My experience of zopiclone (down the rabbit hole)

Jaw/Collete--thankyou both for your words of encouragement-I have gone 4 nights now and sleeping a bit more every night-I did cold turkey on alcohol 30 years ago and cigarettes 10 years ago-so it seems cold turkey works better for me-I am off work for another 10 days on stress leave-hoping when I go back to stressful job I will cope better than I was-I have fibromyalgia and wonder if this was making the aching all over worse-time will tell I guess-my new Dr said that it should never be licenced for more than 30 days because of the dangers-honestly I feel ashamed that I never Thiught it was bad as previous doctor never questioned it and kept on prescibing-I blame myself for not doing more research-I keep saying the Serenity prayer to keep me going and following now this site-will keep you posted!!

hey everybody---just want to share that last night for the first time, i only took a half a pill. I've been on 3/4 for a while, i think over a month. i tried cutting down to 1/2 after the first couple of weeks but didn't fall asleep (on the substantial dose of zolpidem i also take) so chickened out and have continued to take 3/4 ever since--until last night. i was just feeling so down and frustrated about being stuck and not making progress, i made it over that line where nothing was as important to me as cutting down the amount of medication and getting closer to my goal of being off it. i was prepared to stay up all night.

i would not mind staying up all night at any point if i was just on the one medication, but i've been having a problem with accepting that i could take as much of the zolpidem as i'm taking and not sleep. But last night i didn't care, i hoped to sleep but it wasn't a deal breaker.

Almost every night around 4 or 5am, i take a second dose of zolpidem in order to get back to sleep, so i planned on just staying up until that time (5 hours after the first dose is my rule, it has prevented tolerance). when i took the 1/2 zopiclone, i took a bigger amount of the zolpidem, and i did go to sleep--i think for about an hour and a half. Then i think i was awake until 4:30 when i took the second dose of zolpidem. i didn't get up during that time, i laid quietly in the dark. After taking the zolpidem at 4:30, i went back to sleep and slept til about 6 and then laid in bed for a couple more hours and am not sure if i got any more sleep, but i got up happy because i cut the zopiclone down another notch.

My goal is to get completely off it, and then deal with zolpidem, that sounds so much easier to me to only have one sleeping medication to get off of. No more weird looks at the pharmacy because i'm getting both kinds--as far as i can tell, there's virtually no one else but me who does this, i've googled it a lot, can't find any stories of anyone else, though i've found some people who have been on benzos and zopiclone or zolpidem. But not both zopiclone and zolpidem.

i have felt good all day, not really tired, although i didn't push it, i took it easy and didn't do a couple of things that required effort. But i'm in a really good mood. i think that my head is not as murky as it usually is. I think the less zopiclone, probably the less murky, although i have to give zolpidem some of the blame for murkiness, but i think before i added the zopiclone, i was not as murky and i didn't get those weird dreamlike bizarre confused wakeful states that i've been getting since i started the zopiclone. That's the worst of all the symptoms for me.

Anyway, i am celebrating less zopiclone and plan to get off it completely, i hope i can do it before next month and won't need any more prescriptions for it.

mary---i'm happy to hear that you are off the medication and going through the process, and you are not putting it into your body anymore. how is it going? i always went cold turkey off things before this. It's a long story on how i got diverted from my purpose, but a big part of it is that i was just on zolpidem for years and years, and i was going to quit when i retired from my job which i did last year in january, but about 4 months before i retired, i switched part of the zolpidem i was taking (extended release) for zopiclone. Later, i added the extended release zolpidem back in without removing the zopiclone. i also take regular zolpidem. not extended release.

i didn't think about there being any problem from adding zopliclone in, i thought of it as a weak drug, and i thought it would be easy to just stop taking it. But when the time came to do it, i was confused by being on two medications, should i quit both at once, should i do one at a time?

and the other big piece of how i got off track from quitting was that i googled the subject, hoping to find out what other people do if they have two medications, and i ended up on a website mostly dealing with benzodiazapine withdrawal, but also addressing the "z drugs," like zolpidem and zopiclone to a lesser extent, and what i read in those forums was very scary to me, it made withdrawal sound like the most scary thing in the world, at least to me. Most people there characterize going cold turkey as equivalent to chopping your leg off, a really reckless dangerous and harmful thing to do, with some people telling horror stories of how they attempted "rapid withdrawal" or cold turkey, and ended up with something called "protracted withdrawal syndrome." it really scared me, that i might do myself some kind of damage and make my problem worse, like some of the people who shared their experiences. i got really stuck after that.

