Zopiclone withdrawal
Posted , 4 users are following.
I am currently off zopiclone for the last week and a bit I am getting terrible anxiety and depression I was advised to go bk on them to help the withdrawal. I am so reluctant to go bk on them as I didn't get more than two hrs sleep on the 7.5mg if I knew then what I know now I would not have started taking them. They are an evil poisonous drug that destroys your life.
Has anyone ekse gone cold turkey with zopiclone can you tell me how long the withdrawal can last? Anyone?
0 likes, 10 replies
betty47942 caroline61890
Posted
Some will stay 'taper off'...and goodness knows, I am not an expert! But I went cold turkey off of Mirtazapine which I've been told is like quitting heroin...and for one week, after quitting cold turkey, I was going through absolute H. BUT it got better....and within a month, no symptoms... I did this inspite of all the advice I was given by others... I am NOW intending to get off the one and only Rx I take: one .5 Ativan per day... but I know my body wants MORE of it and I refuse (so does my Dr so that helps, too!
I think I will try the taper off method this time...since I have been on the Ativan for almost 2 years. Good luck to you. I know saying "Google it" is not always the best advice...but maybe you could try it and see if you come up with anything. Somehow you will make it, Caroline!! You will!
tess33005 betty47942
Posted
cia42277 caroline61890
Posted
I have weaned off a benzo, am weaning off another now, and have come off a beta blocker cold turkey.
I was on lorazapam for a year until to be effective, the dose went up from .5 to 2,25. I called it quits and came down 1/4 mg for two weeks, another 1.4 for two weeks, etc. It did take some time but was not too bad at all. I got switched to another pill for insomnia and the same thing happened, so I am coming off the same way now. No bad effects at all...slow but sure. No more benzos for me.
The beta blocker was a doctor's mistake. They told me to just stop. OMG!!!!! The worst thing I ever did to myself. By the time I realized something was very, very wrong, and went to emergency care at the clinic I was a week into withdrawal, still not knowing what was wrong. The doctor who saw me, after asking what was going on and looking at my med history, saw the problem right away and prescribed the perfect med. I have been on blood pressure meds for years. He changed that med (which wasn't working well anymore anyway) to one that also worked on anxiety. Wow, what a relief!
I, myself, would never go cold turkey again. For me, the taper off slowly method worked very well. Hope this helps, Caroline.
tess33005 caroline61890
Edited
Never go cold turkey on zopiclone! The withdrawals are horrendous.
You need to ask your GP to swap you onto diazepam 10 mg and taper off that. Diazepam has a long half-life and the tablets come in easier doses.
Drop 1 mg every fortnight of the diazepam until you're down to none. I know it sounds like a long time, but this is the only way for you not to get withdrawals.
Look up the Ashton Method and print it and show it to your GP if they're reluctant to put you on diazepam for the taper. I'm currently and slowly coming off huge amounts of zopiclone and the first thing the specialist drug addiction doctor was put me on diazepam instead. I started at 30 mg daily for four months, then we began the taper. I'd been very seriously addicted to all kinds of sleeping pills so we had to go slowly. I'm now at 22 mg diazepam daily. Thank God I found this doctor. After forty years of addiction I am almost free of it - and I never believed I's be able to. By the way, I noticed that Betty wrote that she came off mirtazapine cold turkey. So did I - and I never felt a single withdrawal effect! It just shows how different people's responses are to drugs. Hope thhis helps. love Tess
caroline61890 tess33005
Posted
Hi Test thank you for your post, yes I am planning on going to doctor tomorrow and to ask for diazapam to replace the zopiclone. I really am loath to go bk on zopiclone. I just hope the doctor gives me the diazapam to replace the zopiclone. I know now it was pretty stupid of me to quit cold turkey, but I was in hosp after an od and missed two nights of zopiclone then decided to stay off it when I came home I have very bad anxiety and tinnitusand muscle pain I wake up in the early hrs and it's just as bad if nit worse than the two hrs I was getting on the zopiclone. Good on you fir deciding to come off your evil meds.
kelly_10984 tess33005
Posted
Hello tess
Was wondering if you could advise me I have been on zopiclone 15mg for 20 years have now been told by a shrink I need to come of them and been perscibed pregabalin in place of them anyway I can't take the pregabalin so am still taking zopiclone the shrink seems to think I won't have any side affects at all and these pills are not addictive and he has just sent me back to my GP so now I am back to square one is there anyone you could recommend I ask for help go get of my zopiclone
tess33005 caroline61890
Posted
Yes, it only took me forty years of addictiion to decide IT'S NOW OR NEVER. Do print out the Ashton Method and take it with you to your GP. Dr. Heather Ashton has figured out the best ways to get people off all the benzos and Zs, and she's a highly-respected physician, so it may help to introduce your GP to her Method. Good luck!
tess33005 kelly_10984
Posted
Are you seriously telling me that a qualified psychiatrist doesn't think zopiclone is addictive???????????????
Ok, it all depends on where you live, but most boroughs in the UK are supposed to have a walk-in clinic for drug addicts. That is where my GP sent me (since I was on such massive doses that he didn't know what to do - although the senior doctor in the practice just said STOP ALL PRESCRIPTIONS! Yeah, thanks for that - I could have had seizures from sudden withdrawal...........
Anyway, if your GP doesn't know where your local drug addiction clinic is, google it for yourself, call them and find out when drop-in times are. These clinics are run by specialist doctors and also offer therapy. You don't have to be addicted to heroin or crack to qualify as an addict - in fact it is now known that it's harder to come off benzos and Zs than it is to come off heroin. The clinic will take over prescribing from your GP until you're off the diazepam - you will be put on diazepam because it has a much longer half-life than zopiclone so it's easier to withdraw drom diazepam.
You may not have to do this, though. If you print out the Ashton Method and show it to your GP they might manage your taper at the surgery.
If they won't, change doctors. Seriously. Join a new practice. If you come up against any hurdles, PM me. love Tess
caroline61890 tess33005
Posted
I've been in z drugs and other meds since end of January, they all just made matters worse. I have come off one drug so far but the withdrawals are destroying me. I Have to go to doctors tomorrow my life is pretty unbearable with these withdrawal symptoms, I need help, I will talk to doc about the withdrawal symptoms and the advice given by professor Ashton about using the diazapam. I'm really not doing good at all. Like a sick junkie off heroin or other hard drugs.
betty47942 caroline61890
Posted
Hi Caroline, just wanting to drop you a note to say I'm so sorry for what you are going through...please just hang in there. There IS A WAY somehow, and it WILL how up. Sending you a healing Light and covering you with Love. Take care.