Hi everyone,
I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm currently in my third day of etizolam withdrawal and gbl taper. It started out with taking etizolam every now and then. I've always been a pretty bad sleeper. And that rolled into two months of taking 1 to 1,5, occasionally 2 mgs of etizolam to sleep at night. After that ofcourse my sleep was pretty worthless and with stress and anxiety in my daily life I really wanted to get off of it. So the last month I have been tapering myself of off it slowly getting to 1 then to 0.5 mgs. But to make things worse the last two weeks I was such a wreck and so tired I started using gbl to sleep (a couple of times 3 dosages of about 1.5 to 2 mls every 2,5 to 3 hours, now down to 2mls every 3,5 to 4 hours). I know this was not the way go when tapering of etizolam but I was desperate for some sleep. Right now I have been able to get good sleep for 4 nights in a row (about 7.5 to 8 hours) which has helped me a great deal. I have now slept two nights without etizolam and I want to taper of the gbl as fast as possible. I had to work yesterday and today. It's not easy and I definetly feel some anxiety but I'm really trying to be strict for myself and push through. I am taking N-acetylcysteïne for cravings throughout the day and drinking chamomile tea to calm my nerves (although that's more the thought then it actually helping ;-) ). I have the next five days off from work but I have a christmas dinner at a friends tomorrow evening and the two days after that I'll be spending two days at a cabin with my sister and her boyfriend and kids. All in all not too stressy things, but more than enough for my current anxietylevel. I am thinking of cancelling on the christmas dinner though and focusing on getting through those two days whilst tapering of the gbl. I'm worried about the gbl-taper though. I've had some hellish withdrawals from it but that was always after using it 24/7 for three to four days. I always get through those so I know I can do it. But I've never used it to sleep on it for as long as I have now (in two weeks and 2 nights now) and I'm a bit scared the etizolam withdrawal might still rear it's ugly head. Right now I only have 2 mg's of etizolam left, about a total of 12 mgs lormetazepam (but those don't really do much for me) and 250 mls gbl and the n-acetylcysteïne. I really don't want to touch anything benzo- or thienzo anymore. I really want to be done with it. I will only use it if anxiety would get really out of hand, but I'd rather not. So I was wondering what you guys here would advise on the gbl-taper and what you think I can still expect in effect coming off te eti and the gbl. I'm sorry if it was such a long post but I wanted to be as accurate as possible. Thank you in advance for your advice and support. I hope I can really kick these two devils for good.
ps.: I have kicked alcohol about 2.5 months ago (2-3 glasses of wine a day, not that much, but my life did actually quite improve quite a lot even with quiting such low daily use). I have only drank on three occasions since. I will probably drink a couple at my sisters but I know alcohol only makes symtomps worse so I'm gonna try to keep use minimal.
I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm currently in my third day of etizolam withdrawal and gbl taper. It started out with taking etizolam every now and then. I've always been a pretty bad sleeper. And that rolled into two months of taking 1 to 1,5, occasionally 2 mgs of etizolam to sleep at night. After that ofcourse my sleep was pretty worthless and with stress and anxiety in my daily life I really wanted to get off of it. So the last month I have been tapering myself of off it slowly getting to 1 then to 0.5 mgs. But to make things worse the last two weeks I was such a wreck and so tired I started using gbl to sleep (a couple of times 3 dosages of about 1.5 to 2 mls every 2,5 to 3 hours, now down to 2mls every 3,5 to 4 hours). I know this was not the way go when tapering of etizolam but I was desperate for some sleep. Right now I have been able to get good sleep for 4 nights in a row (about 7.5 to 8 hours) which has helped me a great deal. I have now slept two nights without etizolam and I want to taper of the gbl as fast as possible. I had to work yesterday and today. It's not easy and I definetly feel some anxiety but I'm really trying to be strict for myself and push through. I am taking N-acetylcysteïne for cravings throughout the day and drinking chamomile tea to calm my nerves (although that's more the thought then it actually helping ;-) ). I have the next five days off from work but I have a christmas dinner at a friends tomorrow evening and the two days after that I'll be spending two days at a cabin with my sister and her boyfriend and kids. All in all not too stressy things, but more than enough for my current anxietylevel. I am thinking of cancelling on the christmas dinner though and focusing on getting through those two days whilst tapering of the gbl. I'm worried about the gbl-taper though. I've had some hellish withdrawals from it but that was always after using it 24/7 for three to four days. I always get through those so I know I can do it. But I've never used it to sleep on it for as long as I have now (in two weeks and 2 nights now) and I'm a bit scared the etizolam withdrawal might still rear it's ugly head. Right now I only have 2 mg's of etizolam left, about a total of 12 mgs lormetazepam (but those don't really do much for me) and 250 mls gbl and the n-acetylcysteïne. I really don't want to touch anything benzo- or thienzo anymore. I really want to be done with it. I will only use it if anxiety would get really out of hand, but I'd rather not. So I was wondering what you guys here would advise on the gbl-taper and what you think I can still expect in effect coming off te eti and the gbl. I'm sorry if it was such a long post but I wanted to be as accurate as possible. Thank you in advance for your advice and support. I hope I can really kick these two devils for good.
ps.: I have kicked alcohol about 2.5 months ago (2-3 glasses of wine a day, not that much, but my life did actually quite improve quite a lot even with quiting such low daily use). I have only drank on three occasions since. I will probably drink a couple at my sisters but I know alcohol only makes symtomps worse so I'm gonna try to keep use minimal.
