2400+ Days Off - My Insomnia/Benzo Advice

ThEwAy2, thank you so much for your post and providing some needed insight for me.  I am engaged with a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and she recommends that I seek guidance from a Psychiatrist if I don't sleep within the next 7 days.  She says that I have to sleep.  This Psychiatrist will most likely put me on a med which I do not want to do. I was on  Temazepam for only 20 days, "tapered" down to 7.5 mg for 4 days and now I have been off 11 days.  During this time, I have only had one night of 6 hours of sleep which was good, the other nights next to nothing if anything.  This therapist is making me fear lack of sleep but I feel that I just need to tough it through.  Thanks for sharing as your message supports my belief to take it one day at a time, tough it out and to be a better person such as yourself when this nightmare is over.

Newbie,

 

  I just wanted to comment on your Therapists remarks about having to sleep. Sometimes you just can't and acceptance of that is the happiest and healthiest way to handle it while you wait for your brain to heal. Plenty of people have gone weeks, months, even years on very little sleep and while they , of course, wanted more sleep, they acclimated and did the best they could until sleep returned. I read on another website about a man who has lived his whole life on 0 to 3 hours of sleep! Now, that is rare, but it is not uncommon (especially in benzo withdrawal) for people to deal with severe insomnia temporarily. Time is the true healer. Your brain needs to recover and get to a point where you can sleep 5, 6 or even 9 or 10 hours. Don't let that comment scare you. I have been dealing with severe insomnia for the last 2.5 months due to benzo withdrawal and I am confident that my brain will heal and I will be able to go back to my baseline of 8 or so hours a night which is what I used to naturally sleep without any medication.

 

Take Care,

 

HM

ThEwAy2, thank you so much for your post and providing some needed insight for me.  I am engaged with a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and she recommends that I seek guidance from a Psychiatrist if I don't sleep within the next 7 days.  She says that I have to sleep.  This Psychiatrist will most likely put me on a med which I do not want to do. I was on  Temazepam for only 20 days, "tapered" down to 7.5 mg for 4 days and now I have been off 11 days.  During this time, I have only had one night of 6 hours of sleep which was good, the other nights next to nothing if anything.  This therapist is making me fear lack of sleep but I feel that I just need to tough it through.  Thanks for sharing as your message supports my belief to take it one day at a time, tough it out and to be a better person such as yourself when this nightmare is over.

 

Newbie2,

 

Please, please, please take what therapists and even psychiatrists say with a HUGE grain of SALT.  Most won't recognize Benzo WD or any related Benzo WD symptoms such as insomnia.  I am not giving medical advice or telling you what to do, but  I and countless others have experienced the same things you are going through now regarding insomnia.  You are correct, a psychiatrist will say you have to sleep or else and will want to put you on more drugs.  I had the EXACT same experience.  You can survive and even function well on very little sleep until it evens out.  20 days isn't a long time to be on Temazepam ( I was on that too along with another Benzo at the same time!) and hopefully your sleep will even out sooner rather than later since you were a short-term user, but there are no guarantees how long your insomnia or others symptoms may last, but they WILL end one fine day.

 

Hang in there!

Well I had my second window of feeling close to normal with 6 hours of sleep last night in 12 days of being off of Tempaz.  I hope I will be able to write a success story soon to help provide insight of what may be ahead for those who were only on a benz for a short period of time.  To correct what I earlier said, I was on for a total of 21 days:  16 days on 15 mg, 4 days at 7.5 and 1 day at 4.0.  My primary health care physician who wrote out a script for 90 days with instructions to take nightly did not say anything to me when I told her I was going off due to one night of missing a dosage and feeling really bad.  I decided to taper myself and hindsight, I could of done it over a few more days.  My Dr. still thinks that my symptoms are in my head and said that I need to see a psychiatrist for my anxiety.  My withdrawal symptoms are anxiety, (in first few days - extreme), significant insomnia - sleeping next to none except for my two short windows, backpain, night sweats, and chills (chills may be from lack of sleep).  Interesting, my lack of sleep doesn't make me feel tired the next day.  I feel wired.  I am walking two 15 minute miles daily, doing yardwork and keeping busy.  What has helped me so much is reaching out and reading posts on this sight and learning not to fear lack of sleep, don't try to "fix" it but let time heal me, stop with supplements and sleep aids, eat well, mediate, and try to maintain a positive attitude.  To you all have posted and responded, thank you.  I wish you comfort while you continue on your own personal journey.

