what a weekend, suggestions please... (on coming off ambien/zolpidem)

[Leica]

I just got out of the hospital Saturday night (family forced me)

anyways, I've been a long term opiate user/abuser for about a year or so, and finally ran out and couldn't get any, so I went through some mild withdrawals (I really weened myself off before I ran out) and then I used a couple of tramadols for the restless legs, immodium, and ambien for sleeping. The problem is, on Thursday I ended up taking about 48 ambiens in a 36 hour window... so I was forced to go to the hospital because I couldn't remember anything from that day... anyways, my bloodwork kidney function, liver function, chemical blood analysis came back and everything was perfect. I had nothing in my system (they were worried that I got high and just took everything around me), which I didn't...

so now, I feel like I'm out of the opiate woodwork, but I've been tapering off the ambiens since last night... I don't have any left now... I only have ten 1 mg xanax, two I think 10-15 mg valium and lorazapam ... Should I experience any withdrawals or anything? am I out of the woodwork?

any advice would be great...

thanks a lot.. it really sucks being dependent on ambien for sleeping... ughh....

lunestas don't do crap for me...

Leica


ps I was thinking about taking a xanax now... and taking a few of them to sleep good tonight...

opinions?

PS again, I also have like ten somas (i've never taken them)... should i take one to relax? I hate xanax... I just took .5 mg and i feel wiped out :-(

 

[effie]

Hi Leica, I edited the title of your thread to make it clearer so hopefully you get more amswers.. I don't have experience with ambien (zolpidem) but I do have some experience of zopiclone and I had rebound insomnia for about 4 days then I was okay. I'm not sure if I'm lucky or of this is the norm.. if I were you I'd watch getting into a daily benzo routine but maybe take one or two occasionally, say every other night, if you really need to sleep (despite them both being anxiolytic, diazepam I find more drowsy and is longer lasting so might be better for a full nights sleep) and power through a few sleepless nights til your sleep pattern (hopefully) resets. You might have had a high dose of ambien but you haven't been using it long (if I understood you correctly) so you may well get away without any kind of WDs. Congrats on getting off opiates! :D please watch for benzo addiction sneaking in...

Hopefully someone will have some direct info on ambien.. I don't have any personal use of soma/carisoprodol either I am afraid, but try searching and you might find some info. I believe it works well initially but tolerance to the drowsy effects builds fast. Might be a good alternative to a benzo if you are trying to keep drug use to a minimam and not have too many benzos.. good luck!

 

[Glitched]

Again, as effie, I am not experienced with Ambien (never taken it). I have taken Zopiclone but not regularly as it makes me feel rough. So my answer isn't based on knowledge of the WD's of these drugs.

All I would suggest is don't take benzos daily.... the WD's from them are aweful. Perhaps just try to sleep naturally tonight and asses how you feel. If it gets to like 2 / 3 am then take a Xanax or 2, just something short acting to get you to sleep. Then when you wake up from that make yourself get out of bed, eat something and carry on about your day as normal, even if it's like 5 / 6 am when you wake.

Have a full day, perhaps go for a walk, get some fresh air etc and fill the day with things as opposed to sitting at hom infront of the TV / computer. Then have a late night and try to sleep without taking anything again. Milky drinks before bed and easy going TV as opposed to action films that get the adrenalin going. If no sleep early hours of this morning then a diaz maybe, but just a bit, say 10mg, just to take the edge off.

Take the next day as before, force yourself up when you wake and fill your day and then try not to take anything to sleep at all from this point on.

This is what I would do as not to replace one sleeping aid with another. You'll probably find that the full days will catch up on you after 2 days or so anyway and your body will be craving to sleep.

One final thing that I would suggest is don't sleep in the day at any point, even if towards the end you are drained and feel you could sleep naturally in the afternoon, don't do it because it will mess with your nightly sleeping pattern

 

[Allein]

I was on Zolpidem for about 4 months before coming off pretty much cold turkey, they weren't really doing the job that great anyway.

It was about 3-4 nights before i started to sleep anything more than a couple of hours but it wasn't that bad, in fact it was no worse than when i started taking them in the first place.

You could try a Valerian root preparation which you should be able to get over the counter, it seems to help for some, I tried or Diphenhydramine hydrochloride (marketed as Nytol in the UK) although I just found they made me feel groggy.

Agreed though try not to start with the Benzos, I'm having problems myself in that area