Was feeling good again till doc stooped my sleeping tablets!!

[celtbhoy]

Hi like my title says basically ive been on 7.5mg of zimovane/zoplicone for 2 months but the doctor had halfed my prescription down to half & he said thats the last im getting..ive been awake for 2 days now & my anxiety is back up nearly as high as its been!
Im just wondering - wouldnt it be better for me in the long run to be getting a decent sleep at night if i was on zimovane rather than going 2 -3 days awake again like i used toand being stressed out to the max?? when i was taking the zimovane every night i was back in a routine.. i had meals at a set time & excercised every day,.. i know now im gonna go back to being a zombie lying awake for days doing nothing but fidgeting & praying for sleep...& the only reason the doctor wont keep me at my current dose is that im "too young" - im 31.

Im seriously getting sick of this now & im thinking of just buying valium & medicating myself with it even though i dont want to go down that road its the- only thing thatll keep me on an even keel! im on effexor 150mg & ive tried CBT but didnt find it helpful at all...well thats not true i found it helpful for my day to day anxiety but as soon as my head hits the pillow im full of the jitters again & just cant sleep!.
Any advice would be welcome.. sorry for being so long winded but i had to get this off my chest!

[haz]

Hi,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble sleeping. I've just started taking 3.75mg zopiclone after six months of being on 7.5mg (prescribed by psychiatrist in hospital). I found the zopiclone stopped having any real effect on my sleep after a few weeks anyway. I asked for my dose to be halved as I was only put on them to treat an initial side effect of insomnia from my new anti depressants. I found that when this initial side effect wore off and I was back home I didn't need them for sleep and they started to affect my memory quite badly. I am also on 12.5mg diazepam daily.

I'm sleeping just as well on 3.75mg (but it's taken me f****in ages to type this cos my zop had just kicked in!)

Don't want to sound patronising, but do you think this could be psychological? If not, maybe your body is just adjusting to the new dose and hopefully you'll notice a difference in a few more days/ nights?

My psychiarist would have me doped up to the eyeballs on drugs if he had his way, he's a bit "old school" !

Good Luck. :)

[celtbhoy]

Yeah it is definitley pyschological ...but how do i get over that..ive been trying for 8 years..although the insomnia has only been the last year or so.
did an hour in the gym solid excercise yesterday (even though i was already knackered but jittery) then was getting sleepy at about 6..took my 3.75 dose struggled to calm down to fall asleep..mustve fell asleep about 6,now ive woke up & its only 1 o clock & i feel like the day is stretching away ahead of me again & im tottally out of sync now..like i said i was fine on the 7.5 mg & i want to know why i just couldnt have been kept on it if it was working for me.. the doctors tell you its all in your head go drink a glass of warm milk i find it patronising from them to be honest, now i just want to be doped up at night to get to sleep to give my mind a break!


Thanks for your reply & i hope it works out for you too!

[haz]

First of all I wouldn't take it until about half an hour before bed. GP's are under pretty strict guidelines when it comes to tranquilisers and sleeping tablets. Zopiclone isn't meant to be prescribed for more than four weeks and your body does build up a tolerance to it pretty quickly and it becomes less effective, but I'm sure you've already noticed that.

If you're really struggling then I would go back to your GP and ask if you cant reduce by 7.5mg one night, then 3.75mg the next for a few more weeks cos obviously sleep deprivation ain't good.

Good Luck. :)

[geejaybee]

Celtbhoy,

I really feel for you as insomnia is one of the worst aspects of many peoples anxiety problems. I have had months of insomnia and had short courses of zopiclone. To be honest it didn't help me much as I felt really awful when I woke up after taking it. It also only seemed to have a very short time effect in that it only kept me asleep for about 3-4 hours.
For the last few months I have been taking an anti-depressant called Trimipramine which has a sedative effect and maintains your sleep over a longer period.
One thing I would really advise is not to take the zopiclone until much later in the evening and not go to bed so early as its almost certain you will wake up in the eraly hours feeling awful.
Hope things get better for you soon.

[celtbhoy]

Yeah i know what you mean about waking up feeling awful but to me its worth it just to get too sleep..well last night i got too sleep at 4 & woke up at half 10 today..ive started excercising more & also got a dog... i find this has helped with my anxiety this week anyway..i dont know why maybe it just takes my mind off things butt ive definitley had a better week :)

[deepreason]

Sounds like a bit of a harsh Doc. Fair enough he had to do it but he should have explained it more to get your agreement rather than just tell you "this is how it is, tough". If he didn't feel capable of justifying himself to you then he shouldn't have taken that action imo.

A couple of ideas you could consider are:

My pDoc suggested to me that a better way of stopping my sleeping tablets was to skip every third night to begin with rather than halve the dose. He explained that I'd been on them so long the only real benefit by now was probably psychological and by doing the reduction this way I'd give myself confidence I didn't need them whilst still getting some solid nights sleep.

Or you could return to your surgery and see a different Doc to ask about other non-addictive options to help you sleep. A couple that spring to mind are an anti-histamine, low dose Mirtazapine (strinctly speaking also an anti-histamine), or a low dose tri-cyclic as mentioned by one of the posters above.