Z-Drug Support Group (Lunesta, Imovane, Zimovane, Ambien, Sonata, Zopiclone)

[[Ka...]]

Jerry!!! Good to hear your update, life sounds good and how exciting you are ready for your next taper step!! You Go!

Helen!!! Thanks for the kind words. Happy to hear your nearly normal experience and hoping it opens up big time for you and you Move On!!!

LadyDen!!! Same hopes for you!!

 

Woke up after 5 hours of sleep, happens 1 or 2 times a week. Brain pretty wide awake so got up and did some paper clutter clearing. Happy Wednesday Team Z! 

[[La...]]

Yep Kachina…if you can’t sleep then get something done.  Hope your nights get better. They will. I pray for peace of mind concerning your mom.

 

Hugs to Team Z! Go have yourself some fun today! Wooohoo!

[[De...]]

Kachina - my heart goes out to you on the mother - daughter relationship thing.  My relationship with my mother was very complicated and as she got older it was hard to be the caregiver I expected to be.  But I finally found peace and forgave her for most of the infractions of the past and it was very healing to do that.  I hope you can find peace as well.  Certainly it is stressful.

 

Good Luck Jerry with the next teaper step.  You can do this!

 

Helen - SO HAPPY to hear that you felt nearly normal - isn't that just fantastic ?!!!

 

In my 19th month now  - I ponder whether I could be healed by 24 months.  I'm not setting any expectations, but wouldn't that be lovely?  I must say that I believe I will have lingering symptoms for years to come.  Not bad ones, maybe the ear ringing, and odd aches and pains....The recovery is so subtle.  You just cannot see anything from day to day.  You have to look at 2 month periods.

 

Thinking of everyone!

[[La...]]

Deanna I understand how you feel. I’m not putting a time on my healing either. When we do that and that time passes, all it does is set us up for great disappointments unnecessarily so. Also, it triggers negative thinking that we came that far for nothing. But it’s just a simple matter of the body wasn’t quite there yet according to the person’s individual neuroplasticity. So I’m hopeful that it will be before my 2 year mark but time will tell. Congrats on your 19 month milestone! Awesome 👏 this month is going by fast for me with improvements on board. I’m going to start trying to push my walking further a bit more this weekend. We won’t know unless we try, right?

Best wishes to you , me and everyone as we go on to finish this race. Atleast compared to last year we can see that ribbon up ahead. We WILL rush past it and be free! The greatest thing is when a race is finished, it’s finished!

Love to you ❤️🌹

[[Ka...]]

Kachina - my heart goes out to you on the mother - daughter relationship thing.  My relationship with my mother was very complicated and as she got older it was hard to be the caregiver I expected to be.  But I finally found peace and forgave her for most of the infractions of the past and it was very healing to do that.  I hope you can find peace as well.  Certainly it is stressful.

 

Thank you. I recently bought a great book, Forgive for Good, and it is similar to CBT, using our mind/thoughts to rework grievances. I forgive my Mom and understand her ... and it's painful/sad. Good to hear about your experience.

 

18 months, yes, the healing IS subtle isn't it, but it accumulates and pops too!!!!! Glad we're here together.

[[Li...]]

Ha Zzers,

Today is my birthday. I have gotten 49 years old. We have wonderful weather here in Holland, so I am lucky. Tonight my father and I will go to an Italian restaurant together. I have been swimming too, which I normally never do on fridays. Yesterday night I helped a friend getting his sleep medication. He suffers from manic depression and when he gets out his depression, he suddenly isn’t able to sleep. He was really glad I helped him. Huggs to you all…Jerry

[[De...]]

Happy Birthday Jerry!  Wow you are 49 years YOUNG!!  I hope you enjoy your dinner with your dad!

[[Be...]]

  Jerry.  Sounds like you had a nice day today.

[[Sa...]]

Happy birthday! :

[[He...]]

Lightspacer,

 

I'm late to the party but I wish you a belated Happy Birthday! 

[[Ka...]]

JERRY!!! 

 

Happy Birthday to you!!! Sounds like a nice dinner out, I love Italiano!

hugs,

KB

[[Li...]]

