Abuse Of Zanaflex (Page 2)

I was just wondering if anyone out there has over-used zanaflex? I am ashamed to admit I did. I was just so desperate to sleep at night. One or two wasn't cutting it so I started going up to 6, 7, or 8 at I time. I would never ever recommend this for anyone. It was just my own desperation and stupidity. I have always had giant tolerances to everything. Anyway, this stuff would put me down hard, it was hard to get up and walk myself to the bathroom and the other thing was the vivid hallucinations, i have never experienced anything like it before. Everything I was seeing was so real it was scary and I would even see people and hold conversations with them. In the morning i would be completely fine. Thankfully i am in treatment for addiction now to various other substances. I just never heard a story about this from anyone else, it was just so crazy.

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Be very careful with Ambien. I am an attorney and I developed chronic back pain from a degenerative disc. I am highly educated, but knew very little about the long term problems with pain meds until it was too late. I was referred to a pain doc and followed instructions exactly. I was given ambien, high doses of narcotics (increasing over time), zanaflex (two 4mg in eve) and Lyrica (300mg 3x day). He kept saying I was "not a good candidate for back surgery" and the drugs escalated. I was in the hospital for hernia surgery and kept complaining about my back pain and a spine surgeon came to see me out of the blue. I had back surgery less than 30 days later. Following rehab I completely discontinued the narcotics and ambien. I had taken them for over 5 years. I did not sleep for three days straight. It was terrible. I had been proactive and had my wife keep my meds in a safe that I did not know the combination to. She got out my daily meds and helped me a great deal. Stopping the meds was terrible. I now am years past that episode and I was not 100% for about a year. Now I do great - I only recently discontinued Lyrica. Now I take three 4mg of tizanidine in the evening. I thiink they are great for muscle spasms and sleep. They tend to make my mouth very dry, but I wake up ready to go. I do have vivid dreams and my wife will tell me that I routinely carry on a conversation with various people while I'm completely asleep. I have no recollection of that in the morning, but I do recall vivid dreams. Prior to starting back on tizanidine, I had a visit to my local ER for muscle spasms in my back and the ER doc prescribed my valium as a muscle relaxant. I took them for over a year and then switched back to tizanidine. I do not wish to take scheduled drugs - so I stopped the narcotics, Lyrica and valium. No way would I recommend anyone take ambiem for any length of time more than occaisional use. When I took that for several years, my wife told me I would get up in the middle of the night and go pig out in the kitchen, go back to bed and wake in the morning with no idea I did any of that.

She said I did all kinds of weird stuff - she started sleeping with one arm over me so that if I tried to get up she'd know and attempt to keep me in bed. One night I actually got in my car and drove away with her trying to stop me. I came home an hour later, and woke the next morning and had no idea where I went. I am also a former police officer and would have hated to have had an accident. I stopped them. When I was awake for three days, I talked to my doc repeatedly (as a professional courtsey I have my docs cell phone number) he told me he did not know of anyone ever passing away from lack of sleep - he said hang tough and sooner or later you will go to sleep. I so wished I could lay down and just fall asleep like my wife and three girls do. But I couldn't. It was terrible. I say if you suspect you have an issue, don't kid yourself, tell someone. I'm now 53, been married for 35 years to a lovely, great, beautiful wife. She is a blessing of patience and love. Tell someone and don't be afraid to ask for help. You can do it. I did. I have now had open heart surgery (aortic valve replacement), two hernia surgeries, 5 knee surgeries, back fusion surgery, been on every kind of pain medicine you can name and now have successfully stopped all of them. I was at my height of prescription drug use, was given (monthly visits to doc) 5 40mg Oxycontin, 3 30mg roxycodone, 15mg ambien, 2 4mg zanaflex, 3 300mg Lyrica, 2 25mg metoprolol, and coumadin in a day. I worked full time plus (I have my own Law Practice). I have been on many other pain meds over time. Now my tolerance sucks when I have a surgery - I'm forever ruined by the pain doc. Drug dealer in a white coat. When I stopped all that med in 2009, I stopped seeing the pain doc and saw an drug dependence specialist. I like the term dependence vs addiction - I was not taking the drugs for any high - that wore off long ago, but if I tried to take less anytime - I would get terribly ill. With the help of my doc and suboxone, willpower and a great wife, I was able to stop that madness. I think zanaflex is great for muscle spasms. Good luck, God Speed my friend.

