Z-Drug Support Group (Lunesta, Imovane, Zimovane, Ambien, Sonata, Zopiclone)

[[Buddie]]

Hi Guys and gals:

Just to give you an  update on my C/T off of 12.5 mg of ambien, the worst seems to be over after four days, as far as I can tell, But who knows how long this lasts? Time will tell.

Saw my pdoc again today, told him that for four nights I had terrible anxiety, 0 sleep, pacing the floors all night and had a knot in my stomach that would rival a tree trunk. Couldn't stomach any food. Told him I spoke with the ambien pharma doc who said under NO circumstances should you C/T off of 12.5 mg of Ambien. Just taper a bit, two weeks at a time.

My pdoc, who I am beginning to hate with a passion, told me the doctor was wrong. When I told him of the terrible time I was having, he just said, "I have no sympathy towards you at all, and isn't this just too bad. I expected you to feel this lousy." Seems he forgot he scripted me the drug in the first place. I never asked for it. What the hell is wrong with these doctors anyway? I'd rather see a plumber. [...]

[[Buddie]]

Hi GUYS!! Glad you started this thread. I was on zopiclone for two years at 15mg a night...I know! Enough to knock out a horse! I had no idea until I was off of it that it was the very thing that was causing all my severe debilitating exhaustion, depression and really low blood pressure. Had I known that it was the z drugs and not the clonazepam I would have tapered off of it immediately right at  the beginning.  The taper was a nightmare. It was harder than clonazepam. I was non  functional for the two months or so it took to taper. It was very scary as my blood pressure and dizziness were out of control. I still have it with the clonazepam taper but nothing compared to the z taper... Here  is a link I often refer people to for info on z drugs   http://www.benzosupport.org/the_z_drugs.htm I also refer people to this insomnia link http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=78924.0  because quite frankly I had to learn how to sleep again after letting a pill do it for me for so long. It really was a skill I had to practice and practice again and again until I could do it again on my own. It took mnths but I am a pretty darn [...] sleeper now...knock on wood!  [...].xoxo

[[Buddie]]

Hi GUYS!! Glad you started this thread. I was on zopiclone for two years at 15mg a night...I know! Enough to knock out a horse! I had no idea until I was off of it that it was the very thing that was causing all my severe debilitating exhaustion, depression and really low blood pressure. Had I known that it was the z drugs and not the clonazepam I would have tapered off of it immediately right at  the beginning.  The taper was a nightmare. It was harder than clonazepam. I was non  functional for the two months or so it took to taper. It was very scary as my blood pressure and dizziness were out of control. I still have it with the clonazepam taper but nothing compared to the z taper... Here  is a link I often refer people to for info on z drugs   http://www.benzosupport.org/the_z_drugs.htm I also refer people to this insomnia link http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=78924.0  because quite frankly I had to learn how to sleep again after letting a pill do it for me for so long. It really was a skill I had to practice and practice again and again until I could do it again on my own. It took mnths but I am a pretty darn [...] sleeper now...knock on wood!  [...].xoxo

Alamaba:

I'm sure glad we both got off the Z-drugs. Seems you had a much much harder time than I did, but mine was no picnic for the first four days. After four days, I was fine, except the insomnia returned. I also had a boatload of benzos in my system, which I am convinced helped me a great deal with the detox. Don't know how much benzos you were on, but I seem to set a record for my amounts -- 10 years of 13 mg xanax and 10 years of 10 mg K. Holy crapl! I'll be tapering until I'm in my 90s.

[[Buddie]]

I was pretty low in klonopin when I decided to taper so my benzo w/d doctor had me updose my klonopin a bit in order to temper the w/d, but it didn't help too  much.......it was brutal....wow 10mg of k..........crazy! My max was 2. But I was on olanzapine and a high dose of zopiclone...I was a zombie...LOL!

[[Buddie]]

I was pretty low in klonopin when I decided to taper so my benzo w/d doctor had me updose my klonopin a bit in order to temper the w/d, but it didn't help too  much.......it was brutal....wow 10mg of k..........crazy! My max was 2. But I was on olanzapine and a high dose of zopiclone...I was a zombie...LOL!

Hi [...]:

I take 2 mg of K in the am and don't feel a thing. Seems I'm in for a bit of trouble down the road, no?

[[Buddie]]

I fortunately never reached tolerance....but that had it's downside because it always sedated me and the more sedated I was the more depressed I became as a result....I was a zombie on my high doses. It wasn't til the low doses and i was off z that the depression lifted. Now my withdrawal is really physical not mental. Except the crazy dizziness from really low blood pressure which causes bad cognitive issues....I feel nothing (and haven't for months) after I take my dose , but it relieves my physical symptoms....

[[Buddie]]

Thank you for starting this thread, as I did find it hard to search for any Z related topics.
 
 I took 1 Zopiclone tablet (3.75mg). This happened 2 months ago. I was already starting to suffer the following day after the first dose It began with me noticing weird distorted sounds from every passing car while I was standing at the bus stop. I arrived [...] and I seemed to be ok, besides the fact that I was unusually tired. So I went to bed early, but while lying for more than 30min I noticed I cant sleep, on top of that a weird sounds in my ears suddenly started to buzz constantly.
  I slept for 3 hours the following 2 nights until I was desperate enough to take another Z dose, since nothing was helping me to sleep - music, wine, valerian pills etc. But I only took a half of Z tablet, which didnt help at all. I was as sleepless as before 

 The worst was still to happen. While I struggled to calm down, I started to keep noticing more and more of distorted sounds around me. When I started my first day at the new job I had an intense panic attack where all sounds became distorted and loud, which made me take 2 days off. The loud attacks happened a few more times during that week of the first and last Z dose. Though they seemed to have moved away, I still could hear constant distortion when I heard background noise (like a fan, engine noise). And of course sleepless nights. This is when I ran into drinking lots of wine before going to bed, this was still all happening in the same week. I drank about 2-3 nights and I could only sleep 2 more hours, so around 5 hours per night.


