zopiclone w/d

dr and i made decision and have been off now for 10 days and sleeping really well...........had to reinstate a tiny bit of clonazepam but able to make z cuts really quickly......down from 2 pills to 1 pill in mere  days! few more days and i should be off completely..morning hangover is so much better. and i am not waking up in w/d at 5 am anymore..... yay! knock on wood! then final clonaz  w/d soon.........can't wait..have to say a couple of glasses of wine were also affecting my w/d, two glasses of wine never gave me a hangover before, now the next day i am one hundred percent inefficient and a total bomb of a hangover totally not in proportion to the alcohol drank.....just when i was starting to enjoy a bit of a social life again!........think i will give up  too for the final taper........boo i really looked forward to a glass of wine with dinner and friends on the weekend.......whatever it takes though right?!

I've just started val crossover for Ativan. I take a 5mg Zolpidem(ambien) at bed too. Not sure how we are going to reduce the

Z. As I am replacing the bedtime Ativan currently with val.

I've tried in past to quarter Z. but had a bad time of it, half awake, seeing scary green people, and felt like time warp or Alzheimers next day.

Perhaps my other Ativan crossovers will be enough and move some more to bed to cover Z.

 

Good luck on you Z. Perhaps tryptophan with co factors could help tolerate the insomnia, a known w/d symptom from Z. and let it play out?

 

Infoshar.

I c/t ambien 2 weeks ago. I am almost 4 months off benzos....I haven't noticed any change in my syptoms.  However my w/d symptoms are so bad that I don't think I could feel much worse.  The morning rush feeling something I've been dealing with for the last six months...don't know when this one is supposed to get better.  I get slammed every morning at 4

Sounds like we are in a similar boat! I just posted this question under a different topic, what do you think?:

 

I've been tapering Valium for the past 6 months. I'm down to 1.25 and holding.

I'm bothered by my daily Ambien use too but whenever I've tried to make a cut in the pill I seem to become very depressed and shaky the next day. My doctor had suggested increasing the valium to offset the Ambien cut but the thought of taking more just kills me after I've taken this long to decrease it.

If I wait until getting off valium would the Ambien withdrawal not seem so bad? Conversely, the thought of keeping on the Ambien longer and longer worries me and makes me scared I'm never going to be okay. Any advice?

smk, I would get concentrate on getting off the V first...I was 3.5 months off V and then c/t the ambien and didn't notice feeling any different.  The ambien wasn't helping me sleep any better anyway.  However my symptoms have been very severe through my taper and post taper from the klon and V...don't know that I could feel much worse

just an update....i have almost completely cut all my zopiclone......from 2 full pills for a total of 15mg to now just half a pill and ready to jump and start rest of clonazepam wihdrawal......it has gone surprisingly well.....having the clonazepam in my system and the little micro updose helped a lot. i have ot say my morning fatigue is almost gone........i used to feel like a zombie for most of my day, up until 5pm when i was taking all that zopiclone. those pills leave the worse hangover i realized it the more i came off it. i fact i can say that the result of the drug was far worse than any w/d effects i have had....actually i can't say i have had any to be honest...just more clarity, lesss brain fog and more energy. way way way less depression! i realized i was basically asleep most of the day because of them. awake but asleep.....awful drug!

Dont jump off the zopiclone too quickly. Its great that youve got down so fast to 7.5mgs. When you get to 3.75mgs go slowly. I have made a bit mistake in jumping too quickly. IT IS BAD.

 

Good luck hun

 

XX

i realized that as well...from 15mg to 7.5 mg was pretty straight forward...1/2 tablet at a time once a week...when i went to do another 1/2 tablet to take it down it down to just half a 7.5 mg tablet it was too much so after 5 days i had to up dose 1/4 tablet and stabilze at 3/4 tablet...i have been at that for 7 days now and am doing really well.....i will continue with 1/4 tablet reductions every week and see how that goes....it is taking longer than i thought but once again i am reminded that will power and determination and strength have nothing to do with this it's my body that decides...as long as i listen to my body it goes smoothly. zopiclone withdrawal was by far the thing i dreaded the most far beyond the clonazepam.....so i feel like a real super hero having made it this far. i never thought i could shake the z drugs. but i am feeling refreshed in the morning now, less hangover and fatigue and better sleep. which i thought was 100% related to benzo withdrawal.......funny how a sleeping pill designed to help you get a good night sleep actually does the opposite! it took coming off them to realize they were a major, if not the biggest contributor to my symptoms......i am so happy to be getting off of them!!!!! to me they were way more evil than the clonazepam.......

thanks for the support!

Ive found exactly the same. as soon as I started reducing my sleep improved. I did hit a bad patch at 1.45mgs (so low I know but it was awful)

 

I jumped 4 days ago now and feel like I haven't slept since. Im assured that after two weeks it will be better tho.

 

good luck hun

let us know how its going

 

XX JJ

oh geez you aren't on a benzo at the same time? you did benzo first then z drug.....ouch, my w/d doctor said that would be harder to do so i totally empathize!

 

i used to take z drugs all the time before i took benzos....(i was put on benzos for a stomach ache) but as a on again off again insomniac, every few months for a good week to a month i would uses z drugs every night and then stop c/t. i sort used to think of it as a mini vacation from having to think about sleeping.

and everytime i did it was so rough, no sleep , high anxiety for about 3-4 days and then i would feel fine.

 

until the next time i had a marathon insomnia session...then repeat......

 

it was nice not having to think about falling asleep for 2 years...but ironically  it think z drugs actually taught me about what real sleep means, what a sleep schedule is, what good sleep hygiene is, exercise.....and to not fear or worry about sleep , because i never want to take these drugs AGAIN!

 

hope you feel better soon........

hey yeah i came of the benzo first which was a bit stupid really. Although the insomnia from the benzo withdrawal was so bad i was thankful to have the zopiclone at that time, especially when I was in acute withdrawal.

 

Now coming off of it has been so difficult. The dr has prescribed me lyrica which has taken the edge off of it for now but im not going to stay on lyrica long term as I see it has is own problems.

 

Its a nightmare isnt it. These drs need to look at the oaths they took 'first do no harm' and really cosider that when putting people on benzos.