By "rapid withdrawal," those guys meant tapering too fast, like 1/4 pill every couple of weeks is considered rapid. Many people there believe the best most healthy way to withdraw is "titration,' which involves getting the medication in liquid form and cutting it down by no more than 10% of the dose, or less, and waiting at least 3 weeks, but erring on the side of caution, and it seems the norm for withdrawing in this way is like a year, or more, a really long time. It is the best way for some people, it seems, it's very gentle by only cutting such a small amount, the purpose of being so gradual is to avoid any symptoms if possible, although the practioners of the method all say that you will always get some symptoms. Anyway, this is apparently a good method for some people, but i could not imagine it. So then, it seemed i had no choice at all, no cold turkey, no "rapid taper," and no year long gradual titration. That's a big part of how i got stuck. At least that part of me that didn't want to quit and give up sleep anyway got very frightened by the stories of "protracted withdrawal syndrome."

Finding this discussion forum has helped me so much.

It's great that you have 10 days sick leave, i bet that's enough. When i went cold turkey off of Valium after taking it for years and years and being up to 3X the prescribed dose, with tolerance, i had two weeks vacation from work and it was plenty of time. By the time i went back to work, i was done with withdrawal, it was behind me and i was feeling better than i felt in years, i started gradually being able to remember people's names and remember where i put things. It was a great time of my life. I didn't sleep consistently, but it was worth it.

i know what it's like to blame myself for this mess i've gotten into, but when you blame yourself, i want to say, hey, it's not your fault, we all have some good reasons for why we take the medication, there are some real problems that the medicine becomes seemingly the only solution for, so it's only natural to try to make it work.

Anyway, you are off it now, live and learn, right? how are you doing?

hey, i am just checking in. i have been taking 1/2 tablet of zopiclone for 4 nights. i feel as though that is that, i will not be going back up for any reason. I still have the zolpidem crutch of course, but once i get off the zopiclone, zolpidem is next. I am on the fence about whether to cut another 1/4 pill or whether to just stop the zopiclone in a week or so. i don't know why i don't just try it, see what happens. That is the really irrational part of this for me. Why not just try? What's the worst that can happen? Anyway, i am happy that i'm down to 1/2 pill, i'm happy for progress. In the past week, also, i slept through my second dose of Zolpidem 10mg, that made me even more happy. LIke, how addicted can i be, if i've been taking it every morning for a long time, and then just sleep through it. Anyway, i think i went 4 days in a row with no morning dose of zolpidem, despite being on a lower dose of zopiclone. This was great. Then, the last two nights, back to that morning dose. but i am optimistic. The main goal right now is ending the zopiclone.

i hope all you guys are doing OK. I have thought of Dean several times, wondering if he is still using the Alpha-Stim, and if it's helpful at all. I have one but haven't opened the sealed packaging yet, i don't want to try anything at the high-ish level of sled

Thanks margaret77 for what you have written. I have been taking Zopiclone 7.5mg for the past 6 months along with experimenting with different anti depressants. I now completely depend on Zopiclone to help me sleep. I have become very aggressive and paranoid along with strong thoughts of suicide. When I take it at night I can't remember much afterwards and awake with a very dry mouth. I now cannot sleep without it, a few weeks back I ran out of my prescription and didn't sleep for three nights and couldn't go another day so I discussed this with my doctor and he decided it be best that I continue to take it. I hope to get off this stuff soon as!

I've been on the dreaded Zopiclone for nearly 30 years now. My GP prescribed them to me following a sibling death telling me that they were a new drug and totally non addictive. As I say that was nearly 30 years back!

I've had prolonged periods when I have managed to shut the intake down to 1/4 of a 3.5mg but as soon as I get any stress at all up the dose goes. Anything up to 8 X 3.5mg nightly.

Recently my GP prescribed Amitriptyline which I am supposed to take instead of the Zopiclone but I can't help feeling that this is a case of 'out of the fire'.

I'm currently taking 1 of the Amitriptyline and 1 X 3.5mg Zopiclone nightly which is just about getting me through the night.

Last week I had a pretty bad night and going to bed at 11PM I was still wide awake at 4AM so took another Zopiclone every half hour or so to try and knock me out. I got up to 8 tablets which had no effect at all. It seems the more I take the less active they are.

I really am sick and tired of it all and am sorry I ever went anywhere near a GP in the first place. Zopiclone is a one way trip and should be totally banned. I'll be 64 this year and have no hope whatsoever of ever getting clean of this junk.

