Zopiclone and cocaine and alcohol abuse!

I really cannot comment on cocaine as i have never been there, but having been an alcoholic and now on codeine and zopies i guess i can kind of feel where you are at. All i can say is that coming off those things are going to be a B****** and i certainly feel for you coming off alcohol was definitely a B**** something i would not wish upon anyone, so all i can say is i wish you all the best for the New Year and please keep in touch let us know how you going with getting rid of those Demons all the best take care.

The good thing is that you have gone from 8 to 3 .Try to reduce the Zopiclone every three or four

days and start by taking 2 1/2.I know it is easier said than done.I am still trying,and sometimes it is really

difficult and it takes time,but eventually it can be possible.

I don't know about the other addictions,but I just feel that taking a bit less every few days would be a start.

Wish I could be more helpful,but do stay on this site as it is really supportive.

Aaron--that's a lot of zopiclone. How did you manage to cut down from 8 to 3? That's good that you cut it down--you must be really motivated. your zop use might be related to the effects of coke, if you get insomnia associated with coke. maybe cutting down coke would make going off zop easier. For me, the difficulty of going off zopiclone is mostly the problem of not sleeping, i'm so resistant to accepting that, but once i do, i know it will be OK, i hope. If you've cut back average daily use from 8 to 3, i would like to hear what effects you experienced from doing that. When you say you're badly addicted to Zoplclone, what do you mean? in what way? Do you take it mostly for sleep or do you take it for agitation and irritability, like, throughout the day?

Thanks for replies people :-) and support. Jaw I know it is an extreme amount if zopiclone! Im taking them at night for sleep only, I dont see the point in doing them during the day although I have done so, I've stopped taking cocaine :-) and eat well drink lots of water I get bad headaches since going from 8-3 and anxiety, mood swings I find a hot bath and meditation really helps when feeling like shit, I sometimes wonder how im still here the amount of drugs I have done at once on many occasions, I'm certainly not proud! I think it is all about understanding my addictive personality, zopis are definitely the most addictive drug I have ever used, I think its the sense of relief knowing I'll sleep when I've had them that makes me take them again, they are the devils drug and can rip your life to pieces if you let them, I'd never ever ever advise anyone to take zopiclone!!! Thanks guys :-(

Aaron.

I also take the Zopiclone just to get to sleep,as it is the only time I am anxiety free.

My main problem is fear that I will be taken ill and because I live alone,there will be no backup for me.

I have been taking them for far to long,and although the affects wear off and I don't feel groggy during the

day,I still feel unwell most of the time (panicky ,dizzy) and cannot function properly.Originally I swas told by my doctor that

they are not addictive.The doctors don't know what they are talking about.

I do know that it is still possible to get some sleep if you reduce the dose gradually.

Keep trying.

How much zopiclone do you take each night wendl, I think you should try meditation it works wonders it takes all anxiety away from me and helps focus, fear of ill health is what is driving me to quit drugs I was getting heart palpitations which have stopped after cutting down zops and stopping coke. Look into the effects zopiclone has on gaba receptors in the brain and eat plenty of bananas they repair some damage caused by zops and promote sleep, doctors dont care they're only there to make the drug companies money! I believe a healthy diet and will power will be my key to success im gonna try to sleep naturally tonight for the first time in 6 months, also is there a reason why you started taking zopiclone?

good luck with sleep tonight--to aaron and everyone. i've known for a long time, i'm not addicted to Z drugs, i'm addicted to sleep, and more to the point, addicted to having some control over it. i need to decide that the trade off between the control i get over sleep, when and how much, is not worth the price of poisoning my body and my life with the drugs. I see that, and am telling myself that i want to get through a week and a half family visit/house guests, which starts tonight, and then will be ready.

what Shiloh did is awesome, giving up the meds in the middle of such a visit. there are always stresses in life that i can use to justify continuing on the meds, but it's a matter of making a different choice. Wanting to sleep is only natural, but i'm making it into a much bigger thing than it is. the meds are not my friend. they're my enemy. The price of having some control over sleep is too high.

I'm happy to hear when people find that change in themselves. We're all changing to greater and lesser degrees. Everybody hang in there.

I started taking them many years ago as my life was in turmoil and I was emotionally in a very.bad way.

