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A question to experienced Benzo users about zopiclone.

S

Sad27

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Oct 31, 2021
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10
I’m a couple of days into a codeine withdrawal and haven’t slept at all last night. I’m wondering if zopiclone can have a kindling effect like Benzos? A while ago I joined a benzo support group on Facebook (out of curiosity) and saw all the horror stories about people being thrown back into a horrendous withdrawal after just a single use of a benzo. Can this happen with zopiclone? Is this rare or fairly common. I took zopiclone for a few weeks at the beginning of this year and had a very short but intense withdrawal. A month later I took one tablet and had another day of withdrawal. It’s been 8 months since I took any. Am I safe to use these once or twice during this codeine withdrawal or is the chance of me being thrown into a zop withdrawal fairly high. It seems unlikely to me but I saw that many horror stories on Facebook that it scared me. Thanks for any replies guys, the knowledge on here is awesome.
 
Yes zopiclone will contribute to kindling, give rebound and other bad things. It touches the same receptor. Imagine the hangover a severely benzo dependant person would have after drinking (pretty niche analogy but whatev).

One or two is not going to throw you into full wds. One or two would cause rebound anxiety/effects/insomnia. If you have a history of alcohol/benzo/GABA use this effect is going to be a lot more pronounced, yet not that significant from a few pills. Just stop after a few days and you shouldn't have any issues.

It's totally fine to use for opioid withdrawal alleviation, just don't take it for more than a week.

I personally found eszopiclone to be a better alternative. It doesn't touch GABAa (the key receptor here) but was just as effective and in my opinion was not addictive or abuseable... but on paper it is. I took it daily for 9 months and stopped with zero withdrawals.
 
Negentropic said:
Yes zopiclone will contribute to kindling, give rebound and other bad things. It touches the same receptor. Imagine the hangover a severely benzo dependant person would have after drinking (pretty niche analogy but whatev).

One or two is not going to throw you into full wds. One or two would cause rebound anxiety/effects/insomnia. If you have a history of alcohol/benzo/GABA abuse this effect is going to be a lot more pronounced, but yet not that significant. Just stop after a few days and you shouldn't have any issues.

It's totally fine to use for opioid withdrawal alleviation, just don't take it for more than a week.

I personally found eszopiclone to be a better alternative. It doesn't touch GABAa (the key receptor here) but was just as effective and in my opinion was not addictive or abuseable... but on paper it is. I took it daily for 9 months and stopped with zero withdrawals.
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I haven’t drank alcohol for years. I have used pregabalin occasionally but never been dependant on it. 2 years ago I used diazepam for 4 weeks and had a 2 week withdrawal after. That’s the extent of my gaba use really aswell as the zopiclone. So would taking one tonight have a chance to make me feel even worse? I just don’t know what to do. I can’t get any eszopiclone unfortunately.
 
Sad27 said:
I haven’t drank alcohol for years. I have used pregabalin occasionally but never been dependant on it. 2 years ago I used diazepam for 4 weeks and had a 2 week withdrawal after. That’s the extent of my gaba use really aswell as the zopiclone. So would taking one tonight have a chance to make me feel even worse? I just don’t know what to do. I can’t get any eszopiclone unfortunately.
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if you are hyper sensitive to rebound it's likely any amount will give you increased anxiety for a bit after

this is fairly uncommon, though. My gaba receptors are completely fried from some severe benzo abuse/alcoholism over 2 decades and I can still use them for a few days and stop without any issue. After a week or two that's when the rebound/withdrawal starts.

I'd say you might be overthinking it a bit. 1-3 nights on z-drugs is not going to cause any withdrawal or anything like that unless you were a SEVERE addict in the past, but you aren't.
 
at 8 months i'd be really really wary. i get the bind when you're dealing with opiate withdrawal. what a nightmare.

but sadly gaba receptors are very slow to sort themselves out. you will have progressed a fair amount in that time but not necessarily enough for it to reduce rather than exacerbate your current problems. if you got rebound after one pill before it suggests your receptors had a fair way to go.
 
chinup said:
at 8 months i'd be really really wary. i get the bind when you're dealing with opiate withdrawal. what a nightmare.

but sadly gaba receptors are very slow to sort themselves out. you will have progressed a fair amount in that time but not necessarily enough for it to reduce rather than exacerbate your current problems. if you got rebound after one pill before it suggests your receptors had a fair way to go.
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Do you know why I can take pregabalin without it causing issues? Does it hit a different type of gaba receptor ?
 
QP: Same, I've freshly sober and can't sleep at all. Hoping for the process to return to normality will come sooner rather than later as I did recently have approximately 2 weeks. I feel for you though - the sleeplessness
exacerbates the anxiety, the depression and the lack of motivation to to anything due to not being able to recover via the healing properties on the body and mind.

Negentropic said:
zopiclone will contribute to kindling, give rebound and other bad things. It touches the same receptor. Imagine the hangover a severely benzo dependant person would have after drinking (pretty niche analogy but whatev).

One or two is not going to throw you into full wds. One or two would cause rebound anxiety/effects/insomnia. If you have a history of alcohol/benzo/GABA use this effect is going to be a lot more pronounced, yet not that significant from a few pills. Just stop after a few days and you shouldn't have any issues.

It's totally fine to use for opioid withdrawal alleviation, just don't take it for more than a week.

I personally found eszopiclone to be a better alternative. It doesn't touch GABAa (the key receptor here) but was just as effective and in my opinion was not addictive or abuseable... but on paper it is. I took it daily for 9 months and stopped with zero withdrawals.
Click to expand...

Well said - decent information here. Took 20mgs of Zopiclone/Zimmovane this afternoon and that was enough to lessen my own anxiety enough so that I could go to the pharmacy to pick up my Diazepam script. Surprisingly enough I managed to get 2hrs sleep this afternoon after the Zopiclone/Zimmovane. Its anxyolic effects tend to wear off not long after waking up so I took a few Diazepam after I got them and I they've done the job. I'll hold onto the remainder for when the anxiety flares up.
 
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