Insomnia

[[kc...]]

I successfully tapered off a 6 month Ativan use, over a 7 month period. I jumped in early July 2016. I had some minor sleeping issues. Then in early December 2016 I had total knee replacement surgery and had to take narcotic pain meds for about 6 weeks. I finished tapering off those about 3 1/2 weeks ago (much easier than tapering off Ativan) but since then I have had terrible insomnia. Do any of you think the narcotic pain meds and tapering are somehow interacting with the impact of Ativan tapering and withdrawal to cause this terrible insomnia? Or maybe it's just the trauma of such a major surgery.

 

I've had to resort to using ambien 1-2 times a week just to get any sleep, and I really hate doing that.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[[Ni...]]

I have a good friend who took pain pills for her shoulder surgery and ended up with insomnia after discontinuing.  It took her about 2 months to get her sleep back. The ambien is a cousin to the benzo. I personally wouldn't want anything to do with it.  I know it's best to not take anything and let our bodies heal naturally but I also know that insomnia is hell on earth.  I've tried OTC sleep aids like unisom, sometimes it helps.  Magnesium is also something that relaxes me, and melatonin helps some but I never had luck with it.

[[kc...]]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's those damn opiates. I had normal sleep Thursday and Friday notes, and then the insomnia hit Saturday nite. I'll take the two notes of good sleep as a sign my body is starting to recover. I'll give magnesium a try. Melatonin does nothing for me. And you are right about the ambien. I know it attaches to the same receptors as benzos and I resisted taking it, but, well, I was getting kind of desperate. I have a prescription of 15 5 mg pills, and in the 23 days I've had them I tak n 6 pills, so I'm only using them if I've had several consecutive days of poor sleep and I need to go to work.