Newbie,

 

Thank you for the well wishes. I look forward to seeing your success story. Congrats on your recent sleep and keep us posted on your progress.

 

HM

Well I had my second window of feeling close to normal with 6 hours of sleep last night in 12 days of being off of Tempaz.  I hope I will be able to write a success story soon to help provide insight of what may be ahead for those who were only on a benz for a short period of time.  To correct what I earlier said, I was on for a total of 21 days:  16 days on 15 mg, 4 days at 7.5 and 1 day at 4.0.  My primary health care physician who wrote out a script for 90 days with instructions to take nightly did not say anything to me when I told her I was going off due to one night of missing a dosage and feeling really bad.  I decided to taper myself and hindsight, I could of done it over a few more days.  My Dr. still thinks that my symptoms are in my head and said that I need to see a psychiatrist for my anxiety.  My withdrawal symptoms are anxiety, (in first few days - extreme), significant insomnia - sleeping next to none except for my two short windows, backpain, night sweats, and chills (chills may be from lack of sleep).  Interesting, my lack of sleep doesn't make me feel tired the next day.  I feel wired.  I am walking two 15 minute miles daily, doing yardwork and keeping busy.  What has helped me so much is reaching out and reading posts on this sight and learning not to fear lack of sleep, don't try to "fix" it but let time heal me, stop with supplements and sleep aids, eat well, mediate, and try to maintain a positive attitude.  To you all have posted and responded, thank you.  I wish you comfort while you continue on your own personal journey.

 

I felt physically tired yet "wired" all the time.  Even when I went 3 or 4 nights in a row with zero perceived sleep, my brain felt wired, but my body was tired.  That all goes away given time.  My PCP told me I had mental health issues and needed to see a psychiatrist for treatment...simply not true.  ALL of my symptoms, including anxiety, depression, SI, etc. were ALL caused by Benzo WD.  It's pretty hard for a PCP to say otherwise when most don't believe in Benzo WD in the first place; instead they believe in the "power and magic" of Rx drugs.

 

 

Well I had my second window of feeling close to normal with 6 hours of sleep last night in 12 days of being off of Tempaz.  I hope I will be able to write a success story soon to help provide insight of what may be ahead for those who were only on a benz for a short period of time.  To correct what I earlier said, I was on for a total of 21 days:  16 days on 15 mg, 4 days at 7.5 and 1 day at 4.0.  My primary health care physician who wrote out a script for 90 days with instructions to take nightly did not say anything to me when I told her I was going off due to one night of missing a dosage and feeling really bad.  I decided to taper myself and hindsight, I could of done it over a few more days.  My Dr. still thinks that my symptoms are in my head and said that I need to see a psychiatrist for my anxiety.  My withdrawal symptoms are anxiety, (in first few days - extreme), significant insomnia - sleeping next to none except for my two short windows, backpain, night sweats, and chills (chills may be from lack of sleep).  Interesting, my lack of sleep doesn't make me feel tired the next day.  I feel wired.  I am walking two 15 minute miles daily, doing yardwork and keeping busy.  What has helped me so much is reaching out and reading posts on this sight and learning not to fear lack of sleep, don't try to "fix" it but let time heal me, stop with supplements and sleep aids, eat well, mediate, and try to maintain a positive attitude.  To you all have posted and responded, thank you.  I wish you comfort while you continue on your own personal journey.

 

I felt physically tired yet "wired" all the time.  Even when I went 3 or 4 nights in a row with zero perceived sleep, my brain felt wired, but my body was tired.  That all goes away given time.  My PCP told me I had mental health issues and needed to see a psychiatrist for treatment...simply not true.  ALL of my symptoms, including anxiety, depression, SI, etc. were ALL caused by Benzo WD.  It's pretty hard for a PCP to say otherwise when most don't believe in Benzo WD in the first place; instead they believe in the "power and magic" of Rx drugs.

