tapering off zopiclone

Hi Robert,

I'm new to here, so I don't know if you are UK or not, but if so, you can change your NHS doctor whenever you like and you don't need to give any reason at all. You just ask to be taken on at the new surgery and fill a form in (just your details so that your records can be sent over.)

I'm aware this thread is old but it gets thrown up to my zopiclone tapering query so others will read it too.

I have been taking 7.5mg for several years but need to come off them because I now realise from doing plenty of research that it's not proper sleep that you get with them, it's closer to being knocked unconscious. I already have awful nightmares on them so I'm wondering if it will be worse for me coming off them, or easier.

I have a few Clonazepam left over from aeons ago so I'll eke them out to taper off.

I remember I saw someone on here suggesting reducing some nights and not others to start with, I think you'll find you'll get nowhere that way, you need to plan a constant dose followed by a slightly lower dose.

If it's practicable, I'd do it over no more than 3 weeks so that you don't develop a second addiction plus save a little of the valium back to have a very tiny amount for four or five days on top of the three weeks gradually reducing (3/4 then 1/2 then 1/4 of whatever your dose )

I will do it before my doctor suggests it as he is bound to soon. Very big hugs to anyone attempting to beat this nasty chemical.

Unless things have changed in very recent years, I suspect when you complete that form the new practice contacts your old practice.

Hi! I was so surprised to get a reply, that's really kind of you.

They only contact your old surgery to request that the notes are forwarded. Nothing personal is said and I have had the opportunity to see this for myself. The new doc knows where you have come from but not why. You don't have to tell him if he asks but being honest won't do any harm as it's all confidential. No-one should ever be concerned about changing doctors. I know it feels stressful but only until you've spoken to your new GO. If you have the choice, go for a surgery with several doctors so that you can find one you get on with.

The area that you can choose from has become quite small but if you're in a city, there will be a reasonable choice.

To the lady who previously asked if you have a right to be referred to someone to help you coming off, 100% no, this should be something you can sort out by talking with your GO but if they're not helpful, you could ask for a referral to a pain specialist or whoever you want but this is up to the GO, it's his/her budget and will only refer if it's necessary in their opinion. It can take many months though, to get an appointment.

This is a really great site and I'm so pleased I found it. The support is such a help, especially if there's no-one you can talk to about it.

I start my Zopiclone - monster challenge tonight :-)

So sorry, GO is GP. My phone is a bit of a rebel. :-) I can't see how to edit (on mobile Android)

I think some changes came in in January 2015, certainly, it seems relating to seeing a doctor in a different, possibly further away, area. The only evidence I can find now though of needing your previous doctor's consent is from a document called "Understanding the reforms... Choice and any qualified provider" by the BMA dated April 2013. To quote from it:

"... reforms aimed at providing patients with more information to facilitate a ‘real choice’ between GPs, allowing them to change GP “without any hindrance at all”,  and the introduction of GP fundholding ..."

My current greatest fear of changing my GP is if I moved to a different area and found one that thinks I'm better off going without a zopiclone and the sleep it provides, or one who thinks restless leg syndrome isn't a medical condition.

hi tammy

how did you find the tapering in the end?

how long was you on zoplicone for?

My experience from the dental sessions was that I sat in the dentist's almost as if it were the hairdresser's. However, the next day I scarcely bold enough to answer the front door. But I think that might have been coming back down from the dentist rather than drug withdrawal, since I didn't get quite like that after the double-glazing was installed.

I doubt you need be too surprised diazepam hasn't helped – nitrazepam is no longer strong enough to get me to sleep and that's a benzodiazepine used specifically for treating insomnia.

Are you aware of the term "paradoxical reaction"? If not, look it up – you'll find that it's often found with benzodiazepines.

As I understand it, Zopiclone is quite a clean drug and clears out of your system well and completely. I don't seem to have any withdrawal symptoms when I don't take them. The problem is, if I don't take one I almost certainly won't sleep or, if I do sleep, it will only be for a couple of hours, simple as that.

I feel sure I'd leave them in the drawer if I knew I didn't need them. To me, trying to deprive me of them would be like trying to stop the medication before the condition is cured – something scarcely practised in any other branch of medicine, I would have thought.

I was given nitrazepam (as Mogadon) on top of amitriptyline a few times in the early 1970's when I first moved away from home and was studying in a rather different environment than I was used. So none at all from 1972 until 1987 when I again got a prescription for nitrazepam since I wanted to go to London to take some tests for a job. So, from 1987 to the early 2000's I had a prescription for about 15 nitrazepam tablets, Zopiclone from the early 1990's, about every couple of years. That is, I took one on average about every 40 nights or so, which is somewhere around the average for someone not getting a proper night.

In 2002, the landlord for the property I was living in changed and I ended up with a deep-freezer running in a kitchen above my bedroom 24 hours a day with the tenant also taking in washing and starting the washing machine at 6am six mornings a week when it would vibrate the glass fittings in my en suite bathroom and the mirror in  my bedroom more loudly than about a dozen alarm clocks going off at once. The machine was not turned off again until about 11pm. At about the same time I got connected to the Internet and you no doubt know how easy it is to write something in a forum only to find out a number of people have spotted you made a bit of a silly mistake of some sort!

2½ years ago I was able to move to where I live now. I had thought I might be able to relax and sleep better again. It has not really been the case. I'm wondering if it will come with the years, whether I'm damaged for life, or whether increasing age will take its toll even if my original problem does eventually ease.

how are you getting on now?

I'm currently tapering down my dose by a quarter each week.

im currently on 3/4 of a 3.75mg tablet.

Still taking 7.5 mg every night. Very occasionally I manage to go a night or two without one, and I think it's three times since I started taking them regularly that I went without them predominantly for a few weeks. Each of these four occasions ended with some personally stressful experience: my mother had to go into hospital; my mother died; I was being sued; I had a bad vision drop (I have CNV/AMD in both eyes) and we were facing WWIII (February this year).

I find absolutely no addiction problems with them when I stop taking them (in a chemical sense, I suppose, I mean).

I need extra medication, either diazepam or extra zopiclone if I have any sort of appointment the next day, and more still for the dentist or eye hospital (intraocular injections).

The situation with getting prescriptions is very stressful, which maybe additionally isn't good for one's health, if it's not good for the stress on one's doc either. I'm not an alcoholic, I'm not a drug addict – I pay out too much for health supplements to have drugs pulling them back out of my body, and I've had to hand my driving licence in because of my eyesight, but I now get just one diazepam at a time if I ask for them (and consequently tend to take extra zopiclone). I think in circumstances like this, it should be possible for the patient to take full responsibility for the pills s/he takes with no possible comeback on the doctor.

With the appointments I've needed to keep, my reserve of zopiclone tablets is getting very low. If I don't get one of my spells being able to go without them, it will mean pleading for a few more from the doctor. If I do manage to go without them for a while, I'm hoping it won't end with me completely losing all central vision ... or maybe not waking up at all as a result of WWIII breaking out, or some more natural cause.

I'm not saying in any of this that tapering off doesn't help anyone, though I expect it will be when they haven't taken them terribly long, or for some largely psychological reasons.