How long does Xanax stay in your system?
How long does Xanax stay in your system?
Question posted by jonalene on 15 June 2009
Last updated on 7 October 2020 by JerricaHall
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
12 Answers
Official Answer
Medically reviewed by Drugs.com. Last updated on Oct 22, 2020.
The mean plasma elimination half-life of Xanax is reported to be 11.2 hours. The full range is from 6.3 to 26.9 hours in healthy adults.
For a drug to be totally eliminated from your system it takes 5.5 times the half life.
If we take the maximum time of 26.9 hours times 5.5, it will be in your system for approximately 148 hours i.e. 6 days, after your final dose.
JerricaHall
7 Oct 2020
How long??
Shonda thorn
16 April 2019
7 days
NitroGlory
2 Nov 2017
Hello Hope this helps, okay so your gonna see tons of info to your question here on this forum and many others heres my experience.
On a Thursday I took one xanax , I got a call about a job offer i really wanted however per that jobs policy in driving no drugs prescribed or other wise are allowed , mine was legal Doctor backed and all that.
I had Thursday , Friday , Saturday , Sunday and Monday to get clean With todays drug screen advancements I took no chances .Stay off it , get cranberry juice and water , pee like a leaking pipe pee pee and more pee , then pee some more . too much water is bad becarful though. Tuesday took the pre and passed. Simple.
DogLoverInOhio
27 Nov 2018
Old thread but drinking water to speed up process doesn't work because water had nothing to do with Xanax elimination. It is fat soluble so you just have to let nature take it's course. Everyone is different due to weight, age, sex, amount, how you took..endless factors. The latest I've seen is 11 days later, it showed up in trace amounts.
Albear
1 Nov 2016
One week
masso
1 May 2016
Xanax has an elimination half-life that ranges from 9 hours to 16 hours in healthy adults.
This means that it will take most people within the span of 9 to 16 hours (post-ingestion) to eliminate 50% of the drug from their body. On average (among most users), the half-life of Xanax is around 12 hours. This means that most people will have fully eliminated (100%) the drug from their system within 4 days.
DzooBaby
13 March 2012
I take Xanax twice a year right before a dental appt so I know exactly what day I took the medicine and how much I took. I took ONE 0.5mg dose of Xanax and had it show up on a pre-employment drug screen 6 WEEKS later so it can be detected in the urine a long time. It may not be acting on your system for that long but it can show up in urine for a long time after you take it. I'm NOT a chronic user as I take one or maybe two the same day as my dental appts twice a year and that is it. If you are asking because of a drug screen, I wouldnt take it for at least two months before you do a clean UDS free of Xanax metabolites.
darkangel11
14 March 2012
Have you taken any other meds such as antibiotics before the drug test? Some meds can slow down the benzo elimination process.
sshirley1
22 May 2013
I had anxiety issues since puberty. My hands would always shake. When I was first in my fifties I was prescribed 4 of the same type of drugs. All of them made me want to sleep about 14 hours a day. Xanax was the last and worst one. I only took 1 mg pill. Besides being tired, my brain was so foggy i could not function for sevearl days at work. I lost my job. The foggy ness went away after a couple of weeks. The tiredness did not. A couple years later my son was diag nosed with ADHD and was prescribed adderall. I went to the same therapist and convinced him to prescribe me the adderall. I have been on it for about six years. My hands no longer shake. It helps me with the wanting to sleep 14 hours a day. My anxiety is much less. I do have to be careful how much I take. Too little, no help with wanting to sleep, too much and it actually causes me anxiety. somwhere between 22 mg is 30 mg is what works once in the morning.
I start with about 22 mg from a 30 mg pill and if I need more in a day I take the other part. I think we are different how we react to medications that trials can't be large enough to give all the possibilities. I don't think I am addicted. Some days I don't take any. All that happens that I can tell is I want to sleep 12 to 14 hours a day. My hands do not shake when I am off a day or 2. That is the longest I go. I can't get much done sleeping that long every day. I'm not advociting this would work for everyone. It is considered a class 2 drug. My regular doctor will not prescribe it to me.It took like 4 trips to the therapist to get him to prescribe it. A positive side affect for me is my brain seems to work better than ever before. I am posting this that it may help someone else. Apparantly adderall may affect others in negative ways. In my opinion only we as the patient can make the determination if the positives outway the negatives. Xanax may help some, but it screwed up my life till I found the adderall. I am now 61 and retired. Had I had the adderall earlier in life and it stopped the anxiety then, I could have done so much more.
