Hello group. I am new here. Found you desperately searching for help. I have been on xanax for 20 years. Started at .25mg twice a day and worked up to 4 mg a day for anxiety and panic disorder. Well I have been at 4 mg for 5 years and little did I know, or never was told that I would hit a tolerance, and wow wee. I am having horrible tolerance w/d. So I went to dr. and they switched me to 4mg xanax xr. I quit xanax IR cold turkey and just took 3mg of xr in the morning and 1mg xr at bedtime. This is not working well at all for me. Does it take time to build up in your system? I was having interdose w/d in the reg xanax so they thought xr would be better. It has put me into severe w/d so bad I am pleading with my husband to let me end this nightmare. NO ONE should have to live like this. So i decided, until I can get to my dr on thursday, that I am taking the xr with like .5 mg reg xanax to remain comfortable and sane. I have been in the xr for a week. 20 years of this and no one ever told me I would end up in this position. I was laying on the kitchen floor screaming and crying to my husband and praying to GOD to take it all away. I was dizzy, numb face, foggy brain zaps, muscle twitches, bp and pulse sky high, irritable, anxious, senses were heigteded, vommiting, it was horrific. I had to take two .5 mg reg xanax to calm me down. I have bever abused xanax, just used as prescribed. Now I am scared to death that the xr is not going to work for me, and if it don't, I dont know what to do. The regular xanax used to give me like 6 hours relief, now its like and hour or two, after 20 years. And to come off this stuff is barbaric. I am just looking for some input on switching to the xr, if it will get better, and do people still need the reg xanax sometimes or will the xr eventualy be enough. i am so sad, and confused, and a mother of 5, that if it wasnt for them, I would be out of here. Thanks for listening. Scared to death here.
Sincerely