Zolpidem / Zopiclone / Diazepam - An interesting taper puzzle

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Thank you in advance for any and all help given

 

Zolpidem, Zopiclone and Diazepam are the 3 drugs I am looking to taper off and eventually stop taking.

 

All 3 of these drugs I have used primarily for sleep purposes.

 

Briefly:

Zolpidem  8 years - Typical dose 10 mg (when used by itself for sleep)

Zopiclone almost 8 years - Typical dose 7.5 mg (when used by itself for sleep)

Diazepam (for sleep) 1 year -  Typical dose 10-15mg (when used by itself for sleep)

 

The interesting thing about my predicament, is that in the last couple of years I have rarely used just 1 of these drugs at a time to sleep. I have often used my own 'chemical cocktail' as a sleeping aide.

 

For example. 1 night I might use 5mg Zolpidem and 3.75 Zopiclone to sleep. Or another night 3.75mg Zopiclone and 10mg Diazepam to sleep. These are just 2 examples. I am sure you get what I am trying to say. Some nights I might use all 3 (at low dose). Of course, in hindsight, I feel very silly having done this.

 

So I have no real 'baseline' of use to refer from for my taper. When I have used the Z-drugs individually to sleep (and I have done for weeks straight over the course of the last 8 years), the dose was typically the 'recommended' one (1 tablet). In total I would say that I have had perhaps 10 nights (in 8 years) where I did not use one of these drugs to sleep.

 

My greatest fear is insomnia and not being able to function at work with lack of sleep.

 

So where do I start my taper?

 

The last 2 nights (since finding BB), I have used 5mg Zolpidem and 5mg Diazepam for sleep. I guess I am trying to establish some kind of 'routine' with what I take by doing this.

 

Do I taper the Zolpidem first then the Diazepam?

Should I switch out the Zolpidem for Zopiclone?

Do a straight cross to Diazepam and drop the Z-drugs altogether?

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

 

 

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Tapering tends to be a ´black art´.

 

Maybe it´s a good idea to stop taking one of the z drugs. So, you would take either zolpidem or zopiclone.

 

Diazepam is usually easier to taper.

 

The question is, why were you unable to sleep without the drugs ? If you would have serious insomnia even if you were not dependent, how would you be able to function ?

 

If you can solve that issue, you have probably solved half of your problem.

 

There are lots of drugs that can help with sleep during a taper or afterwards, in particular low doses of antipsychotics, antidepressants, sedating antihistamines. But it´s generally not a good idea to take those long term, if they work at all.

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I would drop the zopiclone, cross over the Ambien to Valium and taper the V. 5 mg A = 5 mg V so u would be tapering a total of 15 mg V.