Has anybody ever stop Tapering and stay at the level without continuing

[[Buddie]]

I hope she understands that getting off these drugs is only the first step, it doesn't mean withdrawal ends. Symptoms are very likely to persist after discontinuation. Detox will likely result in acute withdrawal symptoms. I know insomnia is bad, I struggle with it myself. But this is something she has to come to terms with. She has to accept that for a period of time she will have terrible sleep but the brain will eventually learn to sleep by itself. The more she fears the insomnia, the more anxiety she creates around sleep and the worse it becomes.

Thank you for supporting her. This journey is really tough.

[[Buddie]]

Thank you for replying.  As of this moment, she very very down - I want her to hold the atv taper and work on her insomnia/ambien/ambien cr/gabap/propro/otc sleep aids - she is fixated on being old (76)
and whether it is worth continuing the taper because of continuing w/d whether taper/detox/ct - why bother?  I put this to ideation.  I chose this route to mitigate w/d and because the few cognizant doctors we have consulted strongly DID NOT recommend detox because of the "low" atv dosage, health and frail condition.  As of now, I need advice on tapering the sleep stuff and working on insomnia.  The atv taper will have to be resolved later.

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...],

I believe you've corrected surmised your wife's attitude about this process, the drugs tend to make us only see the negative, we can't feel joy, love or happiness, it's like our mind is poisoned and we can only see darkness.  Having said that, I feel its important for you to understand what she's facing, possibly years of suffering trying to get off and recover from her use, I can understand her reasoning that it might not be worth it. 

Does she have any quality of life on the drugs, what I mean is, can she function fairly well while maintaining a steady dose?  What prompted her to begin a taper?  I'm wondering if she has a point, I've watched older members struggle with this same question, is it worth it at this point in my life?

I'm not advocating she not try to be free if this is what she wants but if she's not fully committed to this process, I don't see much chance for success.  Please keep talking to us so we can help you help her.

[...]

[[Buddie]]

Before starting the tap, she was "half a life" - sleepy/drowsy and sleep - semi-cognizant and doing things/going out.  She was not fully on board for tap, yet not on board for detox either.  1.5mg Atv
in January down to May 0.5 Atv.  She is experiencing increasing w/d s/x, insomnia, fatigue and depression.  We are older (late 70s).  She is fearful of increasing w/d s/x that she read about on these
sites and fears she will pass on while STILL having w/d s/x.  Discussions(?) of Tap and Detox are ongoing and slowly leaning Detox as the tap process continues - She wishes an end to the condition.
Please advise on tap of ambi/ambi cr/gabap/propo/otc sleep aids as this also part of the situation would be greatly appreciated.

[[Buddie]]

Please list all of the medications she's taking to include OTC, the doses and what time she takes them.

[[Buddie]]

We are currently holding at 0.5mg of atv.  She is extremely anxious, fatigued, fuzzy, moody, negative.
She cannot sleep due to severe insomnia and using Amb (10mg), prop (0.5mg), gaba (100mg) plus
bits and pieces of amb and/or another gaba (100mg) to get broken sleep.  She wants to Detox instead of Taper/Hold.  Her sxs have been relatively moderate but she greatly fears the sxs in the future and wants to detox citing she cannot endure the taper process even though detox has been shown/alluded to cause more issues/problems later.  She is 76 years old and is wondering if it worth continuing. Any advice would be appreciated.

[[Buddie]]

If she's not committed to the taper process I'm not sure how successful she can be but many members find a 10% reduction of the Ambien every couple of weeks is sufficient.  Z-drugs have such a short half life you're basically withdrawing from them every day so there are several schools of thought.  One is to taper slowly, the other to do a rapid taper and for some like me, cold turkey works the best.  I can only speak to my experience but once I stopped the Ambien, I felt instantly better, many of the symptoms it was causing disappeared the day after I stopped.  I couldn't sleep for quite awhile but I felt so much better I didn't really care.

I quit Klonopin cold turkey which is basically what your wife is proposing by going to detox and she has a point.  A long taper is no guarantee that recovery will be painless just as a cold turkey is no guarantee recovery will be prolonged, I healed in about the same timeframe as those who tapered.  I don't subscribe to the idea that a cold turkey means protracted symptoms, it can definitely be more painful but I think recovery depends more on genetics and length of use.  This is my personal opinion based on my experience and anecdotal evidence I've seen on the forum. 

As I've mentioned in other posts, your wife is right to consider her quality of life in regard to getting off of these drugs.  I can see you're a strong advocate for her and I'm sure she's appreciative but without her commitment to the taper process, I'm not sure how successful she'll be.  If she does want to be benzo free and feels detox is her best shot then maybe she needs to find this out for herself.