Advice on Hydroxyzine taper?

[[Jo...]]

Hi everyone I have been off of temazepam for 3.5 months and I have been using hydroxyzine and dayvigo for sleep along with some herbal sleep remedies. 
 

I have been using hydroxyzine for about three months now and I have been tapering hydroxyzine from 125mg down to 37.5. I haven’t noticed alot of withdrawal besides going to the bathroom more often and I think I’m a little bit itchy but that could be in my head. 
 

my taper right now has been about to drop every three to four days. Some people say there are no withdrawals from hydroxyzine really but I just figured I would taper it. 
I am not really sleeping using it anyway. I’m scared I have set myself up for a setback or am I just overthinking? 
 

Edited March 16 by [Jo...]

[[...]]

19 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

Hi everyone I have been off of temazepam for 3.5 months and I have been using hydroxyzine and dayvigo for sleep along with some herbal sleep remedies. 
 

I have been using hydroxyzine for about three months now and I have been tapering hydroxyzine from 125mg down to 37.5. I haven’t noticed alot of withdrawal besides going to the bathroom more often and I think I’m a little bit itchy but that could be in my head. 
 

my taper right now has been about to drop every three to four days. Some people say there are no withdrawals from hydroxyzine really but I just figured I would taper it. 
I am not really sleeping using it anyway. I’m scared I have set myself up for a setback or am I just overthinking 

Jonny5, hi again)

I'm the one who says there is no tough hydrxyzine withdrawal bc i didn't have any. I took it for about 4 last months of my benzo taper. I took 50-75mg nightly and stopped it at once. Nothing happened. But sure we're all different. You seem to be doing ok with its tapering just complete it to the end. I don't think you'll have a setback due to it. I didn't have any.

My congratulations on you being benzo free for3.5 months! The first months are the hardest. Steady healing to you!)

[[Jo...]]

Edited March 16 by [Jo...]

[[...]]

1 hour ago, [[J...] said:

Thanks I just get nervous because I have heard conflicting things about hydroxyzine. I don’t know if that’s because people that were on it for longer than four months have a harder time etc. 

I haven’t really experienced to much withdrawals so far. I’m going to taper to 25 tonight 

Good luck to you then!) i'm sure there won't be anything too hard. In fact, think, it'll be ok. Please, write here tomorrow how it goes.

[[Jo...]]

[[...]]

21 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

I tapered it down to 25 and I havent really felt a difference. I honestly think hydroxyzine is not doing  a whole lot for me right now. Im still taking 5 mg dayvigo but i am going to be tapering that too.

Thanks for response, Jonny5. Yes, i heard people say exactly the same about hydroxyzine, no difference after a while. That's all. I think for me it was mostly psychological kinda a PILL must help anyway)

Good luck in tapering dayvigo and getting over the wd 

[[Ta...]]

I was on hydroxizine, and I had a horrible time getting off of it, especially at the lower doses. It started having a paradoxical effect on me, making me anxious and unable to sleep. But I'm extremely sensitive to pretty much everything. You are doing really well! I wish you all the best as you become completely drug free!

 

[[Jo...]]

Edited March 18 by [Jo...]

[[...]]

40 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

I heard dayvigo doesn’t really have WD. I cut it from 10mg-5mg and didn’t notice anything. I have also gone a couple days without it in the past as well and didn’t notice a whole lot either so I’m optimistic that it will be ok getting off. I’m going to taper a little bit of it tonight too. Cut the pill in half and see what happens down to 2.5

I hope there won't be any difficulty with dayvigo. I didn't try it though. Yes, i think tapering is a good way if we're not sure what to expect. I think the more gradual a change in brain biochemistry the better for us.

How is your sleep now?

[[Jo...]]

[[...]]

43 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

I have tapered down to 25 mg and dayvigo down to 3.5 mg. Some nights I sleep well and others like last night not so much. I start HBOT therapy next week so I am hoping to have some success with that. I want to take a month off of work and just cut the drugs out completely and try 10 days of NAD IV therapy. Thats hard ask for work right now. 

Good for you, Jonny5!) Sure it's all better to be done while being off work. A good decision. Think, some sleepless nights are common at your time of the WD. The issue is going to resolve on its own over time but if you can help it why not)

Oh, i'd really like to know about HBTO therapy. Please write how it feels and about the effect. NAD IV therapy, what is it?

Good luck and smooth healing to you!)

Edited April 5 by [...]

[[Jo...]]

[[or...]]

