Multiple Medications

Hi everyone:

I have been reading some about folks that are having real trouble with their tapering off the benzodiazepines. It is really scary how these folks have been off the drugs for months and simply cannot hack it and have to reinstate.  Some of them were having such serious withdrawal on such small doses such as 0.5 mg and lower of clonazepam.  I am on so much more.  I have taken so many drugs for the past 15 years for insomnia.

I am currently trying to taper off clonazepam (down from 2.0 to 0.70mg)  I am very concerned since all the medications I take have serious insomnia issues associated with withdrawal. Getting off clonazepam and temazepam is going to be hard (no sleep, etc.) but then I have the seroquel mountain to climb.  I have discussed this with people and they say total insomnia occurs when off seroquel. I mean these people do not sleep at all.  You become psychotic without sleep.  It is very damaging to your health and destroys relationships.  I feel like a Frankenstein monster.  I have seen poor souls in the psych wards who have monster defects such as contortions of the face every 15 seconds or so.  I really hope I don't end up like them.  I am on four powerful sedating medications and I still get very little restorative sleep. I simply get knocked out without REM sleep. I fear that if things get bad, I may be forced into another hospitalization where they will give me who knows what (more antipsychotics, electroshock.)

I just need a little reassurance from my benzo buddies.  I need to be strong, because predatory doctors are waiting to force their drugs on me.  I guess this is the price I pay for believing the whole chemical imbalance theme of psychiatry and trusting in the drugs they push.  I think sometimes we should replace the motto "In God we trust" to "in drugs we trust".

I want to be clean from psychiatry and I don't know if I can handle the no sleep thing for months at a time.  I need strength so badly because I do not want to die.

Thank you for all the support!

Kendall7858

I feel for you Shakey. I was on Temazepam for many many years until it was changed to Nitrazepam. I was also given Valium and Ativan for the anxiety caused by the sleeping tablets. I managed to avoid antidepressants as the first pill would give me such a bad reaction.

I'm ok now and doing fine at six months free. I had little sleep during the acute phase at month two to three and was scared of psychosis. I even made my doc promise he wouldn't hospitalise me. He replied I was the sanest person he knew. There really is light at the end of the tunnel and I now sleep eight or nine hours most nights. Mind you waking up can be difficult at times!

I was told our bodies can deal with long periods without sleep and will eventually give in to it. This was true for me. Good Luck on your journey to freedom and restful nights.

I am taking Temazepam too.  Very worried about what is to come as I try to get off the drug.  How long have you been taking Temazepam and what dose?  We have to get off these drugs.  I know no sleep for days/weeks can make one go crazy.  Its very difficult.  I don't know what the solution is.  I also have bad tinnitus from the drug and hyperacusis. 

GOGA

Hi Ken, I think my experience may help you. I have been on sleep aids for 7 yrs for insomnia/anxiety. I have found that overall, the less meds I am on the better I sleep. At several points during the years I have been on as many as 5 Psych. Meds at once, a mix of benzos, AD's and antipsychotics. One night in the psych ward I slept for only 1 hr. On all those!

Over the years I became sicker and sicker and just knew I must get off everything. My Dr. And I slowly started dropping things until I was only on 100 mg. Seroquel and 1.25 mg. K-pin. I was sleeping mores sound and felt mentally better about sleeping as time progressed. Then 5 mos. Ago I started weaning the benzo. I was worried sleep would suffer again, at the time I was still on the 100 mg. Seroquel. I slept fine through the first mo. Of taper and started dropping seroquel here and there until I was comfortable sticking to 50 mg. Now I am 6 weeks off k-pin and all I sleep on is the seroquel. I get about 7 good hrs. Every night. I know at some point soon I will try dropping to 25 mg.

I firmly believe the drugs ultimately make our sleep worse and our body is just screaming to learn to sleep on its own again. Let me know if you have any other questions, I know this one well.

Hi Hopeful and Goga:

Thanks for the inspirational messages.  I know that I am not alone and it is inspirational to know that the easy way out by piling drugs on top of drugs can't be a good thing.  Sometimes we just have to trust our instincts that tell us we will be better off choosing a different path.  It is not only counter intuitive, but compulsion wants to expedite the process. So many have suffered set backs.

Goga, I take 30 mgs temazepam every night for the past four months.  If I can ditch the klonopin, I will next ditch the temazepam.  One day at a time.  Thank you both so much and God bless you both.

Kendall7858

Kendall: Thats pretty much what I have been taking also on the Temaz although I tried to drop to 15 with bad results.  Back to 22.5 seeing if that helps, but I don't see much improvement.  Im also afraid of not being able to sleep as I drop the med.  Tinnitus is bad, hyperacusis is bad, anxiety is bad.  I am afraid also not to get any sleep and go psychotic.  These drugs are vicious.  They have no mercy.   

May God Bless you in your recovery, Kendall  I pray for you and all the victims of benzo's.  Most knew nothing about the horrors they were getting into.  Docs did not say anything.

GOGA

Meds in general are no good for sleep. Not in the long term and often not in the short term either. I had countless night with literally zero sleep on multiple cocktails of meds, and some included the most powerful antipsychotics. I never had any sleep on Seroquel either. And the little sleep that I did get with the benzos was not restorative. Sleeping is something you can teach your body to do eventually, but that will never work as long as your brain is functioning on pills.

For your natural sleep to come back, it is essential to get off your medications one by one and at the rate you can tolerate. I'm starting to get the occasional night with 6 hours of normal sleep now after more than 1.5 years off all meds, although most nights I still only get a few hours and some I get none. That may sound scary but it actually feels good to be able to sleep without pills, however little it is, and it can only get better from now on. I much prefer this than the dead sleep I had on the benzos.

If you don't have any psychiatric disorder you're aware of and that your environment is aware of, I wouldn't go to a psychiatrist, particularly not for sleep-related problems or when you want to withdraw from your medication. In general, psychiatrists will not treat your insomnia as such other than throw in more meds that make it worse than it already is, and they will see personality disorders into every symptom you get, which of course must be treated with... meds. They've also had little if any training in getting their patients off medication.

BTW, if it's any consolation, I've hardly slept in over 6 years and I never went psychotic. It hurts like hell and you would give your life to get some sleep during those countless sleepless nights, but somehow your brain stays intact.

Hi LC:

Thank you.  Your statements confirm my suspicions.  It takes time to have personal revelations through experience. I am just beginning to understand that in the long run, medication will not solve anything.  It is expedient, but the results come with a cost.  I need to strap myself in and hope that I can work with my nurse practitioner to overcome and cope.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I pray for blessings in your accrued wisdom about this.  I certainly don't think I will get the straight dope (no pun intended) from psychiatrists.  This "profession" is causing great harm to the public and desperately needs policing.  Thank you again.

Kendall7858