I was all out of sorts. I really felt like I was losing my mind and questioned why I was going off the medication. My wife was my rock and kept encouraging me despite sleeping most of the day. I kept feeling my anxiety spinning out of control, had very little nausea for me, but was definitely depressed and irritable. It didn’t help that I was also experiencing jet lag like symptoms from working a very early and long irregular shift on Friday. Saturday I went to bed early and was able to sleep through the night. Saturday I did drive which I don’t recommend- but I also stayed busy by working on my car. I do remember staying busy as it is a healthy distraction.

The next day, I got plenty of steps in and stayed really active with cleaning the house. I also cut back to 2 hydoxyzine as I wanted to see if I was over tired. This seemed to help and I had 2 cups of coffee with my morning dose.

That night I was feeling much better despite Sunday being my worst night typically. I then went in to work and had an average week.

The next Friday night I took 1 mg and the next day I had no where near the same level of side effects as the first step down. My caffeine and hydroxyzine were the same as the previous week (2 cups of coffee and 2 doses). I found that I had just a touch of insomnia and a feeling of slight heart palpitations. I also found that I did have my sleep decrease and was waking up about an hour early without an alarm and a bit of racing thoughts. I did experience a few more upset stomachs this week and had to take some Zofran to help with my anxious stomach.

I’m still on this phase, but I’m confident that I’ll be good with the last two steps. I will say that I have not destroyed the IR pills that I have, but am confident that I’ll make it down the rest of the way.

Two things that people don’t say enough when talking about getting off Xanax, 1 don’t do it alone or in isolation. This med will mess with you - you didn’t ask for a hard medicine to get off of, but you’ve got it. This is a medical issue and you need 3 people to help you safely come off of it- your prescribing doctor or specialist, a quality pharmacist to inspect your doctor’s plan and expectation also to help set reasonable tolerances and help you make a weekend decision if you need to call the doctor. The final person you must have is an accountability person who ideally lives with you and you are okay with being 100% open about your anxiety and how you’re doing in a given moment. Hopefully, they have had seen you in a spin and can talk you down. There will need to be dialogue between you and your partner on a daily check in. Transparency and their awareness is key, they must be able to look at you and say that there is something off (I also recommend personally having a discussion with them ahead of time giving and letting them research as well & don’t forget to give them your doctor and pharmacist phone number and add them to your HIPPA so they can talk to them).

Some think a therapist is critical to this. I used one just for a quick touch base before starting the taper. She reminded me to stay grounded in my faith and assured me that my feelings were normal. I’m not under her care normally and use her only as needed.

My story is unique and please don’t use this except as your starting point to talk to your doctor. There is hope and in my case coming off of this med in XR form was much easier than it would have been in IR format. 8 years was definitely long enough on this med for me. I’m focusing on managing day to day anxiety and hopefully using more of a rescue approach rather than a long term med, but this will be with my doctor.

Hope you have a successful journey.