7 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

NAD+ IV therapy is supposed to help out alot. If I do it I will have to cut out the drugs I am taking and its a detox process. Apparently there has been alot of success for people. The place where I am wanting to go said they had a guy that was benzos for years and he tapered off of them and was averaging about 1-2 hours of sleep a night. By the third day of NAD IV therapy he was sleeping 6-8 hours a night. It is very expensive though around $10,000. I want off of these drugs and I am wanting to CT since im on low doses now but I don't know if i can manage complete sleepless nights. Im trying to follow CBT-I as best as I can as well but it is hard to get up when you're drugged but also awake. I work at UNC Chapel Hill and we are dealing with students applying for fall registration so it is a very busy time right now. I wish I was getting more sleep because everything else would be a lot better. Im four months off after two months of use and I was hoping to be in a better place by now. I am scared I am not mentally strong enough to get off of everything and this will become my life. I wont ever go back on a benzo but I dont want to be on any AD, SSRI, or anything like that. Dayvigo supposedly has no physical dependance and the same with hydroxyzine. I am just so traumatized by the acute withdrawal from temazepam to jump off of hydroxyzine and dayvigo. I take alot of supplements too that Peter Smith prescriped for me. He has been helping people get off benzos since the 80s

I have to disagree, or at the least, investigate further on prescribers of Hydroxyzine because I am positive I have to wean myself off of Zyrtec, also an anti-histamine.  here's where I found some of my info on it and of course you can make your own decision on whether or not to look a bit deeper.  Especially on Ct'ing anti-histamines, hoping the best for you, Denise

Here’s the secret to tapering off antihistamines without itching - oregonlive.com

and here's a post/thread from 2012 here on Hydroxyzine specifically, on BB:

 

[[or...]]

Also Jonny, what are you tapering off of now, and what sort of taper if you don't mind me asking.  I've had real quality of life on a slow micro taper, but if you CT'd, I know how bad that can be as well as "too fast" a taper.  I did both and had rather alarmingly scary results.  Got lucky and reinstated as I wasn't going to have my life ruined, plus I learned about slow tapers here on BB Denise

[[Jo...]]

On 20/03/2024 at 10:07, [[P...] said:

Thank you for the link to  Peter Smith!

Did you buy your Nad+ nasal spray on Amazon? I only found one to choose from on their site. Do you know if Nad+ capsules work as well as the nasal spray?

Do you think if you were only on Dayvigo it would be helpful for sleep?

 

6 minutes ago, [[o...] said:

Also Jonny, what are you tapering off of now, and what sort of taper if you don't mind me asking.  I've had real quality of life on a slow micro taper, but if you CT'd, I know how bad that can be as well as "too fast" a taper.  I did both and had rather alarmingly scary results.  Got lucky and reinstated as I wasn't going to have my life ruined, plus I learned about slow tapers here on BB Denise

I was on temazepam for two months including a three and a half week taper from 22.5 mg. I have been off of temazepam for four months now. The Drs through alot of different meds at me but I was 'complicated" as they would say because I didnt stay on any SSRI or AD very long. I was on gabapentin 600 mg too while I was on temazepam. I was on gabapentin for about two months as well and tapered a week after getting off of temazepam. I tapered that in about a three weeks time but got stuck at 100 and used hydroxyzine to help get off of it. I was up to 150 mg hydroxyzine at one point and 10 mg dayvigo. I have tapered both down to 25 mg hydroxyzine and 3mg dayvigo. Still not sleeping well....... Im scared if I cut out the hydroxyzine and dayvigo I will get zero hours of sleep but I know I cant be on these meds. I want to get free and I have been on a relatively low dose of hydroxyzine now for a couple of weeks. I have good days and bad days. I hate to think i am suffering and also hindering my recovery. If im going to suffer I want to work towards actually healing. I will never go back on a benzo so does that mean im healing regardless. I am at a loss lol. Or is this going to take years to recover ugh.

[[Jo...]]

16 minutes ago, [[o...] said:

Also Jonny, what are you tapering off of now, and what sort of taper if you don't mind me asking.  I've had real quality of life on a slow micro taper, but if you CT'd, I know how bad that can be as well as "too fast" a taper.  I did both and had rather alarmingly scary results.  Got lucky and reinstated as I wasn't going to have my life ruined, plus I learned about slow tapers here on BB Denise

My taper was I dropped to 100 mg from 150 initially and waited for about three days and tapered to 75 then waited about three days and went down to 50. Then I went down to 37mg and waited about three days and went to 25 mg. Some nights tho I have gone back up to 37 and I have also tried to cut it down to 12.5 but I find that I cant sleep when I go that low. I am also trying to taper dayvigo at the same time because I dont find that it is helping.