I am prescribed one 7.50 a night,but sometimes I cut it down to 3.75.If I try to get to sleep without taking

anyhing at all I get dreadful withdrawal symptoms especially hallucinations and palpitations,breathlessness,

and that is why I succumb and take a pill to get to sleep somewhat normally,although I know that I am not

getting the right kind of sleep.I do eat bananas each day.

I did manage to stop taking them for a few months and there was someone to monitor me,,but when I was

going through another traumatic period in my life I had to get some sleep and was prescribed them again.

Do let us know how you manage without taking anything

wendl--i feel for you, those symptoms are so bad. when you quit completely for a few months, how did you do that and what was it like? withdrawals? It sounds like having someone there with you made a big difference. I can understand that. It's good just that you take less some nights. But those symptoms are rough. i don't know what symptoms i'm going to get when i stop taking the z meds, maybe tapering, maybe not, depending on how it goes. i don't seem to get noticeable withdrawal symptoms during the day, or even late at night when i haven't had the meds since around 4am. So hopefully that's a sign that it will go as smoothly as can be expected. But if i knew that, i would've done it by now.

aaron--i used to do meditation and i agree, it helps so much. Even after i stopped, the effects stayed with me, it's changed me forever. I became addicted to valium, took it for 20 years for sleep, suddenly developed tolerance in 1993, dose increased, ran out of valium, went cold turkey. The withdrawals weren't too bad, 3rd and 4th day the worst and then, it dissipated, and that was one of the times in my life that i did some meditating. i was reading a book for Silva, i forgot his first name, called You The Healer, and he writes about training your mind to go to the alpha level, where you can bring your brain to have alpha brain waves, and that helped me a lot after i had gotten off the valium, to adjust to sleep without it. Recently i tried it, had to buy a new copy of the book because i lost the old one, i tried "going to alpha" when i would wake in the night, instead of taking more Z drugs, but i couldn't do it like i used to, and i think that's because then, i didn't have the drugs in my system. Now i do. But i think of that as something i can do as i get off them.

I'm interested in neurofeedback, a therapist trains you in how you can get into an alpha state, using biofeedback. I bought an Alpha-Stim which is a device that brings the brain to an alpha state with some kind of electronic stimulation but though i am buying it, on an installment plan, i haven't tried it yet, i'm afraid because i'm on so much medication, i don't think it can work, and i want to use it when i'm off or cutting down the meds, not while i'm still depending on them. I'm taking 7.5mg zopiclone and about 17mg of zolpidem a night, and then when i wake in the night, i wait 5 hours from when i took the bedtime dose and then i take another 10mg zolpidem or so. To me, this is really out of hand. I took zolpidem for years and never increased the dose, but in the past year, i've added zopiclone and the zolpidem dose is gradually increasing.

Another one of our forum friends, Dean, has an Alpha-Stim and he posted about how it's been working for him so far, in the past week. i hope to hear more from him.

Jaws.

It was so long ago when I stopped the pills that I cannot remember,but for myself I know that if I were not

living alone I would stand a better chance of stopping them.So frightened to do it alone incase of the

withdrawal symptoms

I shall be 71 tomorrow,and I feel as though I am running out of time,when it comes to living a Zopiclone free

life.have been taking them for around ten years.that is a lot of rubbish to get out of my system,but every so

often I manage to take a little less.

My friends are not at all understanding and tell me to take other medication for anxiety but I don't want to start taking any more medication or drugs for fear of side effects.

A vicious circle.Anyway being on this site is the most help I have had in years.

I gave in at midnight and had 3 I was getting bad withdrawal symptons :-(

Hi everyone, I am know off zopiclones :-) I cut back on zops, then introduced diazepam

Take away 10 mg zops but add 10mg diazepam but I added mirtazeime at the end of zopicloness to do the same with diazepams and ao far ive gone from o average 10 zopizlones a night to 90-135mg and feel like zopicloness steal peoples lives and shouldn't exist Good Luck

Aaron--happy to hear you are off zopiclone. i'm not sure i understand exactly what you did but i think you said you have substituted diazepam for the zopiclone and are preparing to taper off the diazepam. is that right? congratulations on your progress, that was a lot of zopiclone to be taking and now you're off--awesome.