How To Taper Off Temazepam Completely (Page 2)

Please help; doctor doesn't want me as a patient anymore, reasons are ridiculous and too long to get into, but now she has put me in a jam. I was taking Clonazepam 2mg. 2 tablets 2x per week(for anxiety & sleep), & Temazepam 30mg. 2 tablets 2x per week(for sleep). I have been on both these drugs for 2 1/2 years & want to get the heck off them. I noticed the last couple months; neither appeared to be helping the anxiety/sleep issues I have had; so basically I just want off both. I have been Clonazepam free for 11 days now. I CANNOT believe how I feel--like I could crawl right out of my skin; anxiety ridden, non stop talking,completely wired,nerves jumping in arms & legs, more and more and on and on. Bad idea to go cold turkey, but did & now out of them. So I have to deal with the withdrawal with that one I guess.... But like I mentioned, I also want to get off the Temazepam. Am not going to go more crazy & quit cold turkey on that one too. My tablets are 30mg. & I normally took 2-30mg. tablets on Mondays & Fridays. Since I don't have a doctor anymore--can anyone suggest how to taper till completed weaned off? I want to get off this crud asap. (as you probably notice, I have a high tolerance). Thanks everyone!!!

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I have been on 90mg (nightly) Temazepam for at least 10 yrs. They are now trying to get me off it. I am just recovering from a bone marrow transplant 5 mos ago so I have been on quite a regiment of meds. My psych. has advised me to go down 15 mg. at a time. I can't do that as they come in 30mg capsules which are imposssible to taper off. They are using seroquel to alledgedly help me.
The first two weeks were drop to 60 mg of temazepam and 25mg of seroquel. This was not the most pleasant but I wwas able to at least tolerate it.
They have now instructed me to drop to 30 mg tem. and go up to 50 seroquel. I have tried this for a week but it is terrible. Sleep is horrible, food does not interest me in the least, and is effecting my moods.
They had advised me to use my own discretion on the use and amount of seroquel to take, so I think I am going to try back at 60 temazepam and 50 seroquel to see how I feel after that.
I guess one must remember I have sick for a long time or I wouldn't have had the BMT. After the transplant at one time I taking 17 different meds. most very strong and were anti-rejection meds re cancer.
I was advised the BMT would be a rough ride but it is not near as bad as going off temazepam.
By the way I already take 20mg of valium and 150 mg 2x day.
Having a rough go. Anyone got any suggestions.

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Why is opening a capsule of Temazepam dangerous? I have taken for a couple of years for insomnia and just recently discovered all of the health/withdrawal concerns. I have dropped from 45 mg a night to 15 mg over the last 4 weeks without too much of an issue. Since my capsules are 15 mg, my plan was to start opening them and split the dose in half, but now I am worried about opening the capsule. I have opened the capsule before and just swallowed the powder inside without any issue.

So far I haven't suffered any depression/anxiety, but I do have muscle pain and a tight chest (feels like I have bronchitis). In a lot of ways I actually feel better - I think the temazepam was making me over-tired in the morning and less attentive with my family. I am tempted to just go cold turkey from 15 mg, but I have read so many terrible stories I'm not sure if that is the best approach.

Sorry to everyone who is suffering. It is a sad that our doctors didn't warn us about long-term use of these drugs.

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I would stay away from the seroquel - bad stuff.
Go to non-benzodiazepines.org.uk/temazepam.html for guidelines on quitting temazepam (also bad stuff). After 10 years of usage I am sure you need to taper off gradually. Find a good doctor who will work with you and follow the program on the link.

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Sarah, read all my posts; #4 addresses your question. An example: Cymbalta has an enteric coating because if it comes in contact with stomach acid, the reaction can poison you. The coating may be damaged if the capsule is opened. To find out if it's safe with Temazepam, read the product information sheet (which you should anyway) and ask a pharmacist. As near as I can tell, Temazepam is also available in tablets, which are normally safe to break; but ask a pharmacist.

Your doctor didn't warn you because he/she probably doesn't know (record the time it takes you to find out everything Temazepam or any other psychoactive drug does, doesn't do and can't do, and how it should be used, and you will begin to understand only one of the many reasons doctors prescribe them. If you've taken Temazepam for longer than 10 days, you've taken it too long. (You'll also find that if you're still alive, you're among the lucky majority.) It's not a secret that benzodiazepines (one kind of sedative) are for short term use only, don't work long term, create dependence, and may be addictive; but for some reason, doctors don't hesitate to prescribe them long-term.