[[or...]]

Hi Jonny, cooking breakfast right now so back and forth here a bit. Each of us are different, I'm sure you know that already, so I can't say about the healing.

What I believe has worked for me is a slow and steady taper, and for me, it had to be a micro-taper.  I know it sounds daunting (I fully understand the ugh) but I had to decide about my quality of life.  Did I want more now, or did I want to wait and see after a "too fast" taper, or worse, a CT??

From what I've read on this forum, there was no contest, it had to be slow for me. I wanted to be able to sleep, go about my daily life, stay active with workouts, etc. etc.

Did you read the info I gave you on the anti histamines?  Both talk about a very fast taper you can do from those, but I'd still see how I feel, just tapering a small part of one of your sleep-remedies.  But after reading about those that suffer way worse than I ever have, I choose a slow-micro taper of my benzo, and I'm doing a small cut from my Zyrtec, taper and hold is how I taper, then hold until I feel stable.  Did you just taper and keep tapering without stabilizing on each taper dose? Denise

[[Jo...]]

1 minute ago, [[o...] said:

Hi Jonny, cooking breakfast right now so back and forth here a bit. Each of us are different, I'm sure you know that already, so I can't say about the healing.

What I believe has worked for me is a slow and steady taper, and for me, it had to be a micro-taper.  I know it sounds daunting (I fully understand the ugh) but I had to decide about my quality of life.  Did I want more now, or did I want to wait and see after a "too fast" taper, or worse, a CT??

From what I've read on this forum, there was no contest, it had to be slow for me. I wanted to be able to sleep, go about my daily life, stay active with workouts, etc. etc.

Did you read the info I gave you on the anti histamines?  Both talk about a very fast taper you can do from those, but I'd still see how I feel, just tapering a small part of one of your sleep-remedies.  But after reading about those that suffer way worse than I ever have, I choose a slow-micro taper of my benzo, and I'm doing a small cut from my Zyrtec, taper and hold is how I taper, then hold until I feel stable.  Did you just taper and keep tapering without stabilizing on each taper dose? Denise

I was relatively stable on my taper of hydroxyzine but getting down to 25 mg i feel stuck now. i will be four months on hydroxyzine this month and I dont want to be on it long term. ugh

[[or...]]

6 minutes ago, [[J...] said:

I was relatively stable on my taper of hydroxyzine but getting down to 25 mg i feel stuck now. i will be four months on hydroxyzine this month and I dont want to be on it long term. ugh

So maybe you tapered a bit fast and try holding on that dose.  It's different then a benzo.  What are your "stuck" symptoms Jonny? 

[[Jo...]]

18 minutes ago, [[o...] said:

So maybe you tapered a bit fast and try holding on that dose.  It's different then a benzo.  What are your "stuck" symptoms Jonny? 

Sleep and some mild anxiety

[[or...]]

Ok, so please forgive me if I am not retaining all your info above, but if you are purely dealing with anti-histamines, we should take this over to the "Health Matters"  where we can talk freely about "other" than benzos.

But for now I will just say if you don't feel stable enough to taper again, I would say hold on your .25, again, I am pretty much in the dark on other meds.  I'm just now dealing with Zyrtec, and it's bad-ass if you ask me.  But if you will read, or re-read what I sent you it might help you more than I can.

Also, in the thread from 2012, or starting your own in Health Matters you should get more help from others that have dealt with anti-histmines as well.  How long have your sxs been ramping up, in other words?  Are you impatient, I know I am   I just want you to know holding on a dose has helped me more than I can say, until I felt stable.  Sleeping better, all sxs better, but not healed completely

Like I said though, I can't really help a lot with other meds.  I have only benzo experience, and now Zyrtec, and I'm treating it like it is a benzo as I don't want wd sxs, at all but even on slow taper I have some, DenisePS one thing at a time, easy does it, become as stable as you can no matter how long it takes.  You are a short-term user, but I don't believe in trying a CT off anything after what I've experienced and learned from others.

[[or...]]

Here's the new thread I started specifically on "other" drugs and mine is on specifically anti-histamines

Please feel welcome to join me and maybe we'll both get more feedback there Denise

https://benzobuddies.org/topic/276662-anti-histamines-and-tapering/#comment-3503397

Edited April 5 by [or...]