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Advice on taking a prescription sleep med (please help)


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I feel like I have no right to ask for help here. Why I say this is when I got off my Klonopin at the end of January, the one thing I could do is sleep. I would always get a full night's sleep without waking up (though I did have a lot of morning anxiety). But here is my newfound issue. I was doing actually pretty great by the time April rolled around, so I wanted to get off my Cymbalta because it had made me gain so much weight in the four years of taking it (this predates my Benzo use). So my doctor prescribed me Trintellix and that was a 6 week long nightmare (if you are like me, be careful because this med made my anxiety worse and my body felt like it got hit by a train). I had to cold turkey it (again NOT smart, but I went to the ER and they thought it was Serotonin Syndrome because I also took Buspar). So I am on day 14 and now I can't sleep. Well I can and can't. I can fall asleep pretty fast, but wake up a billion times a night with sheer panic. I am not sure how much more I can take of this because without my sleep, my anxiety bleeds into the day. I have only been on sleeping medicine once before (before Benzo use) and was on it for a month due to my miscarriage. I remember that I got off of it fine (did my own taper) with no problems. I was wondering if it might be okay to just have one week of sleeping pills. Just one. I just need to get over this withdrawal nonsense (I have always had an easy time in AD withdrawal) but Trintellix is a crazy monster. I just want one week. The brain zaps are now only here occasionally. So I know I am getting better, it's just my sleep now that is affected which snowballs into anxiety.
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hi hailsmarie, i am no expert, but if it were me i would not mess with the prescription sleeping pills. they might provide temporary relief, but from what i've read on here they can really mess up your sleep in the long run so you will be right back where you started or even worse when you try to get off of them. early on, i did take OTC aids like Benadryl and Unisom (doxylamine) and they helped me get some much needed sleep, but they don't seem to work for everyone.
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Just one week of sleeping pills sounds like a great solution, but it isn't. If you are healing and moving in a positive direction, I would not do anything to mess things up. Just try and be patient while your body sorts things out, which it definitely will. Try to remember that what you are feeling is just a chemical reaction.

 

If I were you, I would be very hesitant to take any more drugs, drugs are never a good answer. Buspar isn't bad, but if you can get off it eventually, I think you would be better off in the long run. Every drug exacts a price, one way or another.

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The real danger in your idea about using sleeping pills just for one week is that it might take an iron will to stop after a week. Your current insomnia can very well last some time and the temptation to fall back to your sleeping pills will be very strong. You could easily end up getting into real trouble with the pills and getting off probably won't be as easy as the first time because of your recent use of other medications.
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I concur.  NO SLEEPING PILLS.  I made the mistake of using them occasionally even after I jumped and then got shoved back into withdrawal symptoms (BAD) after I stopped taking them.  Unfortunately I didn't realize this issue until I learned about the "Z" drugs on BB.

 

Please keep trying to move forward even though it is hard.  I won't sugar coat the insomnia - it happens to the majority of us and there's no one tried and true method to get your sleep back on track other than time........  If you want to look on the Insomnia and/or Alternative boards you may find something you'd like to try for sleep.

 

Good luck.

 

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:thumbsup: Agree with everything jeanermouse, alohafromhawaii, meowie, and teegirl have said.

 

You do not want to start on another prescription and especially not one designed to make you drowsy and fall asleep. A low dose of trazadone or mirtazapine maybe, but no sleeping pills!

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  • 4 weeks later...

omg, do not take Mirtazpine.  Crippled me.

 

Far worse than Benzos, IMO.

 

At least that is what it did to me.

 

Really, that's interesting we all seem to have different experiences. For me 1.8 mg of remeron is working like a charm for the past 3 months. 3.75 left me groggy and with a heavy feeling on my chest, so I halved it and have been sleeping through the night with no issues beyond the usual overactive REM cycles and mini-wakeups from 4 am on. Sometimes I sleep in to 8:30. So good it feels like a sin!

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