The trouble with psychoactive drugs is that the brain seems to assume that the body's systems for regulating excitation and calm are working properly, and if you interfere with either system by giving it a drug, the brain changes itself to compensate for the interference. The result is that after you take a sedative for a while, your brain decreases its ability to keep itself calm, so that if you stop taking the sedative, withdrawal symptoms may include worse anxiety and/or insomnia than you started with. That's also why if you take an antidepressant long enough for your brain to adjust, one withdrawal symptom may be worse depression than you started with. How bad the effects are depends on your body, so one person's withdrawal may be horrible, while another may barely notice it.

If you had trouble sleeping, or were having anxiety attacks, how would you react if your doctor prescribed whiskey, beer or temazepam (Restoril), alprazolam (Xanax) or diazepam (Valium)? If you were depressed, how would you react if your doctor prescribed cocaine, LSD, mescaline or bupropion (Wellbutrin), mirtazapine (Remeron), fluoxetine (Prozac) or sertraline (Zoloft)? Now look up all those medications here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug (reuptake inhibitors, releasers and agonists have similar effects to each other). Sleeping pills and anxiolytics are downers and antidepressants are uppers. A drug called medication is still a drug. Whether you have a psychological problem or a physical one, a drug wont make it go away, and if the drug makes you feel better, its only temporary and may end up making you feel much worse and dependent or addicted. If you can't find and fix the cause, be aware that modern drugs are not tested for long-term safety.

Medical dictionaries and articles may use dependence and addiction interchangeably, but the origins of the words suggest a difference. Dependence originally may have referred to physical dependence (you may end up feeling lousy taking the stuff, but worse if you stop taking it, without necessarily knowing why if you didn't make a logical connection between the act of stopping it and how you feel). Addiction may originally have referred to the development of a physical craving (you like the feeling it gives you, and if you stop taking it, your body craves it, or if you develop tolerance for it, your body craves more. When drug companies say their product isn't addictive, be sure they're not using the probable original meaning to fool doctors and patients into thinking the product doesn't create dependence. A drug that causes your brain to change itself to compensate, has created dependence. That's not the same as psychological dependence or addiction.

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Yes I've been taking xanax 1mg four times a day for two years but a lot of the times I would take go much and run out a week or two early untill recent I went five days without them and I had a secure so it scared me so my question is can I take restoril 30mg and taper off benzos safely like that.

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"J", have you talked to the doctor who put you on Xanax? I doubt anyone truly knows the answer to your question, and because of our legal system and the fact that withdrawal tends to be worse than side effects (probably including the risk of suicide), you'll have difficulty finding anyone who will take responsibility for helping you; therefore, if you really want to stop, you're essentially on your own and will have to help yourself. Everything beginning here is generic; so where I use a drug name, it could be any psychoactive drug.

Some important things you need to know: were you put on Xanax because of a psychological symptom caused by a psychological problem, or caused by a reaction to another drug, an allergy or a physical or genetic condition? If it wasn't a purely psychological problem, or if the Xanax has caused any permanent damage to your body, how do you know you'll even survive getting off it? You were taking a huge risk going on the drug, the risk coming off is not necessarily less.

Have you read and understood the entire rest of this thread? Have you read up on Xanax and all the relevant links on it, have you researched it elsewhere, and have you searched for words like 'Xanax withdrawal hell' (that might tell you how long it could take, too)? If you really want to quit, you need to understand what you've done to your body already, what to expect during withdrawal, and as much as is known about how to stop. If you actually find information with real numbers on how to stop taking Xanax; it won't necessarily make it any easier to stop (because every body is different), even if by chance it makes a doctor willing to help you.

If I understand your question, you're asking if you can get off Xanax by switching to Temazepam and getting off that. Every body can be expected to react differently to different drugs, so if someone told me there is a way of determining an equivalent dose of one to the other, I wouldn't believe it; and just because you have a problem getting off Xanax doesn't mean getting off a different one of the same type will be any better. A problem with psychoactive drugs is that if they cause "adverse events" and/or stop working, doctors switch from drug to drug until they and the patient haven't the faintest idea what's causing what problem or how long it can be expected to last. I wouldn't assume that switching to a different drug will allow you to skip any withdrawal symptoms of the first one. The second one might cover them up, but when you come off the second one, why wouldn't you then have the withdrawal symptoms of both? Coming off one drug can be bad enough, why would you want to come off of 2 (or more) at the same time?

How hard or easy it is to stop a drug depends on your body (the strength of your dependence and the nature and intensity of your withdrawal symptoms), as well as on your motivation and your self-control/ability to deal with unpleasant physical symptoms (mental fortitude and patience). It sounds like you tried to stop "cold turkey". Based on what I've learned about the science behind drugs, that's not a good idea.

