Mental Health Z drugs - anxiety and depression

[AnythingEverything]

Hi
I hope this is in the right forum, please move if not. I have been a member here for some years but not a very active one so haven't figured out all the different forums yet.

Background, I have a history of addiction and mental illness stemming back nearly 25 years. From age 14 I started on alcohol, weed and lsd and followed the 'typical' path from there to meth addiction, heroin and everything in between. I got clean through rehab and NA at 21 and stayed that way for many years while we had our children, but I suffered from anorexia and bulimia the whole time, somethibf thay for me has been harder than the drugs (and part of the reason I started using meth back in the day.). I've only recently overcome the disordered eating and body image.

A few years back I ended up with PTSD after nearly losing my baby daughter on top of severe depression, anxiety and have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.....and ended up with an oxy/Benzo/alcohol/other habit which lead me to start buying heroin again.

Now on 32mg suboxone and have been tapering the benzos for nearly 3 years after a few quick taper attempts.

I have been on a few anti depressants, the most recent being pristiq 200mg which I weaned myself off over 6 months ago and don't feel any worse for it. Im not keen to try another anti depressant as I find they don't make much difference and I won't take anything thay makes me gain weight due to my previous issues in that area.

I habe my quarterly suboxone appointment tonight and I think I will start tapering the subs and he will want me to do another drop in the benzos which im really scared about. They do not help me at all with anxiety but I don't want to go through benzo withsrawal right now. My marriage is in serious trouble, my husband is not ok at the moment and I cop it every day, im not working for the first time in 23 years due to recurring pneumonia so, despite having 5 amazing kids, I have too much time in my own company.

I highly doubt he would prescribe me a z drug but im wondering if anyone has found these useful for severe anxiety, insomnia and depression? If so, any that are better than others?

I am in therapy but need to find someone that does dialectal behavior therapy. Any other suggestions that might help me as my anxiety is becoming so severe I find it hard to even go to the gym (my safe haven) or even grocery shopping.

Thanks for reason and sorry its long, im not too well at the moment.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

I've taken Ambien (zolpidem) for a little over a year now. It helps me with insomnia, IMO it's a pretty effective drug IF your insomnia is driven primarily be anxiety and "racing thoughts", as mine is. I think Stilnox is pretty commonly prescribed in Australia, isn't it?

 

[LookingForSelf]

I've taken Ambien (zolpidem) for a little over a year now. It helps me with insomnia, IMO it's a pretty effective drug IF your insomnia is driven primarily be anxiety and "racing thoughts", as mine is. I think Stilnox is pretty commonly prescribed in Australia, isn't it?

Every single time I took ambien I ended up hallucinating for an hour and never actually having it help with sleep. Im wondering if the dosage was too low and coudlnt knock me out so I was awake and feeling its effects.

 

[AnythingEverything]

Thanks for the replies, yes, it is presribed as stillnox here. I think I have had it at some stage in the past but at a time when I was on 15 or so different Meds and abusing them all so I don't know how it works for me. I was in detox a couple of years ago with an older lady who had been admitted for stillnox addiction. Are there any known side effects that are particularly worrisome?

I've tried a few endep over the last little while and they do work for me as far as sleep goes but im not really wanting to go back on an anti depressent and endep is notorious for weight gain (which is a major thing for me having only been in recovery just under a year from 20 years of eating disorders.

I had my appointment last night and told him my concerns (and yeah my sleeplessness is racing thoughts etc as you said) but he just said not to watch tv. and we dropped my Suboxone down to 30 from 32 so pretty uneventful. He didn't drop my valium any further so im still on 20mg which does nothing for me at all either for anxiety or sleep. So now it's another 3 months until I can see him again and no closer to getting some help.

I already exercise a lot, never touch junk food, am very busy etc etc so I should sleep ok, I just don't and its hard to function as well as I would like to/need to as a parent of 5 busy kids

 

[Burnt Offerings]

If Valium doesn't help with your ability to get to sleep, I'm not sure if zolpidem would help...its mechanism of action (GABA-A agonist) is very similar to diazepam and similar drugs. That GABAergic action is why it's effective for me personally.

Every single time I took ambien I ended up hallucinating for an hour and never actually having it help with sleep. Im wondering if the dosage was too low and coudlnt knock me out so I was awake and feeling its effects.

"Tripping" is pretty common when you first start out on the drug...I don't really get those effects any more, though. They become greatly subdued with repeated use...

Ambien isn't for everyone...a lot of people don't like the effects/side-effects or just don't think it's effective for their insomnia. It's been pretty good for me, though

 

[AnythingEverything]

Valium and other benzos don't have any effect on me because I seriously abused them for a long time. 20mg of valium is 480mg less than I was taking daily so its never gojng to work. I know Z drugs are 'benzo like' but I wondered if they might work having a different structure but I guess you are right, my receptors are stuffed so they may also not work. Thanks for your help

 

[Burnt Offerings]

Holy fuck, you were taking half a gram of diazepam a day?! That's intense!

 

[LookingForSelf]

If Valium doesn't help with your ability to get to sleep, I'm not sure if zolpidem would help...its mechanism of action (GABA-A agonist) is very similar to diazepam and similar drugs. That GABAergic action is why it's effective for me personally.



"Tripping" is pretty common when you first start out on the drug...I don't really get those effects any more, though. They become greatly subdued with repeated use...

Ambien isn't for everyone...a lot of people don't like the effects/side-effects or just don't think it's effective for their insomnia. It's been pretty good for me, though

Oh you had them too? When you were tripping did it still help you sleep. I had more fun tripping on it that Id forget I should be trying to sleep. Is there anything I could do to help move from tripping to actually sleeping? Like a higher dose? I think I took 15 mg. Or was it 5 I cant remember its been a year since I tried it. Id do anything for a decent night of sleep at this point. Ive exhausted all other options.

 

[AnythingEverything]

Holy fuck, you were taking half a gram of diazepam a day?! That's intense!

Yeah. I don't know when to stop with benzos. Im not big either (54kg female) ... I was lucky as I was also taking about the same amount of oxy plus drinking daily and a lot of psych Meds and stuff. Was a pretty dark time

 

[Moreaux]

For what it's worth, back when I was on Xanax Ambien did nothing for me. I was desperate for sleep, and my Dad had given me one of his bottles, I don't remember the strength, but I took 15 of them and they did nothing. Later in a moment of desperation I tried 20, and again nothing. I ended up throwing them out, as I he tried them a couple of time and didn't like them and they didn't work for me. I figured I would share as I was taking a high dose of Xanax daily at the time. I don't know if this is usual. If you are already on high doses of benzos, don't get your hopes up for Z drugs.

 

[InsomniacMike]

The z-drugs could worsen depression

try a non-benzo or a non "non-benzo" such as remeron or seroquel.