I relapsed on Ambien intermittently for 1 month. Do I need to taper?

[[Al...]]

June2015-Feb2016: 5-10mg Ambien per night

Mar2016-May2016: Taper off of Ambien

June2016-Aug2016: Clean

Sep2016-Dec2016: 0.25mg Xanax 1 or 2 nights per week, 50mg Benadryl every night

Jan 2016:

In an attempt to get off the Benadryl and some other meds I was taking, I experienced severe insomnia and played with Ambien again - big mistake. I began taking random doses of Ambien every other night between 1 and 9mg per night at an average of 4mg every other night which is an average of 2mg per night over the past month.

 

I wanted to quit ambien. My psychiatrist put me on an antidepressant and I started at 3.75mg of Remeron. This was improving my sleep except on the 6th night i was sleepless without resorting to Ambien even after an updose of the Remeron. Also I have begun experiencing muscle twitching and electric sensations. I dont know if this is a seizure or if this is a side effect of the Remeron or a withdrawal of the Ambien. My psychiatrist also offered 12.5mg per night of Ambien CR.

 

At this low timeframe of having relapsed on Ambien, do I need to taper in order to avoid seizures or brain damage? Do I need to taper even if I am using the antidepressant?

 

Am I KINDLED to Ambien?

 

Here's why I would be against tapering:

-Im more concerned at this point that I'm BECOMING addicted to Ambien if I take it for any longer.

-The ambien at any dosage gives me anywhere from 2 to 5 hours sleep. The antidepressant gives me 9 hours.

-I have interdose withdrawals from ambien every day (although constant anxiety on the antidepressant)

-On the ambien I am experiencing some kind of fibromyalgia, and stomach cramps, which is strange because I had no problems with it in 2015.

 

Should I taper? What would the tapering schedule look like, if any?

[[be...]]

I certainly would set the worry of brain damage aside. It is really up to you how much you can handle. If you stop suddenly you are likely going to experience some symptoms, and unfortunately you may experience some increased insomnia. No, the muscle twitching and electrical sensations are not seizures. They are fairly common symptoms of withdrawal. You may want to consider a rapid taper over stopping suddenly.

[[me...]]

If you are still using a normal dose of Ambien (5-10 mg), and not dosing more than once per day, you will be fine just stopping Ambien. Because Ambien has such a short half-life, it is pretty much completely withdrawn from your body every single day (that is why you are experiencing withdrawal symptoms now!). Professor Ashton also supports that you can stop Ambien abruptly without issue.

 

Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to taper Ambien anyway. Below a normal dose, you will find that it impedes sleep, rather than allowing sleep. Obviously after a few days of zero or very little sleep, you would be a basket case. If you stop from a normal dose of Ambien, you will have a night or two of very poor sleep (perhaps none), then things should rapidly improve after that. With the back up of a sedating AD, you might do much better with sleep.

 

If you want to try a taper, it won't hurt, but I think you will find it very frustrating (I sure did!). If you cut an Ambien CR, it becomes a normal Ambien. So my suggestion would be to find the lowest dose that you can get a decent night's sleep on, get rested up, then jump. You should feel a whole lot better quite quickly, from what others have experienced. The longer you are on Ambien, the more side effects are going to come up, and some you probably didn't even connect!

[[Al...]]

Right that's why Ambien or any short acting Benzo to be taken on a regular basis is so stupid - You withdrawal from it every day. How traumatizing to the GABA receptors! Kindling x 100. I definitely feel the interdose withdrawal every day which why I originally quit it - I developed the anxiety and depression before I even quit, after only 6 months!

 

HOWEVER

 

I've also been told there is a secondary effect in which psychotropics build up to 'brain levels' over a period of 2 weeks independently of the bloodstream. After 2 weeks, all of the 'brain level' of the drug is gone. I definitely notice a second wave of symptoms come at the 4 day mark and somewhere in the second week every time I quit or taper. I often have no problem with sleep during the first 3 nights and suddenly on the 4th night there is a problem and a panic attack that day.

 

Are you SURE you can just CT Ambien? There are a lot of sites out there saying you shouldn't, though I think they are mostly rehab sites.

[[me...]]

Ambien is not really a benzo (it is a z-drug), it only works on a few of the GABA receptors, so it is a bit different in withdrawal.

 

Here's what Professor Ashton (considered the world's leading expert on benzo withdrawal), has to say about Ambien (zolpiden):

 

In my experience, the only exception to the general rule of slow reduction is triazolam (Halcion). This benzodiazepine is eliminated so quickly (half-life 2 hours) that you are practically withdrawn each day, after a dose the night before. For this reason, triazolam can be stopped abruptly without substitution of a long-acting benzodiazepine. If withdrawal symptoms occur, you could take a short course of diazepam starting at about 10mg, decreasing the dosage as shown on Schedule 2. The same approach applies to the non-benzodiazepines zolpidem and zaleplon which both have half-lives of 2 hours.

 

So yes, if you develop symptoms that are completely intolerable, then you are better off doing a cross-over to Valium. Only you can say whether the symptoms are bearable or not.

 

Of course you can try and taper. But if you can't sleep at all, or sleep for a couple of hours and then get the zolpidem zap-awake, then I think you are much better off with a cold turkey. And you might as well be rested up before jumping. From the many cold-turkeys of z-drugs that I have seen here, none have had dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Most do a lot better quite soon.

[[ci...]]

UM......OMG, do not CT on ambien. Either do a direct taper or cross over to valium.

 

Read my signature, and perhaps get on the z-drug support thread.

 

Good Luck to you.

[[Al...]]

I didnt use Ambien nightly for 30 months at 10mg

 

I used it every other night for 1 month at avg 4mg (most recently)