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quitting sleep adjuncts after 2.5 of nightly use in benzo withdrawal, input appr


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I looked into it thoroughly and couldn't find any indication that there were either long term consequences or withdrawal issues for using either benedryl (a total of 3 pills a night, counting middle of the night redosing) or melatonin (again, a total of 10mg a night counting middle of the night redosing).

 

I have long been weirded out by my total dosage being so much more than anyone else typically would need/take on a nightly basis for so long, but have been repeatedly assured that it's safe.  I'm trying just stopping and seeing where I stand.

 

Has anyone else taken either or both of these things for a prolonged time and then stopped?  I'm not worried about anything like benzo withdrawal symptoms, but what I'm mainly trying to understand is how to interpret my results.  For example, if I go a few days and my sleeping is still in the toilet, should I interpret that as where I'm really at, or should I allow a week or two or more for my body to adjust before assessing my real situation without them?

 

Thanks.

 

:)

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I don't have any experience with the doses you describe but I did have several nights of difficulty falling asleep when I quit 25mg Benedryl which I had taken for nearly a year.  I didn't notice much when I quit the melatonin.  Good luck.
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I used to take an occasional antihistamine for sleep (not Benadryl but similar) and it caused me to be very depressed. I've also taken a low dose of melatonin, no more than 1 mg and stopped this without a problem. In fact I sleep better now without anything.

 

P.s. just noticed you're on a huge dose of melatonin so don't stop this suddenly. Better find someone else to advise as I only took one tenth of this amount.

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i do take only benadryl when i get a headache from an odor or chemical. i don't take anything for sleep and i don't sleep through the night yet as i am just where i am at with basically no sleep during the morning hours yet. but i have stopped benadryl suddenly after taking about 25mg nightly for long periods of time and don't notice any wd types of symptoms from it.

 

i stopped tkaing the melatonin at this time so don't have anything to offer about that. i would taper from that one for sure.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the input.  If anyone is curious how things worked out, I largely went without either melatonin or benedryl for a little over three weeks.  I wanted to give it at least that long just to ensure that whatever I was dealing with was the real situation and not some sort of rebound issue. 

 

Basically, there wasn't any noticeable withdrawal except for a delay in sleep onset that was most pronounced for the first 3-5 days, but wasn't the end of the world, either.  I mainly just held my previous pattern of taking a while to fall asleep and waking in the middle of the night for a few hours before falling back to sleep (though sometimes I never made it back).  Basically, a lot of it was life as usual, but there is no question that it was a lot harder to fall asleep and that it was where I really am. 

 

I went back to the melatonin and dropped the benedryl and seem as good as I was before this experiment, so I'm sticking with that arrangement, so I definitely came out ahead from testing things out.  I am really glad to be on half of what I was, before, and look forward to dropping the rest as soon as my body can handle things on its own.

 

On the plus side, although it was extremely minor, I did notice that I was a bit more capable during the day.  Nothing major like it was really holding me back, but I guess I just felt a little more crisp (though that's still in the context of dealing with benzo symptoms). 

 

I plan to hold here for a while, no less than several months, and then try dropping or cutting down on the melatonin.  I definitely still have serious sleeping issues, but I'm glad to see that they've improved to where I need less.  I look forward to the day that I don't need anything.

 

Best wishes.

 

:)

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So glad it went well.  I, too, noticed feeling a little "thick" the day after taking Benedryl but never noticed any residual effect from 3 mg melatonin.  ;)
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