Ha Deanna, Becksblue, Sabitzer, Helen and Birdsong, thanks all of you for congratulating me. 

It was a nice sunny day, and the pizza tasted very good. I got very nice whatsapps from family and friends. So it was a positive day. Now my focus is back on my taper. Huggs Jerry…

[[Ca...]]

Hi there!,

 

Anybody from the Z-drug group get Akathisia? How did you manage?

[[Sa...]]

Dear Cali! During the last two years while I was taking Ambien, I sometimes had the problem of restlessness when sitting.

 

The first 16 days have passed without the horror called Ambien.

Week 1: 5x5 hours of sleep, 2x7 hours of sleep.

Week 2: 3x5 hours of sleep, 4x7 hours of sleep.

Week 3: 2x7 hours of sleep so far.

 

Shoulder and neck pain sometimes in the morning. Some anxiety in the morning (not every day). 2022 is the year of healing and a new start!

 

Have a good start into next week all!

[[De...]]

Hi there!,

 

Anybody from the Z-drug group get Akathisia? How did you manage?

 

Hi Cali - yes I didn't know there was a name for it at the time, but I found that during my inter-dose withdrawals and acute withdrawal an intense restlessness would come over me, especially in the evenings when all I wanted to do was relax.  That is finally what prompted me to consult my Dr, along with the 4:30am anxiety attacks.

[[La...]]

Happy belated Birthday Jerry! you’re 49 and still fine 

 

Morning and happy super bowl Sunday to Team Z! May you enjoy the game with many laughs!

Grizz I had some very mild restlessness at the end of my taper that didn’t last long. Just like Deanna mine occurred at night when my medication was normally due. It was more like a feeling of can’t get settled very well. I was comfortable and not too hot or cold but had trouble relaxing. Hope that helped answer your question. The other buddies already did a great job answering. I just wanted to throw in my experience. Hopefully yours will be short lived.

[[Li...]]

Thank you Lady, it is so nice that so many people here congratulate me 

Is it normal to feel more depressed and lightheaded just after a taper step? My sleep is still fine.  So that means that I can continue my taper. Sleep is the bottleneck for me. Jerry

[[La...]]

Yes Jerry that is normal to feel reductions. Sometimes mine was delayed for up to 3 days before I felt it. It will settle down a bit. Keep going. 

[[Li...]]

Hi Z-group,

It is stormy over here this coming week, not my favorite type of weather. I guess it is tolerance related, I get a bit anxious of it. But… I went to the swimming pool and did 800m. Back home I had a saxlesson via the internet. A very nice one. We used a lot of time in playing Afro Blue. It motivates me to practice more. The measures because of the lockdown will be stopped the coming weeks. Good news! I wish you all a good week! Jerry! 

[[Ka...]]

Hey Jerry!!! Congratulations on your taper! And on your swim and lesson!! I'm happy to see you are back at your taper and hope you'll feel what I felt during mine: better as time passed!!!

 

Spring is on it's way!

 

Go TEAM Z!!

 

Woke up at 3am, got out of bed at 4 ... I have lots of things to get done in this extra time so I'll roll with it although I am sleepy and not so motivated. Counting my blessings though. HUGS 

[[La...]]

Morning hugs Team Z! Hope everyone is doing decently or much better. Please be kind to yourself with self love. Take time to have fun then rest. Healing wishes to all.

[[He...]]

Jerry,

 

Swimming sounds so nice! I hope to be able to do that again some day soon.  This summer I can swim at the beach.  And playing the sax is great too (for the brain and the soul).

 

Kachina,

 

Getting up at 3am....grrrr. Sorry you couldn't sleep more. You sound grateful even though I'm sure you are very tired.  Good luck today!

 

LD,

 

Thanks for the reminder to have fun and rest.  I'm going to try for a little of both of those today.  I hope you do too. 

