Xanax

I was put on Xanax in 1987.   It was supposed to take the edge of panic attacks until I could seek therapeutic help.  I have been on it for over twenty years but I've since learned that one should not take Xanax for more than a few weeks.  After that time, either therapy should have taken effect or another medication be used. The new medication should be begun, hopefully,  with fewer side effects and lesser chance of addiction. Here I am, more than a couple decades later, weaning off Xanax.  I've weaned from .5 four times a day to a half tablet of .25 taken twice a day.   All of this has taken a couple of years.  I have to cut it down a half tablet at a time, wait for the effects of that weaning to cease and do it again.   It's a slow process, not helped by life's crises.   I suspect I should be down to .125 mg at bedtime by mid-summer and off Xanax by the end of summer or early Winter 2012.   I feel for anyone put on Xanax and not removed in short order.  Substituting Klonopin or Activan for Xanax is no substitution either.  Ativan is stronger than Xanax and Klonopin lasts longer in the blood stream.  Make no mistake about it, Ativan and Klonopin are addictive as well.