HELP! PLEASE! CANT SLEEP

Need advice bad!  I am have horrible tinnitus and cant sleep.  Taking 30mg restoril per night but only clocking in 3-4 hours.  Going next week to see a specialist to taper.  Is there anything I can do?  Was on restoril for a few months, did a rapid withdrawl to 15mg (bad pdoc advice) for 3 weeks--got horrible w/d, now back up to 30mg but not feeling well.  I know going further up in dose is not an option, cant SLEEP, cant FUNCTION!  HELP!  Losing house is on the line, everything is on the line.  Thanks benzo brothers and sisters. 

Hello Goga, I was able to taper from 30mg Temaz in 5 months by taking the capsules apart and using a water titration.. I was on the drug for 15 years so I just want you to know it is very doable .

Yes I had insomnia , tinnitis and many other withdrawals but I really wanted off the drug so just pushed through.

I wish you well and hope you do not lose your home 

Ladygrace12

goga, I developed bad interdose withdrawal on Restoril, even though I was only on it for a couple of months. What I did was break my dose into 3 or so sections. I would take the first part, sleep 2-4 hours, then take the next part, etc...It was no fun but got me through the night. I also did this with the titration as I was tapering off. Fortunately I am self-employed so it gave me the flexibility to sleep late if necessary. It would be hard not having the flexibility. You could try going to bed earlier so you have time to get the sleep and messing around with doses in. Also had tinnitus, it has gone except when I get run down. Try getting some background noise.

Thanks for the support and advice!

HI Meowie:  Are you still taking the restoril or are you finished with it?  Did you get tinnitus from inter-dose w/d?  How long did it last if you did?  I want to get off of it but not sure how I am going to sleep with the horrible tinnitus I have.  Any suggestions?  I only sleep 4 hours or so with 30mg now anyway.  I'm going to see a dr. who does the Ashton taper next week....we'll see what he advises.  Thanks for your input!

Ladygrace12: Thanks for your input!  How long did your tinnitus last?  Was it lound/high pitch?  Congratulations on getting off restoril!  I hate the poison!  It's really messed me up.  Did you have really bad insomnia when you tapered down?  Im having bad insomnia and tinnitus now and I am not even tapering yet......scared of what's to come.

 

 

I hope things improve for you soon.

I can't sleep very well lately either, but somehow I've managed to mostly separate my anxiety about that from the annoyance I feel at so much tossing and turning and wakefulness at night.

 

What's helped me is just having faith in my own body to know what it's doing. It's getting the sleep it needs. That may be less than what my ego wants right now, but that's dukkha at it's simplest level: striving for things to be not as they are.

 

There's really only two things you can do: go back on drugs (and potentially run the risk of them losing effectiveness over time, and having to take more and more) to get the sleep you 'want', or go off the drugs and accepting that there will be difficulties which may include getting less sleep than you want to get. I've seen a lot of reports of insomnia on here, I've lived through one of them (am living through one of them, I got maybe 3-4 hours of broken sleep over an 8 hour period last night), and I've never seen anyone go insane or die from it.

 

Speaking personally, insomnia actually doesn't make me anxious, it just makes me very tired which makes all my other emotions a lot more intense (and yes, makes my tinnitus more intense, too). What makes me feel crazy is fear of insomnia, and anxiety about sleep. And, as I get through this, day by day, I'm finding that I have the ability to let go of my fear of insufficient sleep, even if I'm still not sleeping well.

 

If I had to guess, the tinnitus is not actually what's making you anxious or keeping you up. I say that, because I can still hear my tinnitus whining on and on right now, but I'm not anxious about it, and so it's got very little power over me.

 

You will get through this, and if you do, the tinnitus will not last forever. The bad sleep will not last forever. If you just keep taking the drugs, then the tinnitus and sleep anxiety may drag on and on.