Over-prescribed
26 June 2013
I realize I need serious help with my medication. I take 450mg of Wellbutrin XL a day, 100 mg of Pristiq ER, 4mg of Xanax and 4mg of Klonopin all daily. I have been on the meds at these doses for years other than the Pristiq which was a replacement for the max daily dose of Paxil after many years. I don't feel like the Xanax or Klonopin do anything but prevent withdrawal symptoms if I stop. I have unsuccessfully tried to reduce the two so I quit cold turkey and thought I was going to have a stroke by the fourth day and my husband read that it was dangerous to quit like that so I started taking it last night and still am worried about my headache and tremors and heart and shoulder pain. I have battled depression and anxiety since I was 27 and am now 43. I don't feel like I have ever had results from the dozens of meds I have tried. This has all been through my GP. I need advise on what kind of doctor to see and what to do.
I am not tired due to the high doses of medication and function well at work but after a 10 to 12 hour day I sometimes struggle as a wife and mother of two teenagers. I help with homework and their after school activities but don't cook or clean well anymore. My husband is frustrated with me and that makes me more anxious so I take extra Klonopin or Xanax when we have to go on a cleaning and laundry spree to get caught up. I don't know that I am living life. I need help with all these meds but don't know where to go.
darkangel11
12 March 2012
To be on the safe side, give it 3 weeks before getting tested (urine test).
themikester
29 Jan 2012
On the question of Xanax taken with Suboxone. These two drugs should never be taken together. They create a synergistic effect that increases the potency of each medication. Suboxone does not block the effects of Xanax. They work on two totally different parts of the brain. Taken together than can cause you to stop breathing. So you won't even know you are dying. I know this from personal experience. Thanks to the help of God and a very special group of people, I don't choose to do that today... and that, in itself, is a miracle.
Pillzard_1990
16 July 2010
Now I know that all of these answers may be true, and I'm young but i've done plenty of research and where most people and websites even say that it stays in your system for 3-6 days.. Some health care professionals say it can stay in your system if abused over a long period of time for 30-60 days. Only reason I know this is because I was being treated with Suboxone at a clinic. At this clinic we were drug tested every time we came in to see the doctor. They can't stress enough how dangerous any benzodiazepine combined with any opiate, especially with suboxone can be. It can be DEADLY! Despite that, after I started going to the clinic I stopped using xanax completely, I never used any benzo's at all during treatment. Now this is where I say these answers can be wrong... When I first started to see my doctor my drug screenings came back positive for Benzodiazepine for 40 days into the treatment.
At the clinic I went to they used a dip stick drug test for immediate results and then the urine sample was shipped off to a lab for final results and toxin levels.So whether or not the benzo's stayed in my system that long or not is on my medical records there. But I believe that my answer should definitley be taken into consideration.
penny12
23 Aug 2010
can a person take suboxen and xanaxs' on the same days just different times
krissa
30 Nov 2010
xanax and suboxone go to the same part of the brain that is called ''the pleasure center.If the sub gets there first it will block the effects of xanax.
As well the reverse is true xanax will decrease the effects of suboxone.So since suboxone only lasts 24 hrs I take the sub in the AM and wait as long as possible to take xanax,late afternoon or bedtime for the best results.If your dr did not advise you on this matter ask!If you are doing this on your own you are playing Russian Roulette.
dianes51
5 Feb 2011
I have been a methodone clinc for four years , and have been on xanax 5mg. for two years. These last two years I have been trying to detox and could never get down under 54 mg. , much to my surprise my family doctor informed me that xanax makes the methodone stronger when taken together. Many people have died taking this combination . Xanax when taking more than prescribed affects your memory to the point that you remember nothing. Several times , I have taken so many xanax while I was also on methodone and when I was sane again , I realized that five to eight hours had passed . I did this more times than I can count and am lucky that I am still alive. It amazes me that only one clinc in the state of michigan is even aware of the dangers. I plan to inform the state officals plus every clinc located in michigan so please take heed to what I am saying getting high is not worth dying I am 59 years old and have been getting high since I was 19 if you have any doubt ask your doctor. I will pray for everybody involved wth this that they heed my warning. God Bless You
themikester
29 Jan 2012
Krissa, I'm sorry, but I am afraid you don't know what you are talking about. Xanax and Suboxone(buprenorphine and naloxone) work on two completely different areas of the brain. Suboxone only blocks opiates and synthetic opiates, not benzodiazepines. Which is what Xanax is. They actually create a synergistic effect that can increase the potency of both medicines which may cause one to stop breathing. I agree, it is like playing Russian Roulette. However, I wish people wouldn't answer things they are not sure of.