It does upset me as I read so much about people using street drugs but this legally prescribed stuff is just as bad if not more so as it is fully condoned by the government.

hi dave. wow, i didn't know zopliclone had been around for 30 years, i thought they came out in the early 90s when i got my first prescription of zoldpidem, 1993, my doctor said it was new, and i thought it was the first of the Z drugs. I'm in the US so they well may have come out later due to FDA delays. I will be 65 this year so we're the same age.

it sounds like you have developed tolerance to the medication, which is a kind of vicious cycle where the medication becomes less effective so you take more of it, which causes it to become less effective, the relationship between the body and the medication changes so that the body needs more to get the effect, as you can see. In my experience with Valium, eventually the medication lost all effect so there was no use in taking it, and also in those days (early 90s)i didn't have any way of getting more, so the only option was to stop abruptly, and it was ok, it was hard for a while but i was really glad to be free of the medication, not being able to sleep consistently was worth the price, although i never would've gone off it if it hadn't stopped working. i had tolerance starting to develop on the zolpidem iv'e been taking for 20 years a year ago, but it wasn't to that point. i just cut back and went without the sleep, and made a rule that i had to wait 5 hours between doses, regardless of whether i slept or not, and that caused the medication to become more effective again.

I relate to being hesitant about going on other medications, antidepressants. They can be hard to get off of too, and can have difficult side effects. At least a couple of people i know on this forum have had successful results using mirtazapine prescribed by their doctors. i would probably be less worried about that than other antidepressants, but everyone is different. mirtazapine either works to help you sleep or it doesn't, and it only helps with sleep at a low dose. At higher doses it's a stimulant. i have been tempted to try it, but i won't. i'm just scared of adding anything else. i'm already on both zolpidem and zopiclone and that is confusing to me when i try to plan how to stop, so i learned my lesson on that. i wish i hadn't added the zopiclone. I was taking 7.5 mg a night for a year and a half together with the zolpidem. I have now cut the zopiclone down to 3.25mg a night, and am hoping to cut it down again soon, or stop it altogether--still taking the zolpidem which does give me some sleep. But not much. i have enough tolerance of these medications that usually they don't keep me asleep more than a couple of hours, so i take the zolpidem both at bedtime and in the mornings.

It has caused me to live my life as a drugged person. That is such a high price to pay to get 'enough' sleep. sigh.

what do you think you will do?

My Doctor has changed my prescription to Stilnoct 10mg for two weeks to help with my sleep. It is now day 4 with this medication and it seems to be a lot better for me. I wake up tired although with a bit of will I can manage to get up and usually feel a lot better after a hot shower. No bad side effects so far thus I shall write an update in one week.

Over and out

Chris--Stilnoct is zolpidem. It works great for sleep, i've been using it for 20 years, but i don't look forward to getting off of it, which i need to do. It's seductively helpful with sleep. i think it works more quickly than zopiclone but doesn't last as long. I would caution you that it's just as easy to become dependent on as zopiclone, at least as easy. Once you get used to needing them for sleep, i think the only way off is to accept going without the preferred amount of sleep for a while.

They are sleeping medicines so i don't think it's ever going to be as easy to sleep without them than is possible with them, but in my case, i have increased dosages to a point where i'm really unhappy with how poorly my memory works, and that i feel kind of groggy many times, and that since i added the zopiclone, i've also been having this awful thing where on some mornings, i'm in an unreal state and don't know what i'm doing, like getting on the scale to weigh myself, which i do every day, it's very normal, suddenly doesn't make sense to me, the numbers don't make sense, the scale doesn't make sense, and same with making breakfast, everything gets weird. It wears off but it scares me. And one time (i hope it was only one time) a plumber came to my house for an appointment i made and i told him i didn't need a plumber, and he left but then his boss called my house and i picked up the phone and told him no one had been there and i did need a plumber. i had no memory of the guy coming to my door and of telling him i didn't need a plumber.

That's really scary. I had always heard that people on Zolpidem have done things like eat during the night and cook and even go out driving, one guy went to the airport and flew somewhere, and they have no memory of this later and apparently this isn't on high doses, it can happen at the normal dose. My dose is between 1 1/2 and 2 times the prescribed dose (10mg). i increased it because over time, it didn't have as long of an effect. It still gets me to sleep but i wake up after 2 or 3 hours and that's it, unless i take more. And that's why i added zopiclone, because when it was new for me and my body wasn't used to it yet, i slept longer. It took a long time to get to that point, it was gradual. For a while, i slept through the night after taking it, but gradually the length of time i slept got less, for along time it was 5 or 6 hours, and then 4 or 5.

So, i would say be cautious. use google, search for info on Stilnoct. It works great for sleep, and i used it all those years so i could adapt to my work schedule and i functioned pretty well, but it made it harder to function during the day because it makes it harder to think clearly and the more of it i take, the less energetic i feel, even though i don't feel the kind of tired i feel if i don't get much sleep.

zolpidem and zopiclone are similar medications. The are non-benzodiazapine hypnotics. They are not as addictive or as strong as benzodiazapines, but many people have a hard time giving them up. It's only natural to want to sleep.