 

Since this is the Z drug group, I'll put this out there. I normally sleep around 6 hours a night with a few wake ups during that time.  I'm satisfied with that as I never believed I would fall asleep naturally again after so many years on Lunesta, Sonata and a few on Xanax as well.  Anyhow, skip to two nights ago, I was having the buzzing/tingling/heart pounding phase of the program and only slept about 3 broken hours. But LAST NIGHT, I slept for FIVE hours without waking up! And then was awake for a while and went back to sleep and got 2 more!  What in the world? I guess I was making up for the night before but wow...I don't think I ever slept 5 hours straight before I ever started taking sleeping pills.  I hope this is a good sign of the best sleep of my life coming in the future.  I certainly have better sleep hygiene now than I ever did. 

 

Have a great day everyone!

 

[[Ag...]]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been warmly welcomed by some of the active members of the z-drug support group thread and for that I am very grateful. Thank you!

I hope all of you are well. 

 

I would like to prevail upon the collective wisdom of this community for advice on tapering off 10 mgs of zolpidem.

I have been taking it since early July 2021. 

 

I have just completed a six month taper off 2mgs of flunitrazepam (having also been taking since early July 2021). I have been able to remain functional and continue working to date while tapering the flunitrazepam despite sometimes considerable discomfort. 

 

I very, very much hope to remain functional and continue working while tapering down the zolpidem as well. 

 

I should say that my sleep is pretty terrible (about 5 hours per night). I know sleep may get worse while tapering the zolpidem. However, I also feel that my sleep won't ultimately improve until I get off this poison. 

 

Regarding the zolpidem taper, a dry cut and weigh taper plan (using a Gemini 20 scale) of 10% every 2 weeks or so has been recommended to me by someone knowledgeable and well respected in the benzo recovery community. The plan recalculates each percentage cut based on current dosage and, based on a 2 week hold per cut, works out to a 40 week taper. This seems reasonable to me but would welcome opinions.

 

It seems that some of the active members of this group thread tapered 5% of the original amount every 2 weeks without recalculating and by eyeballing their cuts. 

 

I hope to hear from some of you with your thoughts on my plan (and when I can start). 

 

Thank you in advance!  

 

[[La...]]

Jerry,

 

Swimming sounds so nice! I hope to be able to do that again some day soon.  This summer I can swim at the beach.  And playing the sax is great too (for the brain and the soul).

 

Kachina,

 

Getting up at 3am....grrrr. Sorry you couldn't sleep more. You sound grateful even though I'm sure you are very tired.  Good luck today!

 

LD,

 

Thanks for the reminder to have fun and rest.  I'm going to try for a little of both of those today.  I hope you do too. 

 

Since this is the Z drug group, I'll put this out there. I normally sleep around 6 hours a night with a few wake ups during that time.  I'm satisfied with that as I never believed I would fall asleep naturally again after so many years on Lunesta, Sonata and a few on Xanax as well.  Anyhow, skip to two nights ago, I was having the buzzing/tingling/heart pounding phase of the program and only slept about 3 broken hours. But LAST NIGHT, I slept for FIVE hours without waking up! And then was awake for a while and went back to sleep and got 2 more!  What in the world? I guess I was making up for the night before but wow...I don't think I ever slept 5 hours straight before I ever started taking sleeping pills.  I hope this is a good sign of the best sleep of my life coming in the future.  I certainly have better sleep hygiene now than I ever did. 

 

Have a great day everyone!

My sleep does the zig zag too. Some nights I sleep solid some I wake up a time or two. Some sleep is deep and peaceful some is light and with nightmares. But I have noticed that my average sleep time is about the same…about 6 hours. I restrict my sleep until about 11-11:30. It takes anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour and a half to fall asleep. I’m now having less waking up around 4am. When I do wake up, within 10 minutes or less I fall back to sleep. I’m so grateful that I do. I’m up every morning by 7am. This morning I’m up at 6am. I probably could have dozed off for another hour but my full bladder had a different idea. And you know how that will turn out…..if you don’t take care of nature then it will take care of you   

Just like you, my sleep hygiene is much better.

Have a great day in a nice window 🤗

[[Be...]]

Agoura, there are plenty of boards on this forum that have alot of information about how to do a proper taper, even when tapering a Z-drug.