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coming off zopiclones

Posted , 4 users are following.

paul6567
paul6567

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

3 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Up_all_Night
    Up_all_Night paul6567

    Posted

    zopiclone should be used for short periods of time, I've also been taking these for many years 7.5mg They work very well for sleep problems, but you will get hooked on them very fast, As for diazepam there more like a chill pill, but like zopiclone you will get hooked on them also, mirtazapine is another story.

    This is what i'm on > Mirtazapine 45mg 2x Night > Zopiclone 7.5mg 2x Night > Risperidone 4mg Twice a day, And do they work smile No

    • jaw444
      jaw444 Up_all_Night

      Posted

      Up All Night - you are definitely right, diazapam is very addictive, in the same way as zopiclone. It might be more addictive than zopiclone.  I started taking diazapam for sleep in the mid 70s, taking it more over time.  In 1993, environmental conditions (noisy neighbors) led me to increase how much i was taking, which led to a complete tolerance for the medication so that it was having no effect on me at all, despite going up from 10mg to 30mg a night for a short time. Since that high dose didn't get me to sleep, i figured, what's the point?  so i just stopped taking it.  On the second day, i started having withdrawal symptoms and over the next day or two it got pretty intense. But i felt good about it because i knew being on a medication like that was bad for my health so i was happy to have stopped taking it and knowing i would never take it again. The withdrawals didn't last long at all, and were only bad for a couple of days, and not that bad, sleep was not so much but over time it gradually got better, but sometimes it would get worse, it wasn't exactly linear progress, and if i didn't get much sleep for three days in a row, i could get discouraged, and that led to my doctor prescribing zolpidem in 1993. I didn't take it very often at first but did continue it, just wanting to have that control over going to sleep, and by the time i finally got off it a couple of weeks ago, i was up to 27mg, almost three times the prescribed dose, and for a while, up until February, i had been taking zopiclone with it too.  And how did i get off of zolpidem,LOL!!!, my doctor switched me on to diazapam that i had gone off of in 1993 and was never going to take again.  But this time, it's medically supervised by an addiction medicine specialist who is helping me to taper off the diazapam, pretty quickly, and it won't be quick enough because while it makes me sleep good, it's not worth it because all day i feel groggy and drugged. I feel tired and like i can't do anything. The whole point of getting enough sleep is to feel good in the day time and to not feel tired and to feel like doing stuff.  So i don't have an attachment to diazapam this time, it's poison and i can't wait to put it behind me.  Whether i sleep or not, i am going to keep cutting it down and i will not increase it - EVER!!!   good luck to you!
  • jaw444
    jaw444 paul6567

    Posted

    hi paul - i hope you're doing ok.  almost two weeks ago, i went off 27mg of zolpidem a night, taking it continuously over about the last 20 years, though not that high of a dose. I went off the zolpidem by switching it with 10mg diazapam--it totally seemed to work, i had developed a really high tolerance for the zolpidem so that after taking 17mg ag bedtime, easily going to sleep on that, i would only sleep less than two hours.  i would wait until 5 hours after my bedtime dose and then take another 10mg of zolpidem (total for the night 27mg), easily go back to sleep--for less than a couple of hours. When i stopped the zolpidem and started the diazapam 10mg, i slept through the night, i slept well, it came on fast and i if i woke up during the night, i just went right back to sleep--like a normal person who doesn't have insomnia. But the price i have had to pay for that is that i'm quite hung over from it all day, which i was not from the zolpidem. I am in the process of tapering off the diazapam. Other drugs like mirtazapine are not for me. I don't need that much sleep. i'm going to adapt to however much sleep i get, it will be enough most of the time, i may take a zolpidem once in a while under extraordinary conditions, i will not start taking it every day--no no no, i've been through that movie before, i know how it turns out. Also, when i got into taking zolpidem regularly before, i was working full time vert demanding day job. Now i'm retired smile  There are things like neurofeedback i want to try, electro-cranial stimulation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and that's what i'm going to do.  A year and a half ago, i added zopiclone to the zolpidem i was taking, 7.5mg a night, so i was on both.  It was much worse, the side effects were worse, but i was afraid to stop because i wanted to sleep.  But finally, starting in January, i started tapering off the zopiclone. It wasn't that hard because, lol. i was still taking so much zolpidem, i didn't have a problem sleeping.  All that time i took the zopiclone and i didn't even need it.  sigh.  Anyway, where i'm at now is, i've been off zolpidem for 2 weeks, mostly, and on diazapam for 2 weeks. A few days ago i tapered down from 10mg to 9mg.  Full steam ahead.  ...  anyway, that's the plan.  good luck!
  • vivien58797
    vivien58797 paul6567

    Posted

    Hi. My GP has just refused to prescribe me any more Zopiclone. She said they are no longer allowed to prescribe the 7,5mg and instead has given me Mitrazipine 15mg. I am just hoping they work as not used to going without.  I am willing to give it a try as lower dose Zopiclone are virtually useless. How do you all manage to still get them from your GP`s?  Does anyone else have a good report about the Mitrazapine. If i dont get any sleep, hopefully i wont be too depressed about it.

