<s>[INST] I have been on Xanax 1mg twice a day since March of last year and I am wanting to get off it and get on something more effective with less side effects and no withdrawal syndrome when I stop taking it. Several years ago when my father passed away I was put on Xanax and was up to 5mg a day for almost 5 years. Lost my health insurance and the health dept wouldn t prescribe me Xanax even to be gradually taken off of it, this led to me getting cut off cold turkey and I went through the worst withdrawals that I didn t know existed until afterwards when I looked up Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome and found out that them making me stop cold turkey could have killed me (and trust me, it felt like I was literally dying by day 3). Against my better judgement last year I started taking them again, this time 1mg twice a day. Then I ran out of my script before a holiday weekend and ended up in the hospital because by day two I already felt the withdrawal symptoms coming on and didn t want to go through that again. After that weekend I went back to the doctor and got my script. I ve been thinking about this long and hard and I don t want to be on Benzodiazepines at all anymore, they are way to dangerous in my opinion. So here s my question (2 actually)....1) what kind of taper off Xanax plan works the best without any of the withdrawal symptoms and 2) what medications could I be taking alternatively to help with my moderate anxiety, maybe one that can even address my mild to severe depression episodes (which I ve been dealing with both anxiety and depression since puberty). Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide before I make an appointment with my doctor to proceed with benzodiazepine taper and getting on something else less dangerous as far as addiction and withdrawals are concerned. [/INST] Hello and Welcome to ‘Ask A Doctor’ service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice. Weaning off from Xanax is not a tough thing and the withdrawal symptoms are minimal with twice daily. You can talk to your psychiatrist regarding this and he can help you. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. K. V. Anand </s>