Zolpidem - has it caused anxiety/agitation for anyone?

i have recently started waking at between four and five am.  Can't get back to sleep have resorted to taking another tab, 3.75mg. Feel lousy next day usually 7.5mg is ok, but usually wake early, but not that early. It's driving me mad as can't keep on taking extra.

would like to find an alternative, but natural drugs don't work.

You don't say how long you've been on 7.5 mg, but you do use the telling word 'resorted' to taking another 3.75mg, so that sounds like you don't really want to but can't stop yourself.

We've all been there, Vivien, which is why we're here. Don't beat yourself up. I'm on a reducing dose of diazepam at the moment after forty years of taking LOADS of ANYTHING, and I mean LOADS.

A few days ago I cracked and ordered 40 x 10 mg zolpidem from the good old internet. I took them all over a period of thirty six hours. it was heaven while it lasted.

I'm back on track now. I hope. None of which answers your specific question.

Ok, let's go back to it - you feel you need another 3.75mg zopiclone because you're waking early. Go and see your G.P. If they are good, they will help you. If they are not good they will stop your prescription immediately.

I hope they are good, for your sake. You need to change to diazepam, for starters. You start at a comfortable dose which keeps you asleep - I would guess about 10 mg. But you must put your heart and soul into reducing this very, very gradually, because your body has now forgotten how to get to sleep on its own. Most GPs do not know about this, which is highly unfortunate. Reduction must be very slow - it should take months - and you may/probably do need therapy of some kind to find out why you started taking the zopiclone in the first place. Possibly this online forum will be all you need in that line. I don't know, but you do.

Ask me anything you like, any time. I am a nightmare of a patient with a nightmare of a doctor so I ended up at a walk-in refer yourself drug addiction clinic - thanks be to God.

From taking as many as thirty 7.5mg zopiclone at night (!) I am now only on 26 mg diazepam, in divided doses during the day. Diazepam is metabolised much more slowly than zopiclone, which is why you need to change to it, but UNDER EXPERT MEDICAL SUPERVISION.

All the best. I'll be thinking of you.

i have been on zops for about twenty years and before that, Mogadon.

i try to stick to 7.5mg a night, but sometimes as I said previously, I have taken to waking ridiculously early, can't stand the thought of lying awake for around fours, so take a small dose of zop. Also they leave you hung over.

i can't believe the doses you have taken and are still alive.

how come?  

I understand about the diazepam withdrawal method, I have researched it, but worried if I approached doc he would not be sympathetic.

i have taken most types of sleeping tablets ever since the sixties. (I am 70) now, including barbiturates which were widely prescribed then.

i was thinking of ordering diazepam of the Internet and slowly weaning myself of zops myself. Obviously, it's best to do it supervised but not sure of my surgeries policy on this. My previous doc try to get me of zops by reducing dose and then mirtazapine, but it didn't work and I changed doctors.

i am still lucky to be getting zops now as you know, they don't dish them out very freely anymore. So I guess I am still clinging on.

.

I attend a dedicated centre for drug addicts in north London, and have been slowly reducing for about five months. I was immediately changed to diazepam as this has a longer half-life than zopiclone. It iss not realistic to wean anybody off zopiclone as the dosages are so limited and they're very difficult to cut up, and their action is rapid and their half-life is short.

Please google 'drug addiction services  + wherecer you live. You will find help there. Your GP sounds worse than useless. I still have concerns for drug interactions  you may have with any other psychotropic mediction.

Let me say it again - drug websites are dangerous and expensive. Don't do this to yourself. Free help is available but you have to know where it is. If you can't find your local drug addiction centre online because oh technophobia get someone young to do it! A handy teenager, for example - or even someone at an internet cafe.

Keep safe. I gambled with my life and I hope you won't pursue the drug website idea. Lots of love.

It's a good job I have steeled myself to avoid these sites now because I LOVED Xanax, too. It was the best. But actually, that only makes it the worst, of course. My husband went mad when the package came and I had a hard time convincing him that it was an unexpected random 'gift' to tempt me back. Needless to say, I took them all (this was about two years ago) and did a lot of mixing and matching as well (highly dangerous)

Nobody has actually proved that long-term use of benzos and Zs leads to serious health problems, so I do wonder why doctors are so keen to get us all off them. The rather odd piece of research which hypothesised a link with dementia is flawed, if you study it carefully. Even my psychiatrist thinks so. Neeless to say, being addicted is in itself a big problem, but as to storing up problems for the future? I'm still waiting to be convinced.

I'm not being naive here. Every couple of weeks someone, somewhere, suggests that dementia can be predicted by a blood test/that dementia is less likely if you do crosswords/that dementia is more likely if you do crosswords/that eating coconut oil cures dementia etc etc etc etc. They can't all be right.

Nothing would surprise me less than to read fairly soon that using benzos for ages protects people from some form of cancer........Yeah, right.

It's the social destruction and the financial problems which make addiction dangerous. Anyone reaading this who has any new inforrmation, please share it.

I completely understand your problem.  I was given Zolpidem for sleep.  I took it for about a month and noticed that I was feeling more depressed than usual, plus I was having horrible thoughts about suicide.  What I did to get off of it was cut them in half and take a half with a half of another med that was previously given to me for sleep.  Of course, I had several nights of no sleep, restlessness, etc..  After a week of that I stopped the Zolpidem altogether.  I feel better, depression has lifted some.  But here I am again not being able to sleep.  So I started taking the old medicine full dose again.  It works a few days really well, then I start waking up earlier and earlier and feeling yucky for several hours.  I don't know what the heck to do!!  On top of that the psych doc says that she's going to discontinue my anxiety meds and my new prescription is for only two a day instead of three.  This comes a week after I was in the ER with a panic attack!  Doctors really don't listen to anything you have to say.  I am so disgusted with this.  She says this to me and starts talking about a new law and the FDA, all I heard was blah blah blah I am going to be nuts.   I guess I will be a regular in the ER when my meds run out.  I am going to try alternating my sleep meds.  I don't know what else to do.    

I am on Xanax, Seriously addicted to Ambien. And on very strong pain meds. Methadone, Morphine and Dilauids. I was so sick because I ran out of my med's I called 911 and the Damn DR asked me if I go to Doctor Feel Good? He gave me nothing , I was discharged out of the ER. Basically I was a Gomer. Get out of my ER. As I left the Hospital, I collapsed to the ground and had to muster the strength to get up and get a taxi home with no money. I never called 911 in my 51 years and I thought the ER would help me but I found out that this doctor wouldn't help me and told me that there are no bed but I have to go into a detox.