     

    • jaw444
      jaw444 vivien58797

      Posted

      Hi Vivien. I'm in the US. i have read on line that research has shown that women have stronger effects on the Z drugs than men and should therefore be given lower dosages.  My understanding from what i read is that the US government agency (FDA) that regulates drugs sent out a recommendation that doctors consider prescribing lower dosages to women. i don't know if this has anything to do with what is happening to you, just an idea.

      My GP did not lower my dosages, he worked collaboratively with me. Personally, i don't really approve of taking a person off a medication abruptly, but replacing with another medication can be medically jusitfied.

      Two weeks ago tonight, an addiction medicine doctor i consulted with (not the GP who was prescribing my zopiclone and zolpidem) switched me off of zolipdem 27mg on to diazapam 10mg, and i experienced no noticeable withdrawal effects from the zolpidem. i

      had already tapered off the zopiclone 7.5mg in January & February, 1/4 pill at a time, without noticeable insomnia reaction, which no doubt was because i was still taking a high dose of the other sleep medication zolpidem.

      So i'm a believer in switching onto another sleep medication from experience, but i can't say anything about mirtazapine, i've never taken it, i have done some research on it it and decided not to try it as a substitution, but i can't say it wouldn't work. i have know a few people on this forum who have tried it. i think one was Drew, who we haven't heard from in a while, but he said it helped him with sleep. I don't remember if he went completely off the zop at that time, i think so.  

      I read that the action by which mirtazapine helps with sleep is antihistamine. For sleep, it is to be taken a lower doses, i think 15mg might have been the highest (same as your prescription), but you can google this.  

      Recently on these forums, a couple of people, Christian and Matrix, have said their doctors prescribed an anti histamine, Phenergan (which might be available over the counter) and both said it helped their sleep very much.

      My daughter takes an anti-histamine, Benadryl, for sleep and it's been reliable. She used to be on Zolpidem. She tapered off gradually.  So there is a lot of evidence that at low doses mirtazapine is helpful for sleep. 

      If you have trouble sleeping on the first night, that can certainly be depressing or anxiety causing.  The best thing i can do for myself if that happens is tell myself it's not as bad as  i think it is--i may be tired tomorrow but it's not a catastrophe, it's just annoying. And i remind myself that i tend to exaggerate my worries about not sleeping, but really it's not the end of the world.  

      One of the people taking Phenergan said he needed to take it 3 hours before going to bed because that's how long it takes to make him sleepy.

      You might try to google and find a discussion forum about mirtazapine where there are people who are using it for sleep. i read a lot of posts on one of those forums and some people said it really knocked them out and they slept like a log.  

      Some people said that lower than 15mg worked better for them, not as strong. 

      i really sympathize with you.  It's hard to be dependent on the medication and then suddenly stop it. But the good side of that, one of the good sides, is that you go through some withdrawal period, the worst might be the second and third day, and then you begin to heal and things improve, and you heal from having this not very healthty medication out of your system. It will be over, you will put it behind you.

      Or, if you are helped by mirtazapine on the first night, you won't have any insomnia symptoms.  you have to try it and find out. 

      stay in touch, if you can. i  would like to hear how you are doing and how you experience the mirtazapine. It may knock you out, or it may not, but if it doesn't work the first night, it may work better as the zop leaves your system.  

      Every 6  hours, half of the zop leaves your system, so if your last dose was 7.5, in 6 hours, 3.75 is left, and if you take no more, then in 6 more hours, half of 3.75 is left, and so on, so that it gets less and less at that rate.  That is a fast rate of elimination. Other drugs take much longer.  Valium takes 100 hours for half of it to go out, for example, though it's not exact.  So zopiclone is relatively short acting and relatively easy to go off of, but relatively easy doesn't mean easy.  How "easy" it will be will depend on each person and their circumstances.

      good luck, stay in touch

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