I am not on it for addiction problems, I am on it for pain. In the last two years I've had no relief for severe back pain on ANYTHING. Not even major surgery (removing my rib, deflating my lung, and replacing the disc with my rib). To me, this drug is a miracle. I too take 8mg. every 6-8 hours. It took being on it for two weeks before I could sleep more than an hour at night. Then, after three weeks, I was sleeping, but couldn't stay awake driving to work. I'm now also on Provigil to stay awake during the day.
From what I have researched it sounds like what the others are saying, you are on way too much for your circumstances. You might even try breaking it in half and only taking 4mg every 6-8 hrs.
Good luck with it. I know how bad side effects to some meds can be.