 

I'm honestly trying not to get extremely angry at the colossal ignorance of most doctors. I know most of them mean well, but it's inexcusable that they get to EFF somebody's life, and then pretend that person went insane on their own. If I messed up some cabling in infrastructure and a bank lost connectivity to a critical system, they'd lose millions per hour and my ass would be FIRED. IT devices require more careful handling than people's lives apparently.

 

As for all of you still in WD, are you trying anything at all? CBT? Supplements? Anti-Histamine suppressing AD's?

@[ A...]

 

I work in IT too.  I'm a Tech Director for a school district and have been doing that for 27 years.  You are absolutely correct, if we were that incompetent at our jobs, we would have been fired years ago.  It's pathetically stupid IMO how doctors can simply dismiss everything as some sort of unknown or undiagnosed mental condition for which they want to put you on even more drugs. 

 

My PCP actually said "in my arrogance, I can fix this for you."  His fix was an AD!  WTH? And that was after he literally wrote scripts for dozens of Rx drugs ranging from Benzos to Seroquel, to Mirtazapine, to Gabapentin and even Hadol for me!!!!

@ Andros01

 

I work in IT too.  I'm a Tech Director for a school district and have been doing that for 27 years.  You are absolutely correct, if we were that incompetent at our jobs, we would have been fired years ago.  It's pathetically stupid IMO how doctors can simply dismiss everything as some sort of unknown or undiagnosed mental condition for which they want to put you on even more drugs. 

 

My PCP actually said "in my arrogance, I can fix this for you."  His fix was an AD!  WTH? And that was after he literally wrote scripts for dozens of Rx drugs ranging from Benzos to Seroquel, to Mirtazapine, to Gabapentin and even Hadol for me!!!!

 

I'm not 100% yet, but I am like 90% good. If I get things to align properly (tire myself out, go to bed at the same time every night, take my Mag caps, etc) I'm doing 7hr sleep, and wake up rested enough. Mess any of them up, and I get like 5hr.

 

But hey I'm not really complaining. I'm thankful that I didn't destroy my life permanently, and that I'm essentially doing my regular day to day again (but this time watching my sleep hygiene like a hawk). My heart goes out for those who have years of suffering. But I see the successes, and even after 5 years, people heal, so there's hope for everyone.

I was 5 years off on Thursday, August 5, 2021!

 

5 years ago I was in a deep dark place with no hope and no way out.  SI was one of my symptoms and I thought of that possibility, but was too chicken to follow through with it

 

I had a lot of symptoms and terrible insomnia

 

I have since completely healed.  I am letting you know because I thought I'd never heal. 

 

There is hope, there is healing.  Time is the healer, faith helps too.

 

You'll get there, have hope, be grateful and let time do its thing!

Anyone had success with using light exposure therapy to reset our sleep clocks?

 

After talking with my wife, she said last night most of the movie I was sleeping from 7pm to 9pm then second movie as well on and off/snoring. Often times, I don't think I'm sleeping when I really am. Then I slept 1030pm to 1230am then 330am to 530am as well. Today I feel sleepy and off...if only I can condense all the sleep into between 1030pm to roughly 6am consistently. Seems my body wants to sleep but in spans.

 

Today, I'm going to get out in the sun as much as possible. L.A. is having a heat wave today and tomorrow. Thanks Buddies 

Has anyone heard from margarita25?

Thank you to holdingontohope for linking to this yesterday and thank you to the ThEwAy2 for so brilliantly constructing it.  Your knowledge, experience, compassion, and reassurance is priceless and you are a beautiful person for taking the time to do it.  As so many have experienced, my taper is getting a little more difficult as the dose gets lower.  As you pointed out and as it occurred to me on my own a few weeks back that the melatonin, the benadryl, a shot of booze here and there and all the other supplemental medication I was taking wasn't helping and was maybe making things worse for me.  I speak only for myself in regard to supplemental medications and whatnot.  Thanks again and best wishes to everyone here on their benzo journey.   