 

I can tell from your writing that you're very scared and in a pretty desperate place. I'm not trying to downplay that, I've been through several periods of it myself this year (twice having to more or less put my life on hold and flee to my parents house to decompress for a few days, at the age of 31). It's miserable, it's unpleasant, it's awful, but IT ENDS. You CAN do this. If you want it badly enough, you WILL do it. We can be here to support you and try to help you believe that this gets better, but no one else can live it for you.

 

Things that help me:

* good diet, lots of veggies and fruits, almost no processed foods at all

* regular exercise (3-4x a week at least)

* regular meditation (every day)

 

It's hard as hell to do that stuff when you're in a state of crisis. But, crisis states don't last forever. As soon as you feel up to trying any of those things, jump on it. In the meantime, maybe try some guided body scan meditations like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aoOlUWO_ak

 

I deliberately linked a 3 hour video, because the night is long. Try listening to that. Even when I'm at my absolute worst, it helps me pass time. If you do these things regularly over a period of time, they can change how your body works and how you respond to stress.

I can't sleep very well lately either, but somehow I've managed to mostly separate my anxiety about that from the annoyance I feel at so much tossing and turning and wakefulness at night.

 

What's helped me is just having faith in my own body to know what it's doing. It's getting the sleep it needs. That may be less than what my ego wants right now, but that's dukkha at it's simplest level: striving for things to be not as they are.

 

There's really only two things you can do: go back on drugs (and potentially run the risk of them losing effectiveness over time, and having to take more and more) to get the sleep you 'want', or go off the drugs and accepting that there will be difficulties which may include getting less sleep than you want to get. I've seen a lot of reports of insomnia on here, I've lived through one of them (am living through one of them, I got maybe 3-4 hours of broken sleep over an 8 hour period last night), and I've never seen anyone go insane or die from it.

 

Speaking personally, insomnia actually doesn't make me anxious, it just makes me very tired which makes all my other emotions a lot more intense (and yes, makes my tinnitus more intense, too). What makes me feel crazy is fear of insomnia, and anxiety about sleep. And, as I get through this, day by day, I'm finding that I have the ability to let go of my fear of insufficient sleep, even if I'm still not sleeping well.

 

If I had to guess, the tinnitus is not actually what's making you anxious or keeping you up. I say that, because I can still hear my tinnitus whining on and on right now, but I'm not anxious about it, and so it's got very little power over me.

 

You will get through this, and if you do, the tinnitus will not last forever. The bad sleep will not last forever. If you just keep taking the drugs, then the tinnitus and sleep anxiety may drag on and on.

 

I can tell from your writing that you're very scared and in a pretty desperate place. I'm not trying to downplay that, I've been through several periods of it myself this year (twice having to more or less put my life on hold and flee to my parents house to decompress for a few days, at the age of 31). It's miserable, it's unpleasant, it's awful, but IT ENDS. You CAN do this. If you want it badly enough, you WILL do it. We can be here to support you and try to help you believe that this gets better, but no one else can live it for you.

 

Things that help me:

* good diet, lots of veggies and fruits, almost no processed foods at all

* regular exercise (3-4x a week at least)

* regular meditation (every day)

 

It's hard as hell to do that stuff when you're in a state of crisis. But, crisis states don't last forever. As soon as you feel up to trying any of those things, jump on it. In the meantime, maybe try some guided body scan meditations like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aoOlUWO_ak

 

I deliberately linked a 3 hour video, because the night is long. Try listening to that. Even when I'm at my absolute worst, it helps me pass time. If you do these things regularly over a period of time, they can change how your body works and how you respond to stress.

I have a question about tinnitus. I have had this for years, and I have just accepted the "crickets" as something I have to live with. I did not even link it to any drug. Right now it is about that same, maybe a bit louder, but not much. If there is any chance I might eventually have a lessening of this, it would be a nice thing to look forward to!