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Zanaflex is not an addictive drug, in fact, it is one of the few approved meds for recovering addicts/alcoholics. My Rx was written with unlimited refills. If I take it and stay awake too late, I hallucinate. I take it for muscle spasms and sleep. 4- 4 mg tablets a day. Any medicine can be over used or used wrongly, but there is no danger of physical addiction with this. It does not change or alter the GABBA receptors in the brain.

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I have cervical and lower back pain. My prescription is 4 mg's at bedtime and physical therapy (3 x's week). Having access to Zanaflex is a significant slippery slope for me. I ended up in residential addiction rehab in early 2013 due to prescription drug abuse after a medical emergency. Zanaflex allows me to get some sleep; I've not experienced any negative side effects. The other side of the picture is that I do not take Zanaflex precisely as prescribed. I will take a dose late afternoon and then sometimes an extra pill (2mg) at bedtime. Tomorrow I meet with a new doctor, a neurosurgeon. The hardest thing for someone like me is the moment of truth revealing to a new doctor that I am a drug addict. The addict in me is screaming 'I need something stronger than Zanaflex; it's not working'; the part of my brain that was not destroyed by my addiction, says to me 'you must let the doctor know because my disease wants to kill me'. After treatment, I did tell all of my established doctors and I told my druggist. I felt as if the druggist would be a safety net. Although I live in a large city, I go to a small independently owned pharmacy. I can only speak for myself, but I do see that Zanaflex has the propensity to make me crave more that is prescribed although it is not in a class of drugs that I should not take unless under an extreme medical condition. I hope this helps someone out there that is in a similiar situation.

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Hey fello tizanidine user as well ss... This tizanidine can get you hooked but fear is what I use for my addiction stopper I am using 2# 60 mg oc..... 5 To 6 five and ten milligram valium... And 3 tizanidine 4 mg per day. The tizanidine does not have an adverse effect as the ms contin or norcos... Actually allowed me to cut my 60 mg ocs in half and my valium down to 3 # 5mgs leaving the 10 mg valium untouched .. So you can use it as a calm thinking that most people will not evolve an addiction from tizanidine and if you notice it while taking more then prescribed it actually turns against u and makes back pain worse ten fold. Any questions feel free to ask. If you or anyone needs a helping hand let me know.

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Yes very true hurah. To you in glad your holding strong

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To whom are you speaking? I am not a addict, per-say, but an alcoholic. I am very careful of what I take. Zanaflex is NOT an addictive drug. I willbe 3 years sober in August. I am also a nurse. I monitor my Dr.'s closely. No desire to go down that road ever again.

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No, they are very different medications, chemically and molecularly.

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I hate to break the news but if your running out of your narcotics that soon before your refill you are not controlling your meds. You are going to build a tolerance to these drugs and it's important to let your Dr know how much it takes to control the pain. If your using them recreationally, seek treatment.

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Trust me, if its for recreational purposes, leave it alone. If you have a actual need see a specialist. I'm not preaching or lecturing in any way, but I'm dealing with pain on a daily basis and want off the meds. I don't know if you'll get this message or not, but you can contact me {edited for privacy} any time if you need to.

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They probably won't treat you anymore. I take the 4mg three times a day and it helps with my spasms. I also take meloxicam 7.5 twice a day and oxycodone hcl 15 mg every six hours. With injections it's keeping me fairly comfortable. You may just have to wait until you were suppose to run out before you ask for more. My PM told me to call if what I have isn't strong enough but I do know they don't like you over using the way they prescribe it. I hope you can get off of it. I have no effects taking it the way it was prescribed

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Your M.D. is insane it's extremely DANGEROUS to take zanaflex with ambien! You could develop sleep apnea and not wake up!!! This is why more and more people are dying from prescription medications....been a nurse 22 yrs see it happen in the E.R. a lot

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You are headed for a serious crash! Been there, almost all self managed and at very low to no dosages now. Lyrica doesn't work. You are taking too much. Pain doctors can lead you to addiction because all they do is dispense meds symptomatically. And it keeps building up and up until you my friend, are in trouble. This is a fact. Start to come off very slow of everything. Cut doses slowly and slightly increase time to next dose. Will take a few months but it can be done. You may have up and down days, but you will start to notice trending downward in dose taken and going up in time before next dose will occur. Take it in stride. If you can't, suggest you get professional help. Very sorry to hear this. Just saw this 2day.

