Posted by silvercoin on July 24, 2006, at 16:43:32
In reply to SEVERE Sleep aid dependence, posted by detroitpistons on July 24, 2006, at 15:11:37
> About 2 1/2 years ago I started working nights and I was having trouble adjusting. I started taking Xanax at night to sleep and the rest is history.
>
> About a year ago my new doctor put me on Trazadone and I started at 50mg and now I'm on 100mg.
>
> I absolutely can't sleep a wink without taking something. NOTHING. ZIP. ZERO. ZILCH. A few weeks ago I pulled an all-nighter and still couldn't sleep the next night. The night after that I slept for about an hour and the next day I still couldn't sleep. I seriously think I would stay awake for 4 or 5 days if I didn't take something. My pdoc will never address this. He would prefer to toss this problem in the back seat.
>
> Trazadone is annoying. It won't work unless I eat something with it, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. When this happens, I take Xanax.
>
> I'm tired of this. Less than a year into Trazadone, and I've already doubled my dosage. This is really alarming to me. I want to be able to sleep on my own. I wish I could doze off on the couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon (on the rare occassion that I take a nap I have to plan it and take Xanax.)
>
> I set an appointment for an evaluation at a sleep clinic, but it doesn't seem to me like there is anything that anybody can do for me at this point...It's that bad.
>
>
>
In my own case, I developed a severe dependency on Halcion (which is not a great deal different from Xanax structurally) after long term use, and then extremely severe insomnia and depression after discontinuing it, lasting for a few months. If you use the Xanax fairly often, I guess my suggestion would be to consider getting completely away from it to perhaps allow your GABA receptors to reset themselves to some semblance of normal. This may take a while, and it is very likely you will have to use some other kind of sleep aid to tide you through. Trazodone is a good and inexpensive sleep aid, and a 100 mg dose is certainly not out of the ordinary. Seroquel does not have the food interaction but is more expensive. I would suggest avoiding other drugs that work on GABA, such as Lunesta, Ambien, chloral hydrate, etc.Todd
poster:silvercoin
thread:670049
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060724/msgs/670090.html