Goga, yes I definitely had the tinnitus during inter-dose withdrawal, in fact that was when it was the worse. The other symptoms I had then were very anxious feelings, obsessiveness, a pain in my ribcage, and a pounding fast heartbeat. I am 2 months off the temazepam and only have occasional insomnia and sometimes the pounding heart. The tinnitus slowly fades away--one day you just notice that it is gone! Try not to focus on it, and know that it will subside. Gaer, what drugs are you taking now?

Hi Meow: The problem is I did a rapid taper on advice of pdoc and that really screwed me up, all sorts of symptoms (2.5 weeks).  I updosed back up and see a specialist next week to try and taper.  Hoping my rapid taper did not mess me up, as I know it can.  You were smart, you did a slow taper off the bat from Temaz.  Take care.

Goga, yes I definitely had the tinnitus during inter-dose withdrawal, in fact that was when it was the worse. The other symptoms I had then were very anxious feelings, obsessiveness, a pain in my ribcage, and a pounding fast heartbeat. I am 2 months off the temazepam and only have occasional insomnia and sometimes the pounding heart. The tinnitus slowly fades away--one day you just notice that it is gone! Try not to focus on it, and know that it will subside. Gaer, what drugs are you taking now?

Nothing but K at .25 mg. 1 mg tab cut into 1/4 pills. I dropped down pretty quickly to 1/4 pill for 24 hours, held there just long enough to be very comfortable, then pushed ahead. I keep a careful record, haven't reproduced it here so far, though I could. I wish I had Valium only because .25 mg K should = 5 mg V, but with the Valium I could then swap for 2 mg and cut that into 1/4 pills. I don't have any of the fancy cutting stuff I have read about here, no way to weight it. So I just take the smallest part of a pill I can make, then let the time slide. Last does was after 39 hours, with only very mild WD right at the end. And that was 23 hours ago. I'm doing the same thing, will shoot for the same amount of time unless something goes bad. I actually feel quite good.

 

I have had tinnitus for YEARS. What I have now doesn't even register unless I think about it.

 

That's it. I stopped using Advil in December 2013 because it was elevating a bad score on a liver test, and I found out I can use a rub which will do more or less the same thing for pain. To be honest, it never did much good. I used to say during a migraine that it was like throwing a thimble of water on a forest fire.

 

That's it, really. I don't even drink coffee or tea, and since I found out caffeine is a trigger for chronic headaches, the headaches stopped. That is why I am pushing to stop K. It was the only reason I took K.

 

I really hate drugs. I think most of them are poisons that shorten our lives.

I have a question about tinnitus. I have had this for years, and I have just accepted the "crickets" as something I have to live with. I did not even link it to any drug. Right now it is about that same, maybe a bit louder, but not much. If there is any chance I might eventually have a lessening of this, it would be a nice thing to look forward to!

 

It really depends; did you have this symptom before you were on benzos? If you're still withdrawing from K, I'd suspect that's making it worse than it would be otherwise.

 

Some people just straight up have tinnitus without ever touching a benzo, and some people never had it before they tried to withdraw from a benzo. It seems like the second group, in general, has a withdrawal induced tinnitus that goes away or reduces drastically down the road. I'm somewhere in the middle, in that I've had some amount of ringing on and off since I was 19, but the only thing that's made it really batshit terrible has been one loud concert (where I forgot my earplugs) that made my ears ring for days and terrorized me, and benzo withdrawal. So, I don't necessarily expect mine to 'go away', but I also know that w/d makes it a lot worse than it is normally.

 

There are a ton of possible causes for this; I don't really buy that it's hearing damage, because of so many cases of people with T without any obvious hearing damage. I do think hearing loss probably makes it seem worse because the noise of the ringing would be relatively louder compared to outside noise. I think muscle tension can be a huge factor, and when trigger points get set up in the face and jaw it can be really hard to work them out. Trigger point release/massage seems to help me a bit.

 

 

I was hit with tinnitus near the end of my taper.  I did my best to remind myself that the tinnitus is just noise and that it couldn't hurt me (like the sound of rain hitting the roof).  I know this is much easier said than done but if you can try to train your mind to think of the tinnitus as not being important then it is posible not to pay attention to it.