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You are on a bad road friend.. I am afraid for you.. I was addicted for almost 20 precious yrs of my life.. I was anti drug and had no idea what I was in for.. Doctors are just highly paid drug pushers... I lost everything... Everything!!!! Please don't waste your life as I did..

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God bless you and your friend...I am an LPN *well, was* and was addicted to opioid meds for over 10 years. I was almost dead and it took being arrested and humiliated at work to quit. I see it as a wonderful thing. My pain management doc didn't even care what was in my urine. But, recently, I was given Zanaflex for my constant back spasms and I hate it. Vivid and terrible dreams. The hallucinations are the worst. And yes, I take everything the way the doc says take them no. No more P.O. opioid meds for my back. Use low dose of Fentanyl patches. I use the 25 mcq. Good luck to you and your friend and anyone that this helps. 7 years sober 10/6/15.

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He was getting help you genius

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To me, tizanadine was a nightmare. To me, that medication is pure evil. I would hallucinate. I would see people and also I would see arms with hands come out from back of my bed trying to grab me. It would cause me awful chest pains. One night I thought I was having a heart attack. I went to the emergency room at a nearby hospital and found out that nothing was wrong with my heart. The last straw was when I was in bed one night reading and it felt like someone had grabbed my left hand side and tried to roll me out of bed. No more tizanadine. Now I am on cyclobenzaprine.

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I take cymbalta 60mg a nite I was just wondering if cymbalta has hurt your stomach been taking it for 12 yrs I take it because I have fibromyaligia I want to take tizadine c if it helps my pain also

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I am not a dr. and in no way qualified to give you an answer except I have been on both medications but (Ambien and Zanaflex) but not at the same time.

I am concerned for you after reading this post. From my experience, I would NEVER take them together. Ever. Please be careful.

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I was on Soma and of course the pain meds g youet messed up. But really the zanaflex puts me to sleep (4 hrs grrr ). Its not party drug though. You get real sedation pretty fast. And don't get to a buzzed stage. It is the most effective one I've been if that nelps.and walking is the strangest thing ever. I hate it. Ive taken a lot and its weired. Doesn't happen every timr but it sbeaks up on ya!

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I had chronic back pain and had L5/S1 spinal fusion in 2009. I got hooked on oxycodone, and I know now that my mind was trying to convince me I continued to need the meds. I didn't, and I don't. When I ran out, I would take every opportunity to manipulate my doctors by learning the proper way to act, and things to say, to get the prescriptions (basically, saying that I hurt but that I could fight through the pain through willpower. They didn't see me as a drug seeker, so they would prescribe). I overcame my addiction, but then I tore my meniscus and started using again. I finally got sick of seeking highs, and I found out I had undiagnosed adult ADD. They put me on Vyvanse in 2010, and I haven't taken a single pain medicine since. My doctor said many ADD adults try to self-medicate to feel like they believe they should feel. I'm now having joint pain and arthritis in my knee, but I didn't even think to ask for pain meds. The doctor gave me Zanaflex. I take it as directed, and it helps. I get cortisone shots in the knee every so often. A friend of mine who had the same spine surgery got hooked on oxy but didn't quit. Her kids found her dead from an OD two weeks ago. She was just 41. I know the road. I even used to cold-water extract the acetaminophen out of pain pills so I could take more without damaging my liver. I look back now and can't believe I allowed myself to do that. Just admit your problem to your doctor and tell him why you seek the drugs. Maybe you have ADD or depression or just need therapy. It's a step you won't regret because it is a step in the right direction. Your mind is powerful in trying to convince you into thinking that what you want is what you need. You might want oxy, but you might just need Naprosyn or, in this case, Zanaflex.

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