Sorry I have not been following your story. But - you seem to be quitting the use of benzos? Viz, xanax and klonopin?
I tapered off ativan this year by first substituting valium (longer half life) and then tapering down the valium very slowly. It took me 7 months to come down from 30 mg valium (equivalent to 3 mg ativan or1.5 mg of xanax or 1.5 mg of klonopin).
It was a difficult time - but the greatest and most lingering of all the withdrawals was insomnia. The insomnia plagued me for the best part of 4 months after quitting finally, but I am now 6 months off and sleeping well again. By insomnia - I mean that some nights (or days) I did not sleep at all - on others - the maximum I managed was 3 hours from about midnight until 3.00 am when I was wide awake again. It was very debilitating and I got very depressed. All I can advise is giving it time. Seems to me like you are reducing these drugs at a very fast rate. But you dont seem to complain of other withdrawal symptoms and so you may just be very lucky. My advice would be to take no further medications but to let your body and mind adjust. This it will do in time. I wouldnt recommend the use of trazodone or any other drugs during this period of adjustment.
I wish you well - it appears that you are doing remarkably well - just give it some more time? These are strong psychotropic drugs - they alter brain chemistry - it takes time for the adjustments. Your brain will sleep when it has to - it has failsafe mechanims for survival!
Good luck - I will follow your journey with interest!
Never lose hope or give up - if I can do it - then anyone can!!!!
yinksy
Sorry I have not been following your story. But - you seem to be quitting the use of benzos? Viz, xanax and klonopin?
I tapered off ativan this year by first substituting valium (longer half life) and then tapering down the valium very slowly. It took me 7 months to come down from 30 mg valium (equivalent to 3 mg ativan or1.5 mg of xanax or 1.5 mg of klonopin).
It was a difficult time - but the greatest and most lingering of all the withdrawals was insomnia. The insomnia plagued me for the best part of 4 months after quitting finally, but I am now 6 months off and sleeping well again. By insomnia - I mean that some nights (or days) I did not sleep at all - on others - the maximum I managed was 3 hours from about midnight until 3.00 am when I was wide awake again. It was very debilitating and I got very depressed. All I can advise is giving it time. Seems to me like you are reducing these drugs at a very fast rate. But you dont seem to complain of other withdrawal symptoms and so you may just be very lucky. My advice would be to take no further medications but to let your body and mind adjust. This it will do in time. I wouldnt recommend the use of trazodone or any other drugs during this period of adjustment.
I wish you well - it appears that you are doing remarkably well - just give it some more time? These are strong psychotropic drugs - they alter brain chemistry - it takes time for the adjustments. Your brain will sleep when it has to - it has failsafe mechanims for survival!
Good luck - I will follow your journey with interest!
Never lose hope or give up - if I can do it - then anyone can!!!!
yinksy
HI, yinksy,
Its been a couple days since we last posted to each other ,and I wanted to let you know how my "pill taking and insomnia" have been doing...
When I called my Doctor and told him the TRAZODONE didn't seem to be helping (it was at 200mg) it seemed to be giving me severe head aches he suggested triing ativan (lorazepam,1mg.). take two at bedtime. He only called into the pharmacy a 5day emergency amount. He told me that wouuld be enough time to see if it worked for me, but not enough pills to get me dependant on ,or to have withdrawals from.
well, they did seem to work, cause that first and second night ,I got about 6 and a half hours of straight sleep. Boy, did that feel good! the third and fourth night I got about 5 hours of sleep. And yesterday afternoon I was feeling tired, so I only took 1 pill (1mg.) around 5:00pm, and my wife woke me up from laying on the couch, and went right back to sleep in our bedroom ,and didn't wake up until about 7:00 AM !!!>>>> thats like 14 hours STRAIGHT SLEEP! i GUESS MY BODY REALLY NEEDED THAT AFTER SO MANY DAYS-WEEKS OF ONLY GETTING 2,MAYBE 3 HOURS OF SLEEP. I Have one pill remaining that I DON'T plan on taking tonight. I want to see if my body and mind can do it naturally like it use to!