 

Good luck with your taper,

 

Optimist

I have a question about tinnitus. I have had this for years, and I have just accepted the "crickets" as something I have to live with. I did not even link it to any drug. Right now it is about that same, maybe a bit louder, but not much. If there is any chance I might eventually have a lessening of this, it would be a nice thing to look forward to!

 

It really depends; did you have this symptom before you were on benzos? If you're still withdrawing from K, I'd suspect that's making it worse than it would be otherwise.

First of all, let me see if I can get lucky with quote tags. I had severe migraines that almost totally ruined my life by age 30. I never touched anything like a benzo until then, and I got Valium because I asked for it. That greatly decreased the severity of the headaches, and I think it saved my life. Unlike many I was warned from the get-go about danger of WD. It was many years later when a doctor asked me to replace Valium with Klonopin. K would be beter than V.

 

I think that was total BS. I think now that the medical profession is so ignorant about all these benzos that they simply accept "facts" about what is just the latest medical whim. I wish I had never been switched to K. But I was, and it was probably a good 15 years ago. Tinnitus started gradually, and I just accepted that I had it. It never occurred to me that K might be causing it. To be honest, I have been on benzos so long that I don't know.

 

But it has not gotten worse, and I have no trouble hearing. I have some hearing loss, mostly upper frequencies, but I still have keen hearing of pitch up to the very top of a piano, for instance. I can tune up there. I'm a musician.

Some people just straight up have tinnitus without ever touching a benzo, and some people never had it before they tried to withdraw from a benzo. It seems like the second group, in general, has a withdrawal induced tinnitus that goes away or reduces drastically down the road. I'm somewhere in the middle, in that I've had some amount of ringing on and off since I was 19, but the only thing that's made it really batshit terrible has been one loud concert (where I forgot my earplugs) that made my ears ring for days and terrorized me, and benzo withdrawal.

I think you are right. My own tinnitus is obviously not particularly WD related. If it has gotten worse, perhaps the crickets are 10% louder. It is really easy for me to pay it no attention. But I would enjoy listening to music more if it decreased. That would be great.

So, I don't necessarily expect mine to 'go away', but I also know that w/d makes it a lot worse than it is normally.

 

There are a ton of possible causes for this; I don't really buy that it's hearing damage, because of so many cases of people with T without any obvious hearing damage. I do think hearing loss probably makes it seem worse because the noise of the ringing would be relatively louder compared to outside noise. I think muscle tension can be a huge factor, and when trigger points get set up in the face and jaw it can be really hard to work them out. Trigger point release/massage seems to help me a bit.

Again, I think you are right. I hope the quotes work here. If they don't, I don't know if I can fix it. I don't see any edit feature. But the preview says this is gonna work.

Goga--actually, I tried to taper off several times unsuccesfully. First time before I found benzo buddies. I finally realized that I wasn't going to "stabilize" or feel better no matter what dose I was on, and I just had to taper down and get off the stuff. Fortunately I also happened to get a very supportive nurse to talk with me about tapering and give me the pills to do it (my doctor didn't have a clue, and would have just cut me off completely). You are probably at a similar place to where I was, just really uncomfortable at any dose. Best of luck and I'm sure you'll do just fine!

Hi Meow: Thanks for the response.  Did you have ear problems (ringing or fullness) either on Temazapam or when you were withdrawing from it?  When you tapered, did you do a switchover to Valium or taper down on Temaz itself?  Was it rough for you?  Thanks for the feedback.  Hope you feel well. 

 

GOGA

Goga, I had tinnitus both while on temazepam (interdose especially), and while tapering and a while afterward. There is no way my doctor or the nurse would switch me to another drug. So I took the temazepam capsules, emptied them into a syringe (with gradations on it) shook it up and squirted out the reduction. Then I would shake the syringe and squirt out about 1/3 of the contents into a spoon (boy did I feel like a druggy then). After I had slept 2-4 hours and woke up with W/D symptoms, I took another third, and so on. Tapering was not bad at all once I felt confident in what I was doing. I'm feeling pretty good now--2 1/2 months out.

