Warned to come off zopiclone.

Hi Friends,

Still off the Zopiclone, 6 days now but had a tough night at 5 days. Woke up at 1.00am with indigestion and couldn't get back to sleep. I still have some Zops but I would rather anything than take another. Deep breathing and CBT got me through and last night slept well. I expected a battle and so its proving, as with any addiction there will be bad times to test the mental strength. The Mirtazamine i'm taking is an anti depressant that has antihistamine properties similar to Benadryl and it is helping alot. It has side effects to put up with ( drowsiness, weight gain, which isn't a problem as I've lost a stone in 3 months and dry mouth, all tolerable compared to Zop). I hope your cold has cleared up Dave. Any issue that keeps you awake will bring back bad memories but no going back now, you have done the hard part. I did some research on the Diazapam method and it appears to be the recommended method for withdrawal. Not that diazapam is not addictive, it is, but has a much longer half life than Zop so tapering is easier long term. Good luck with your zop free quest Kathleen.

Well done Sunlover on 6 days free of the junk. After that amount of time you are passed the hard part too.

When I flushed the remaining Zopiclone down the toilet was when I accepted I'd finally broke the habit.

Dave - TWENTY EIGHT DAYS ZOPICLONE FREE!

Hi there. I am a 68 year old woman and have been taking Zopiclone 7,5mg for many many years. My GP has now called me in for a review. Like a lot of you i am scared of coming of them.. I only ever take one a night, which always gets me of to sleep but i only remain asleep for about 5 to 6 hours. I reckon that this is better than no sleep at all. I guess i will have to come off them eventually and am trying to cut down to a half a tab a night. What do others think. Probably best to come off them completely, but easier said than done. I sometimes wonder if i might have more energy during the day if i slept naturally but the thought of going around like a zombie with no sleep is horrible. Is it possible to come off them without any alternative drugs. Any advice gratefully received.

Hi Vivien

If you read Daves story above it seems that the method he used is the recommended one for getting off Zop, especially if you have been on them for a long time. Zop and diazapam can be taken together, in fact I did this a few times, so maybe reducing the Zop and replacing it with diazapam, slowly, might be an option rather than go cold turkey. You would have to be advised by your GP of course. On the subject of no sleep, I know just lying awake all night is horrible, but if you can try and stay relaxed ( not easy I know) you will probably feel better next day than having drugged sleep, especially as the withdrawal effects go away. Good luck with your review.

Is it possible to get C.B.T. on the N.H.S? I feel it might help me to get off them but unfortunately cannot affor it privately.

Does anyone think that cutting down to a half tablet will help the withdrawal process. Thanks.

I was on 3.75mg for 3 months and stopped cold turkey. It will be tough the first couple of nights and you will need some help from another drug, probably diazapam, but you willI feel much better for it. But yes the lower the dose you are on the better I would have thought. If you have been taking 7.5 for a long time then 3.75 is not going to give you much time asleep on its own. Diazapam induces sleep also, so maybe a one to one taper may be possible. Also diazapam will quieten any anxiety you may have when you start off.

Hi Vivienne, personally I went for the kill. It seems to be three days until the worst of the withdrawals are over. Tapering by mixing zopiclone with another drug will just prolong the time it takes to get the zopiclone out of the system.

not just getting zopiclone out of the system, but the other drug too--in the case of zopiclone, it's eliminated very quickly from the system. Half of the last dose is gone in 6 hours, and then in another 6 hours, half of that is gone and so on. Diazapam is eliminated very slowly, it takes a month to eliminate half of the last dose, and then another month for half of that, and so on

Diazapam crossover is used for people who have a hard time going off Z drugs like zopiclone because of their short metabolism half life--because of the half life, some people have withdrawal symptoms from the medication during the day, before they have tried to come off of it, they get anxiety symptoms during the day and they crave the medication, so for some it's harder to come off it for that reason, at least that's what the Ashton manual says (you can google that).

I don't have any inter-dose withdrawal with Z drugs that i'm aware of. But one of our members on the Down the Rabbit Hold thread has said that he used diazepam to get himself off of zopiclone because he had been taking zopiclone so long, he thought it would be easier to get on a new medication and then go off of that, because he wouldn't be on it for so long, it should be easier to get off. i am not sure if he was able to get free of all of it in the end.

Quite a few people have simply tapered off of zopiclone on that other thread, Down the Rabbit Hole. It's probably worth a try. And several have just gone cold turkey and that has worked fine for them too. Like people have said here, and this has been my experience too, the worst should be the first 2 or 3 days and then things should get better after that, over time. The body does adjust to the change. Each person is different so the only way to find out is to see what happens. I am waiting for myself to do this with zolpidem that i'm on. i was on both zolpidem and zopiclone, and i got off the zopiclone by tapering, last dose was 2/26/14.. But now i need to face the zolpidem, getting off that.

such a dilemma to go without sleep, but taking sleep meds forever is not a solution. Eventually it works less and less, the body builds up a tolerance for it. I'm only getting 2 hours sleep on zolpidem now, and then i take it again and get at most 2 hours sleep. I've been on it for 20 years. time is running out.

Yes Jaw, this is the problem with any drug. Although I have managed to come off Zopiclone I did it with the help of Mirtazapine, an anti depressant, so I will have to face coming off that eventually. But the doctor seems happy to prescribe Mirtazapine whereas Zopiclone was a non starter long term. This half life business seems crucial to any drug withdrawal ( Mirtazapine is 20-40 hours) and in future I would think twice about taking anything with a short one ( 6 hours for Zop!).

How long does it stay in your sustem?