No sleep...

Hello everyone,  I quit 0.5mg of Clonazepam cold turkey, 21 days ago and still having a hard time

believing 2 months of use (not every day) is causing all this..Last night I slept 45mins-an hour...my

brain just won't STOP! Non stop racing thoughts/panic & anxiety. Is this part of withdrawal and

is there ANYTHING to help with it?! Sorry for the whining..seems its all I do lately. Guess

its normal and hard to ignore with symptoms that we go through. Thank you in advance for taking the

Time to reply, I appreciate it.

 

Hello everyone,  I quit 0.5mg of Clonazepam cold turkey, 21 days ago and still having a hard time

believing 2 months of use (not every day) is causing all this..Last night I slept 45mins-an hour...my

brain just won't STOP! Non stop racing thoughts/panic & anxiety. Is this part of withdrawal and

is there ANYTHING to help with it?! Sorry for the whining..seems its all I do lately. Guess

its normal and hard to ignore with symptoms that we go through. Thank you in advance for taking the

Time to reply, I appreciate it.

 

 

Hi, 21 days off is quite early at this game, it will get better i can assure you.

i have the cold turkey experience as well, decided to push through without any other

medication, it was worth the effort. i hope it will improve soon for you.

This will seem strange but cook up onionsand eat a full one in the evening (or make onion soup). Also romaine lettuce. My CNS is sensitised so things like this make me drowsy. Romaine lettuce also has an anaelgesic quality. Ginger root tea aswell. These may seem like small things, but they will help. Ginger is a nervine (soothes the nervous system). Be careful not to take a load of each though,as they can all cause depression in high quantities. But at night, these might help with sleep, or progressing you towards it.

Leah... I have been a whiner also.  Ask my wife.  She gets so tired of hearing about my misery...going on twenty years now.  This board IS the place to come to whine.  The lack of sleep is so tough.  I will never go on any benzo again after my experience.  I am now on melatonin 5 mg. and 25 mg. of unisom.  I try to avoid it every night as you can become dependent on it.  Sleep is still hit and miss but I do seem to have an increasing number of better nights.  Certainly nowhere near as bad as being on benzos.  GLTY.

Hey Leah,

 

I found an OTC product called Alteril that has been working very well for me to allow me to sleep.  It is an herbal remedy made with valerian root, melatonin, hops, L-tryptophan and other ingredients.  The dosage regimen calls for two tablets one hour before bedtime, but I have been getting good results with just one.

 

Good Luck!

This will seem strange but cook up onionsand eat a full one in the evening (or make onion soup). Also romaine lettuce. My CNS is sensitised so things like this make me drowsy. Romaine lettuce also has an anaelgesic quality. Ginger root tea aswell. These may seem like small things, but they will help. Ginger is a nervine (soothes the nervous system). Be careful not to take a load of each though,as they can all cause depression in high quantities. But at night, these might help with sleep, or progressing you towards it.

Looks like I'll have to try this one

I understand and share the fear of the sleeplessness.

 

I did my CT 3 months ago, and now I'm 3 months into Seroquel. I barely get 5-6 hours of sleep on it at 32.50mg.

 

I believe that is from the CT and my own anxiety.

 

When I try to taper to 25mg, I don't sleep at all.

 

Wondering if I should just jump now, and deal with the torture until sleep comes. Have a feeling it could take days.

 

Any thoughts?

Yeah, insomnia was / is one of my worst s/x too. It took about 6 - 8 weeks to get somewhat back to normal. I have a few nights where it's been a problem, but for the most part I sleep most every night now 6 - 8 hours. Sometimes 8 - 10. And 2 months of use can definitely screw you over. I was barely on 5 weeks and got destroyed. I like to drink Tart Cherry and think it helps some. Now it won't totally knock you out, but if you're drowsy already it can help push you over the edge. It's high in natural melatonin. I did kind of screw myself by drinking a couple of times and then eating some food high in soy sauce. I have no idea if the soy sauce did it, or the alcohol, but it was probably both. I went from feeling nearly 100% better back down to about 70 - 80. Slowly getting back after a week of feeling like crap again. You'll start sleeping again. It may not be immediate, but it should come back around again. It may be a roller coaster of sleeping none and then a lot before it evens back out. At least that's what happened to me.

You may feel as if you're not sleeping but your brain actually is....it takes what they call "micro sleeps." I went for - this is true - over a year feeling as if I didn't sleep. I slowly became aware that I would "lose consciousness" for a few seconds, maybe a minute or two. I did some reading and found out about micro sleeps. I started not to worry about the whole thing, and doing that helped a lot. The more you worry about not sleeping, the less you'll sleep! Make a plan, a routine.....go to bed at the same time every night. Don't drink alcohol. Be careful of supplements. Try OTC meds, most are pretty safe if used as directed. Have a plan for what to do while you're awake. I read, some watch TV, others play games. But whatever you do - don't lie there being upset! Its the worst thing you can do for yourself.

east

I think it might come down to a CT for me.

 

My anxiety is tearing right through the Seroquel. I took 32.50 last night, and didn't sleep a minute.

 

Will dropping 32.50mg really do a number on me?

Hi 8damien8,

 

You are taking an antihistamine dose and you could experience some anxiety dropping it, insomnia obviously. You could switch for something like niacin, or an alternative antihistamine like doxylamine (but I always woke up zombified on doxy). I have to keep coming back to niacin though. For me the stuff is fantastic for sleep. I have even gotten to the stage where I overslept two mornings. This would have been completely unheard of a year ago. Hope you find something that works for you, bud. 

How has you sleep been since coming off Zopiclone?

 

Is the diazepam giving you sleep?

The diazepam seems to help for sleep but it is being boosted by the curcumin and turmeric I take, which probably makes it a higher dose than it appears. But I am continually cutting and have just speeded up my taper. The turmeric I need to take to keep some sort of control over my candida (can't kill it any more aggressively just yet, as the liver cleanses would mess with the diazepam) but it has a lot of benefits. The niacin though is where the knockout comes in. I don't flush now on 200mg but it gives me a warm fuzzy sleep and deep dreams, which I thank God for. I've learned not to take anything at all for granted these days.

Does a particular brand of niacin make a difference?  Good on you that it is working so well!

It should not matter what brand, but for me it is the flushing type that I take. Inositol hexanicotinate or niacinamide are "no flush", so just look for a brand that causes the flush (nicotinc acid). I take Nature's Way Niacin 100mg capsules (2 a night).

Thanks

My 32.50mg dose of Seroquel has not worked the last 2 nights. I've now been up 50 hours!