Hi Meow:  Thanks for the response.  I am having such difficulty sleeping with the tinnitus and I am not even off of Temaz yet.  Tell me it gets better.  The temaz is slowing me down, having cognitive difficulties, etc.  How long after you stopped Temaz did the tinnitus go away? 

 

Thanks,

GOGA

It gets better! I can't really recall when the tinnitus went away--it was gradual. Honestly the heart pounding and anxiety were MUCH more bothersome to me and caused me to lose sleep. Once I knew the tinnitus was a common side effect, and would go away, I really wasn't as bothered by it. Just opened the window to let the "night sounds" in to cover it up a bit. It won't go away until you are off the drug--another good reason to forge onward and downward!

Meow:  Thanks SO much for your feedback.  Pdoc also put me on Lexapro due to my depression.  Yes, I have been depressed but that's because of the bad W/D I am having.  Everyone tells me to stay away from an SSRI anti-depressant.  When I started it, I felt bad nausea, sweating, screwed up sleep even more, really increased anxiety (it seems like its a stimulant).  I think I should stop it.  Pdcos don't know what they are talking about.  I have asked 3 pdocs about the Ashton taper method of benzo's and all 3 said they knew nothing about it.  They told me to just cut my does by 50% which is what I did.  After 3 weeks, I thought I was going nuts.  Now that I have upodosed (from 15 to 30mg of Temaz), I feel a bit better, but not that much.  My short-term memory is shot, derealization, anxiety, tinnitus, sensitivity to sounds, fatigue.  When I did the 50% cut, I was practically bed-ridden.  Now, at least I can function a bit.  It's been bad for me.  I know I will get through this, but it's been so tough.  I am worried when I actually start tapering the drug.  I will be trying to switch over to Valium, but am worried about the depression and other problems that could come with it.  These benzo's are really like poison.  How do people continue working that have such bad w/d symptoms? 

 

GOGA

Goga, I have done the "cut back by 50%" thing. If I ever hear a doctor say that to anyone, my answer is going to be:

 

Excuse me but you do not have a CLUE about the whole subject of benzos, and you will do your patients a huge favor by educating yourself.

 

That is, I would say that on a tactful day. On a bad day I would simply say:

 

"You don't know one EFFING thing about benzos, and you are going to ill someone, {censored}"

 

Obviously I am in no position to advise anyone, and I'm not ever going to do that. But my personal experience is that every new drug adds a whole bunch of unknowns into something that is also almost too complex to understand. I can only deal with Klonopin. That has been enough to nearly defeat me.

 

If I had come here several months ago, I would have gone with a much slower taper. I think the people who decrease very gradually, over a much longer period, are doing something that is both very sensible and logical but also something that is medically much safer.

 

Good luck!

 

I gave up a drug last fall that was given to me for precisely the thing that we are talking about - insomnia. It was trazadone. For many years this worked for me, sort of. I took one pill before going to bed and got a kind of chemically assisted sleep that allowed me to sleep up to 8 hours.

 

But it was never a relaxing sleep, and I always got dry mouth, sweats, other things, which gradually became worse. By the time I cut Trazadone last fall, I actually felt immediately much better. But I had to get used to less sleep or at least smaller sleep periods. At first I felt as though I was not getting enough sleep, but as I went with it a few months I started to prefer the shorter sleep periods. And I started to fall asleep REALLY fast.

 

I lost this as I started to taper K. Recently it has been pretty bad, no more than half my normal sleep. But I was sort of trained to get used to shorter sleep periods already, so that is starting to make its way into my new habits.

 

Man, I just do not understand how people regularly sleep more than 8 hours at a rip. My wife will sometimes fall asleep before midnight and does not get up until 9 AM. I watch her do this with great envy.