Can't get off Trazadone

[[ji...]]

I'm on 100mg trazadone at night for insomnia. It never worked great for that, but everytime I try to cut it down I get terrible anxiety and my sleep gets disturbed.

 

I've been in a behavioral program with insomnia which has greatly improved my sleep...but I still have many sxs which I'm confident are mostly related to cipro toxicity last march.

 

I don't know what to do about this.

[[...]]

Everyone proceeds according to a personal philosophy that develops from bad experiences. I got hooked on benzos for only wanting to have decent sleep. But after the benzo nightmare, I'd rather have insomnia. So what's happened is once I gave up the benzos, got over the withdrawal, and made a commitment to no drugging for sleep, eventually my body learned how to sleep again. I do wake several times a night, but I get right back to sleep. In short, I've redefined what I think of as decent sleep. For me, 4 hours is enough and almost always I'm happy with my sleep.

 

If I were you I'd go looking on the internet under trazadone withdrawal. But like any withdrawal, I'm guessing it's not an easy road. My personal philosophy is not to take any drug that affects the chemistry of my nervous system. Taking trazadone (I tried it, it didn't help my sleep though because of my severe w/d from benzos) helps stimulate serotonin, which means when you don't take it your body comes up short on serotonin. So it takes getting off of it for your body to start producing an adequate amount again.

 

I think cipro a year ago is less suspect than your more recent benzo w/d. But whatever. The symptoms are there and to be endured until you've reached your goal. Again, taking a drug to solve a problem creates a new layer to the problem, which is the drug. I have to remind myself that my body is capable of functioning adequately with NO drugs.

 

 

[[ji...]]

Actually, quinolone reactions are much more severe and longer lasting than benzo wd. Cipro was a year ago and benzo wd was 8 months ago. Im very debilitated from the cipro, much more so then benzos. I'm trying to take care of a 1 year old and work full time, so adding anything more to my plate is hard.

[[re...]]

Hi jittery,

I'm glad your sleep has improved! I'm sure it will continue to once you are fully healed from coming off the Trazadone. I had a rough time with trazadone so I'd advise taking the taper slow. It's not going to be completely comfortable, but you can do it I'm sure. Stick with your behavioral sleep program, and if the traz withdrawal makes things difficult, don't let that scare you. It's all temporary. Trazadone has its own set of annoying side effects so once you're off my guess is you'll be relieved to see how some of your symptoms lift.

 

We all have personal experiences that give us bias about these drugs. Nobody can tell you what's caused what but I'm sure you know your body better than anybody else. I can say I had an allergic reaction to cipro a few years ago that gave me hives. That was no fun, but totally different from what you're dealing with. Keep us posted and good luck getting off the traz! You can do this I'm sure .

 

[[ji...]]

I just think I need to go slower but when i try to cut the pills into 1/8 they just pulverize.