Good luck!

My husband googled zopiclone after i spent all night and all day sleepless.i was prescribed it a few months ago without any explanation or consideration of my condition.I am horrified,i have had the same GP for 35 years,i am a manic depressive i have just stopped taking diazapan after finding out that it is valium.Reading the stories has given me hope that i can overcome these problems,which seem exacerbated by those who are supposed to help,It makes it clear that the pharmaceutical industry is a BUSINESS .i wish all of you well and hope we can find some light at the end of the tunnel.Kind regards Brenda.

Hi Brenda. Get the Zopiclone and flush them down the toilet. It will be the biggest favor you have ever done yourself.

Dave

I went through a phase of sleeping only about 3-4hrs per night.I bought Nytol tablets,but went to see my GP. When I found they didn't help.He prescribed Zopiclone 7-5 mgs for 1month only,but when I collected my usuall medication the Zopiclone was included for the following 2months.I accepted them without revealing they were meant to be prescribed for just 1month.Thought my luck was in!! After a few weeks I took just half a tablet,and hated the aftertaste,so fortunately I stopped taking them after 7weeks.This was before I found this website,and now after reading the posts about the damage this drug has done to so many I thank God I decided to stop them(told the chemist to discontinue them ,as they were on a repeat prescription) I hope you all manage eventually to stop taking them--and wish I had an answer to how insomnia can be treated safely. Now.I take an occasional Nytol tablet if I feel over anxious and it works for me.

myfanwy---wisdom!

I've been reading the posts on this site with much interest. I am a long term insomniac who has depended on taking regular zimovane sleeping pills for over 20 years. (Prior to that I used temazepan from time to time) I'

I' m prescribed 3x 7.5mg just now and have been for years due to developing tolerance. I am unhappy about being on this high dose and for so long. I worry about the harm I am doing to my body and increasing the risk of getting cancer or heart problems. I have been to private sleep clinics and tried many alternative therapies to cure my insomnia. It got so bad that, even with the pills, I could go 5 or 6 nights without sleep and still have to try to work. I tried to come off cold turkey once - I lasted 6 weeks - I got no sleep for about 6/7 nights then gradually started falling over about 5am but had to get up at 7am for work. So, it became unsustainable and I went back on the pills. Over the course of a few years, before it was known his addictive the drug was, my dose was increased to my current dose age of 3 x 7.mg. In truth I often self medicate in the desperate hope of getting some sleep. I cannot remember when I last felt refreshed in the morning. I was eventually diagnosed with idiopathic insomnia and eventually was retired medically as the physical and mental fatigue made it impossible for me to continue working. I have read the Aston programme (and tried it - half heartedly, I'd have to say. I have physical conditions that also affect my sleep but I feel I just keep putting off 'biting the bullet' and weaning myself off the zimovane. Part of me would like to just do it cold turkey but I have read that you could have bad side effects if you do this, including fits and that scares me. I would welcome advice. The one thing I do Know is that I don't know who the 'real me' is anymore. I feel my personality has been affected by the

Zimovane, as have my memory and relationships. The other thing is that the pills, even increasing the doses myself have VERY little effect and I currently get only a little disturbed sleep at night. One investigation. showed I had alpha intrusions when I was sleeping.

I was recently put on amitryptyline 3x10mg at night to try to help nerve pain from a compressed nerve in my

Lumbar spine. The combination of amitryptlyine and zimovame seem to gave given me slightly more sleep albeit very fragmented but I feel awful in the morning and have terrible headaches.

The amitryotyline is not really helping the nerve pain is I aim to come off them and I definitely want to come off the zimovane (zopiclone). Any advice from fellow sufferers!

Hello Kathleen.

I wish there was a simple answer to this serious problem .

I have not had a normal night's sleep for over 20 years.

I do not take any other medications so I know that the side effects and withdrawal symptoms are due to Zopiclone.Somehow I am not confident enough to stop taking them,which is so easier said than done.

My memory has been somewhat affected,and the problem now is that they don't really work as well as they

used to,as I have become tolerant to them and they do not last all night.If I wake up at 4am I take another half strength 3.75 and manage to go back to sleep,but I wake up too late and miss most of the morning.

I have tried cutting down the dose,but fall asleep with hallucinations,a rapid heartbeat and various other reactions,so consequently I stick to the pills and at least get SOME sleep ,but not quality sleep where I feel refreshed next day.I am 71,live totally alone and am too scared to try any other pills with no one around incase of an

adverse reaction.

A vicious circle.

I hope that one day we can both return to having a peaceful and decent night's sleep.