88BaDFiSH88
26 Feb 2012
although taking these two simultaneously is like playing Russian roulette, you obviously have only heard of these drugs, because if you did know anything about them, you wouldn't have said they affect the same part of the brain. Suboxone is an opioid(half agonist to be specific), and xanax is from a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. These two are in no part similar as far as acting points in the brain. The drug you are ignorantly identifying is called naltrexone, and it is similar to naloxone, which is found in suboxone, but naloxone allows some opioid activity, where naltrexone blocks the entirety of the pleasure center, making it impossible to successfully abuse any substance and get high.
Taking xanax in conjunction with buprenorphine,(the actual narcotic contained in the two-part suboxone), could absolutely cause respiratory failure! Very few good doctors prescribe a benzo with an opioid of this strength, simply because it is dangerous, very dangerous! As a matter of fact its safe to say that only a wreckless, careless, foolish doctor would prescribe xanax to an individual being treated for opiate addiction, simply due to the addictive nature of the patient and their history of excessive over indulgence. Only under strict supervision should this be allowed. Now, an answer for the original question at hand. xanax, in patients of normal liver and kidney function, should not be traceable after 6 days tops, but in most people 3-4. In patients with abnormal function, xanax could actually be untraceable in 1-2 days after use, or as long as 3 weeks have been documented. Keep in mind abnormal function in these Instances. 72-144 hours. As for the man that mentioned showing positive on a stick test for 60 days, either you don't have a liver, or you were showing a false positive. Some drugs, trazadone for instance, give false positives for benzos. If in any event you test positive for something you haven't taken, be sure your physician knows exactly what you're taking, b/c it could be something as simple as a false positive.
Bella886
24 March 2012
To "penny12"- NO you can't take Xanax and suboxone together ever! Because if you r on suboxone treatment they do drug test you and if you r positive for Xanax, or as they r referred to as "benzo's", you could get your suboxone taken away from you and kicked out of the program.
hardfi
11 July 2010
Sorry, took some today. This happens to be the hardest narcotic to recover from. Every time you urinate (sorry, I know that is disgusting), you only release 1% from your system so if you are asking because of a UA, I strongly recommend you take as little as 1 mg and a half because that's the only way it won't show up in 4 days. Its an ugly addition, unfortunately it is the only drug that makes life livable sometimes. I would have been dead if I hadn't stayed with them for seven years.
oxyaaron
16 Dec 2010
xanax is not a narcotic.
bentherebefore
23 May 2017
Thats kind of funny i thought the dea classified xanax as a narcotic???
RNMegD
28 Nov 2017
Xanax is a benzodiazepine, which, though not a narcotic, is a controlled substance.
Beffie80
24 May 2018
Xanax is definitely a narcotic, I went to jail for possession of it, felony charges!! They are benzodiazepines.
shanonb
5 June 2019
It’s not a narcotic.
sotjwaslike
15 June 2009
24-72 hours
randyburk
12 Oct 2011
I have heard the withdrawal sypmtoms peak after 72 hours but the lingering
detox symptoms could take months. I hope not.
I have been off xanax for a week now. Very low dosage for about 5 years.
I would have tried to get off of it along time ago if I knew how addtive it was.
I don't crave it, I am actually angry of how it affected me and how it
is trying to hang on with, insomnia, nervous tremors, and the feeling I am going to jump out of my skin. The symptoms appear to be gettting better.
I am not trying to discourage anyone from taking xanax. I believe now that it could have been more helpful in the short term if I had gotten
professional help for my panic attacks and anxiety. Please do the research and see what the pros and cons are for its continued used. thanks
JeffreyMaurer
10 Dec 2011
I too was taking xanax for many years,at a relatively low dose at first. I definately agree with you sotjwaslike I had know idea just how addictive it was until I quit taking it. The withdrawal symptoms lasted 15 to 20 days for me and it was terrible,I had and tremors hot and cold flashes and twitched constantly. It literally felt like I was coming out of my skin. If you have been prescribed xanax and its working for you just be careful it is highly addictive. Not trying to discourage anyone just be careful.
tjiacik
1 Sep 2016
It's been awhile since I have read any of the Q&A on this website but I did today & I was glad tsee that the answers are more detailed now & more helpful. I thought Randy and Jeffrey had great replies, I like that they make sure readers would understand that was their experience with Xanax, it's different for everyone! they never said don't take Xanax. It can and does work for some people, others it doesn't. I feel what they listed are things we should be asking and talking to our DR'S about before taking any new Medication! Thanks Jeffrey and Randy for taking the time to answer how long does Xanax stay in your system! It actually answered some other questions for me!
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