Day 8 on milk titration and have increasingly lost sleep...please advise?

Hi there,

So last night was night 8 of crossing over to milk .5 mg of my total 6.5 mg dose (which I was on in total pills for two weeks before switching over with no sx) and every night for the past four my sleep has deteriorated to less than 4 hours and I have have had surging arenaline at 2 or 3 AM, which I did not have before...should I abandon ship and go back to dry-cutting? This doesn't seem like my body likes it and I must sleep to keep my job.

I felt as if cry-cuts didn't produce those surges....I cannot get back to sleep after I wake with them....

Any long-timers or experts, please advise...

I also took time to adjust to switch to milk. Totally unexpected, but it happened.

I would try to hold on  - would expect you would adjust in the next week.

Have you tried taking hydroxyzine?  That plus a good run helped a lot to get me some sleep.  Worked well for me I was waking up with surges.

Helped me through me switch to liquid and a few brutal ashton style cuts.

I must sleep to keep my job.

 

And that's a biggie SC. Tapering is a noble endeavor,but we still have to keep it real. The only thing that has been able to put me down during times like that has been Seroquel. I take it as needed, which is sometimes 1-2 nights a week. (always work nights)

 

TH

 

You are taking the exact same pills!  Unless you have some strange allergy to milk, there is absolutely no reason that taking them with milk should make any physiological or emotional difference.

 

It's the same as taking your med dry, and washing it down with milk.

 

Perhaps its just WD  catching up with you.

I don't split pills, I don't advise splitting pill, people keep splitting pills. IMO and from what I read here too often, it eventually catches up to them.

Ugh. I am frustrated but thank you everyone for your advice. Builder, I know it's the same thing. But this is NOT psychologcal. If I were having trouble falling asleep I could see the correlation. But when I am sound asleep and wake up with my heart racing, it is not my mind telling me to do so....

Ugh. I am frustrated but thank you everyone for your advice. Builder, I know it's the same thing. But this is NOT psychologcal. If I were having trouble falling asleep I could see the correlation. But when I am sound asleep and wake up with my heart racing, it is not my mind telling me to do so....

 

I'm not saying your sxs are not real, I'm saying that taking your benzo dissolved in milk is not the cause of your sxs.

But if everyone tells me to stabilize before beginning to dissolve the milk and I don't know what's causing the sxs, how do I move forward, Builder?

But if everyone tells me to stabilize before beginning to dissolve the milk and I don't know what's causing the sxs, how do I move forward, Builder?

 

Not every symptom or disorder is benzo/WD related.  "Normal" people have sleep problems, digestive disorders, anxiety, etc. 

 

I of course have no way of knowing what is behind your current difficulty, but it almost certainly is NOT switching to milk dosing.

 

I agree that you should not start or continue a taper if you are not stable, but based on personal experience, if a 15 day hold hasn't "fixed" it, continuing to hold probably won't fix it either.  I guess you have been holding almost a month.

 

If sleep problems are the major difficulty, I would try to resolve that then proceed with your taper.  There are several solutions to sleep problems, some non-drug options, supplements, older prescription drugs, OTC drugs, etc.  I would certainly NOT recommend a Z drug, but many of us have had good success with doxylamine, even at very low doses.

I went and read your first 10 post's or so, to get some back story of your history. Here's what I gathered:

 

1) You are more then likely in peri - menopause which is contributing to the insomnia.

 

2) You tried Remeron once, it helped you sleep but you were groggy the next day, which is very typical. At the 7.5 mg dose,  which is below the therapeutic dose,  it's even more sedating at the lower mgs. Since sleep is your biggest hurdle, I would suggest giving Remeron another chance. 15 mg's is the lowest therapeutic dose and will help with sleep and depression and your taper. I would speak with your doctor and try this again. Start on a Friday night and allow your body to get used to the medication.

 

3) Your dose of Valium is inconsistent, IMO. I'm not a fan of pill splitting and do not pill split. I've dosed all liquid V-milk from 12 mg's to 4 mg's without issue. A suggestion would be to do the same. It's so very doable and also, take the doses evenly spaced out.

 

I really think if you address #2, thing's will greatly change for the better, and then, you could address #3. Unfortunately, #1 is something women navigate through an unknown about of year's. I know this by experience as I had a wonderful(sarcasm) 10 year ride at way too young of an age. I didn't add HRT,  thankfully,  and wouldn't suggest it while tapering.

 

Just some thoughts as I agree, not every symptom is benzo related.

I went back to pills only last night as I was so frustrated. I tried both 3.5 Remeron and 1/2 Doxy and they both made me feel like a ton of bricks hit me and I was groggy/out of it until 3-5 PM.

 

Thank you Builder for your input. Do I keep holding then, or taper with my dry cutting formula as I was doing before?

 

Benzo-off, I am a breast cancer survivor and went OFF tamoxofen, as I believe it triggered the initial anxiety. So, yes, I am in peri-menopause. Do/did you take Remeron or any sleep aid?

 

My pdoc just gave me a script for trazadone?

Part of the big problem here is I no longer know what stable is. Am I able to get through the day? Yes. Can I read and focus and concentrate? Yes. Do I cry all morning some days? Yes. Do I have trouble sleeping? Yes. Do I have a lack of motivation/hope/positivity? Yes. The problem is that the last three could all be from benzo withdrawal OR from peri-menopause....so I cannot gauge what is what. So maybe indeed, as Builder suggested, not all of this is benzo related, as all women go through menopause...

 

I am ready to give up.

Yes, I sparingly use doxylamine succinate, or otherwise known as Unisom with no ill effects.

 

I was prescribed Remeron way back when and I used it for 6 month's, never slept better in my life at a dose of 15 mg's. As I mentioned before, the lower the dose, the higher the sedation. If I recall, I started at 7.5 mg's for a week, the went up to 15 mg's. Again, best sleep I ever had.

 

Trazadone is an old A/D, it could be helpful for sleep also. I've never used it.