You are welcome...glad I can help

 

It's important to remember that alcohol works on GABA in a very similar fashion as a Benzo, so it's not advised to drink any alcohol for sleep or in general as it may very well make your symptoms and sleep worse?

 

Good luck!

 

 

I was 2 years and 2 months off benzos still dealing with severe with pretty bad protracted symptoms, but I had a huge setback this last week when I had bad sleeping issues after getting the flue. Eventually decided to try some low dose Melatonin Liquid (big mistake) and it triggered a severe anxiety attack, detachment from reality, shaking, and tremors. It Eventually got a tiny bit better, but now I was going on 5 days with only an hour or 2 of sleep. Concerned about sleep deprivation, I decided to do everything I could, Dark cool room, some nice soothing music, warm shower before bed, and I went into bed confident and ready for sleep. It never came after laying there for hours. I made the decision to just try 1 benzo Klonopin at .5mg because maybe it was the anxiety, fatigue, and restlessness that was getting to me. When it hit, it made me feel calm for a bit, and eventually I think it put me to sleep for a few hours (hard to tell if I was just hallucinating or not) in any case I'm out of bed now writing this to ask what should I do at this point? After being off the benzos for over 2 years and taking one dose, will that effect my progress that I've done all this time or now that I satisfied my curiosity with the one dose, do I just wait for it to wear off and go back to how I was doing before?

IMO, as I am not allowed to give medical advice, I would immediately get rid of the K-pin and any other Benzos you have in your house so you're not tempted to take them in a moment of weakness.  Sleep setbacks can occur at any point and without reason after you are off.  I had about a 6 week one in January and February of 2021 that came completely out of the blue and results in 3 zero nights and a lot of 1-3 hour nights spread out over 6 weeks.  Sleep hygiene didn't work for me either during these setbacks and I am so thankful I didn't reach for an Rx drug to help me sleep.  I've had some success with Delta 8 CBD/THC on really bad nights during the most recent setback, but it always left me with brain fog and feeling hung over the next day.

 

This setback eventually evened out and I have been sleeping pretty well since then.

 

I also had a 29 day sleep "setback" at 18 months off and another 2-3 week sleep only setback at 32 months off that also evened out. 

 

Taking 1 Klonopin will not affect your healing and recovery, but as I said, why keep them in your house?  It's like keeping rat poison around IMO.  I'll never take another BENZO ever, even if it could somehow save my life!  But you need to do what is best for you but there are a lot non Rx drug ways to help with sleep.  Meditation, CBD, Magnesium, etc.  None of these are going to knock you out like a Benzo might, but there are no side effects or WD from them either...

 

Things will eventually even out!

 

Good luck!

Thank you thank you for this.

great post

Thanks Jeremy,

 

It's an accumulation of what I learned over the past 6 years....

I appreciate this post so much and am just writing in here to create a “link” to it. Congratulations Way!

Thanks for linking my post.  And thank you for your kind words. 

 

Hope all is well with you?

Super helpful post here not only in terms of insomnia. I inserted my number one symptom here and it helped calm me down so thanks. I am on the brink of 30 months so I used some of your time line markers as indicators. Thanks TW2

Thanks for linking my post.  And thank you for your kind words. 

 

Hope all is well with you?

 

Hi Way,

 

Thank you so much for asking about my well-being, you are so very thoughtful.

I am at 57 months and though I have improved much over the years, I am still fairly debilitated. I still have great difficulty with sleep and averaging around 4-5 hours a night, but better than zero hours for the first 2 years post-acute, and I never feel rested and always have headaches and confusion.

MRI test shows nothing much.

Just keep plugging onward... 

Hey TaterTot91,

 

Sorry things are still tough at 57 months months out.  I am just over 68 months off and doing well.

 

Hopefully more time will improve your sleep and symptoms?

 

If your medical tests are negative, it is most likely still Benzo related?

 

Just keep on keeping on!

 

Good luck!

I wish I had insomnia lol I have non 24 instead and haven't met a single person that's healed from it