But to be honest, I was not worried about sleeping as much as I did about my hearing. This made me so scared, I had constant death wish in my head...and plans on all the things I need to do before I die soon. The thought of not enjoying music as I did was just too depressing (Im an animator, so to do fun cartoons, I need to work with music).


Somehow I managed to survive, by talking with fellow workers as much as I could. I kept my mind away from myself and hoped that with time I would get [...]...after 2 months now I still hear distortion and my head still feels pressured, foggy and kind of strange

I have been feeling dead all this time, and though I managed to cope [...] with the dizziness and anxiety, I have daily phases when I feel terrified and hopeless that my life is over.

I do not know if this is normal for the Z drug to have such a long lasting effect, or if I am permanently disabled my hearing/brain function.

[[Buddie]]

Thank you for starting this thread, as I did find it hard to search for any Z related topics.
 
 I took 1 Zopiclone tablet (3.75mg). This happened 2 months ago. I was already starting to suffer the following day after the first dose It began with me noticing weird distorted sounds from every passing car while I was standing at the bus stop. I arrived [...] and I seemed to be ok, besides the fact that I was unusually tired. So I went to bed early, but while lying for more than 30min I noticed I cant sleep, on top of that a weird sounds in my ears suddenly started to buzz constantly.
  I slept for 3 hours the following 2 nights until I was desperate enough to take another Z dose, since nothing was helping me to sleep - music, wine, valerian pills etc. But I only took a half of Z tablet, which didnt help at all. I was as sleepless as before 

 The worst was still to happen. While I struggled to calm down, I started to keep noticing more and more of distorted sounds around me. When I started my first day at the new job I had an intense panic attack where all sounds became distorted and loud, which made me take 2 days off. The loud attacks happened a few more times during that week of the first and last Z dose. Though they seemed to have moved away, I still could hear constant distortion when I heard background noise (like a fan, engine noise). And of course sleepless nights. This is when I ran into drinking lots of wine before going to bed, this was still all happening in the same week. I drank about 2-3 nights and I could only sleep 2 more hours, so around 5 hours per night.


But to be honest, I was not worried about sleeping as much as I did about my hearing. This made me so scared, I had constant death wish in my head...and plans on all the things I need to do before I die soon. The thought of not enjoying music as I did was just too depressing (Im an animator, so to do fun cartoons, I need to work with music).


Somehow I managed to survive, by talking with fellow workers as much as I could. I kept my mind away from myself and hoped that with time I would get [...]...after 2 months now I still hear distortion and my head still feels pressured, foggy and kind of strange

I have been feeling dead all this time, and though I managed to cope [...] with the dizziness and anxiety, I have daily phases when I feel terrified and hopeless that my life is over.

I do not know if this is normal for the Z drug to have such a long lasting effect, or if I am permanently disabled my hearing/brain function.

In my opinion,Some of the things you describe could certainly be attributed to zopiclone withdrawal but I have a question with that.
Did you say that you have only taken 3.75 mg twice?

It does seem quite a drastic result .

You can see my signature below.
I initially started having problems with zopiclone when I had extreme stress in my life and increased the zopiclone to force some sleep.
I had Been using it for years but more sparingly.
After increasing the dose for months, I started having a lot of problems.
Things escalated from there.
On another note, my mom says that she feels really strange everytime she takes 1/2 zopiclone.

Carol

[[Buddie]]

Carol and All: I am wondering what advice you might have for me. I have been on varying doses of Zopiclone for the past 5 years. Before that I had another round with it and was eventually able to taper off it. However, when my husband became seriously ill, I resorted to it in the summer of 2008. I have not been able to get off it again.

Now I am attempting to get off it even though my husband has very advanced cancer with frequent crises and no hope for improvement. A rocky road ahead. Nonetheless I need to look after myself and that means getting off the Zopiclone.

I was taking 7.5 for a long time - a large half at bedtime and the smaller half when I woke in the night. When I was feeling particularly anxious in the summer, my family doc suggested going up to 1 1/2 a night. I also have been taking 10 mg of Doxepin  (a very low dose tricyclic antidepressant that is used for insomnia.)

Now the doctor wants me to only take 7.5. I only have a few tablets left and so need to use sparingly at least until I see him next week. It is a controlled substance where we live.

I have reduced to one tablet a night the past 3 nights but am not getting enough sleep. How long will it take to adjust to this dose? How long until I can cut again and how much?

Many thanks for any advice you can give.  LL

[[Buddie]]

[...], i sympathize...
I have struggled with zop for 4 years
Right now I take 7.5 and a 5mg and it doesnt do anything anymore.  Its the seroquel 25mg that knocks me out
Also, I trick my body by doing the before bed/hot shower thing. It rellay helps, and i do child's pose in there.  It works and i fall asleep [...] when i do it

I am going to be starting a 5%/10 days taper from the zop starting february.  bought a scale and it will be alot easier that way