By the way, yesterday, was the last day of my weaning off program of that XANAX, KOLONOPIN,and CATAPRES. AS of today, I am "Pill Free" !!!! Now, I guess>>> we will see what happens...... After being on so many pills (there were a series of Pain Pills, I just recently got over, hydros, oxys ,fentanal patches,ect., its been 30 something days clean for them!) for so long>>>YEARS, it feels great not having any pill bottles on my desk, or charts to remember which ones i took and when. All I have left now IS 20mg. of CELEXA taken once in the morning. <<<< Next,I will start to try and stop (WEAN- DOWN) from them ,and that will be that, as they say!!!! Maybe 2004 will really be "MY YEAR !!!!!......
Anyway, yinksy, that brings you up to date on my "PILL" life. If you can find the time (I know we are all so busy nowadays ), please post to me and let me know how you are doing>>>>for better or worst, and I will always respond to you.....
I have serious insomnia problems, I am bi-polar and manic depressive, and take Trazodone...I am on 300 mgs. a night, but in the past was on 500 mgs. a night (I stopped taking it for a few years). Trazodone as explained by both Pscyhiatrist and PCP is NON addictive and can be raised. Discuss your situation with your healthcare provider.
Ambien is for short term usage. I was on that when I first started back getting help after thinking I was fine with the all of the above mentioned. Ambien is also HIGHLY addictive. It stops working and can have reverse effects, I believe that is also mentioned in the pamphlet that comes with the medication. Please talk to Dr. about raising the Trazodone...don't go with the Ambien.
I hope you are doing well today!!
My medical(Drugs Too) history began near the end of 1999, when I started feeling my sioctic nerve beginning to go down from my lumbar region(L5/S1) to my left calf. I went to the ortho, he proscribed vicoden 5's, and had an MRI done. BAM!!!>>>> I had herniated the disc. As the pain kept getting worse, the drug dossage kept going up also, just to control the pain. Anyway to make this short, I had 2 Spinal operations that were only partially successful. By the time 2003 came around, there was nothing more that could be done,surgically, so I was just given physical therapy and lots and lots of pain medication>>>like oxycontin (40mg. 3x aday) oxy IR for breakthrough pain , the fentenal patches( 50's, 75's ug/h) xanax,>> plus so much more I can't recall them all.End of this sad sob story>>>> it took most of the year, a 5 day de-tox at a hospital 6 weeks ago,and finally my opiate drug problems were finished. But I started showing signs of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I would be awake for 30 something hours, fall asleep for only 2-3 hours and then another 30 something hours awake and so on and so on. They tried me on the herbal stuff,Ambien, xanax(again!) Kolonopin, and Trazodone. Nothing changed a thing. And sometimes, it felt like those meds (not all taken together, of course!) would get me even more wired up!! It took me a 21 day "wean-down" to stop them all.That went smooth enough for me, but the insomnia was still constantly going on. I've never had insomnia before, and I don't have any sleep disorders. Thats when my Pain Doctor deceided to try me on a 5 day trial of Ativan. Take 2 pills right before what would be considered normal sleeping time (11:00 PM). Each pill is 1 mg.
And BAM!! I started sleeping a normal 8 hours. Like you, I am "very affraid" of having another addiction. But what am I to do?
When they ran out saturday night into Sunday, I went back to the herbal teas and melontonin, But I've only got about 3 hours sleep in the last two days (again!!!).
Even as I am posting to you, I am deceiding if I should call the Doctor and ask for another 5 day script(?????).
Well,Smile4uhun, thats my story (or dilemma). I got a feeling I'm gonna call him, because my body is exhausted, but my mind just keeps racing along... After all the "other trials" I have been through and beaten, I can't believe This is gonna start all over again....
I've written enough, Sorry my post was soo long. Sometimes I have to write all this stuff out, because I won't let my wife and family know how much this insomnia is really killing me. I just tell them its a normal reaction from my past drug ussage, that it will stop soon, and that it doesn't really bother me-- I feel great. On the other side of the coin, I really do feel good about being able to stop all other drug ussage, and can handle my back pain. Life is crazy,sometimes...
Okay Smile4uhun, thats it!
If you feel like it, you can post back to me anytime. I'll probably be awake!!!!! ha,ha.../...