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My names also graham. ive been on temazepam for 17 years and am taking 80mg per night. i need to get off them badly. am having panic attacks an cant eat. i am a mess an its my own fault but dont know what to do.

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Graham, sorry to hear (read) what has happened to you. That's a long time to take a high dose of a psychoactive drug that hasn't been tested for long-term safety. Have you read and understood all the below posts, including those on the next page?

How well or if your brain will be able to heal/restore itself is probably unknown, but the brain is pretty amazing, so you won't know if you don't try. However, you'll need a lot of self-discipline, patience, motivation, and faith in yourself to do it; because it won't be easy. It can take years and it will be very unpleasant for an unknown amount of time. You say you don't know what to do, but no-one can tell you what will work best for you (or if anything will); because your body is different from everyone else's, so no-one else will react to withdrawal the way you will. It would be misleading to tell you otherwise.

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I was on ambien, then temazepam for 2 years for insomnia. It is very, very difficult to get off - cold turkey does NOT work, will just make you very sick and feel like you're going crazy. My advice is to do a taper, go down on your dosage slowly, 15 mg less for 2 weeks, then 15 mg less, etc. If you can, get a doctor to prescribe very low dosages of valium to get you through the last couple months (only valium comes in low doses). I got off the pills 8 months ago, and am now doing a course of therapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that is finally helping get at the root cause of my insomnia - the anxiety and bad sleep habits. If you can afford it, go to a therapist that specializes in CBT, if you can't, there are online guides that could help. You will probably have to educate your doctor on this, as they are very good at getting folks onto medication but usually have no clue how to get you off. Good luck!

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Oh, man! I had NO idea temazapam was so hard to get off. I have been taking it for about four years now and decided I needed to get off. Years ago I was on Ambien and I quit cold turkey. After three days of not sleeping I started sleeping and didn't have any other withdrawal symptoms. I thought I could do the same with temazapan. I have not slept for a week now. Last night was the worst. It seemed like everything bothered me - the wrinkles in the sheets, my tee-shirt twisting when I rolled over, too hot and then too cold, and overall just feeling like I was going to go out of my mind. I finally gave in and took half a capsule of temazapan. I didn't realize until reading this blog that I am going through withdrawal. It really does feel like I am very sick. I think I need to change the way I am going off of this drug after reading all of your posts. Thank you to everyone for sharing.

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Ouch! I thought I was having a hard time with temazepam. I'm so lucky, compared to what some of you have gone through. I was on a full 30mg dose for maybe 8 months, tapered off slowly and have been off for about a month.

I think the thing that enabled me to get off the drug and still be able to sleep is the fact that I stopped eating gluten shortly after I started taking temazepam. It had gotten pretty difficult to sleep, even on a full dose, and I got such bad anxiety and rage. I don't know for sure whether the cognitive problems are from auto-immune issues caused by gluten sensitivity or from the temazepam itself. I'm getting marginally better at dealing with the emotional problems, and hoping that as my body heals from the immune system assault, I'll continue to cope more effectively and get back some of the brain function that was robbed from me.

Admittedly, I haven't read all the posts in this forum.. Is anyone pursuing legal action?

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Miranda,

Read at least post #24. Whether or not psychoactive drugs assault your immune system probably depends on your body; however, on the product information sheet, you'll find information from which you can infer that your liver and/or kidneys are more likely to be damaged by them. If you read all these posts, you'll discover that the Temazepam has done things to your brain that you weren't warned about (your doctor may not even understand them), and they are the probable cause of most withdrawal symptoms. The damage should be mostly to completely reversible, and it helps that you only took them for 8 months; but it still takes time, and how much probably depends on you and your physical and mental makeup.

You can search on line for class action suits for Temazepam, but a successful suit would normally require proof that the problem is caused by Temazepam. Psychoactive drugs effect everyone differently, therefore, what they do to you isn't always reproducible on someone else, so how do you prove the problem was caused by the Temazepam and not something else? Quite literally, the FDA approves these drugs partly because it's not possible to prove they work or don't work, but because they tend to have a very strong placebo effect, people can be convinced they work, and there's big money in them.

Did you read and understand everything on the product information sheet before you took the stuff? P.I. sheets tend to be worded to bypass thinking and understanding, but if a lawyer were to ask you the same question under oath in a court of law, would your answer support your case?

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I have been taking Temazepam for years and have always opened the capsules without having any problems. This was suggested to me when I first started taking them by my acupuncturist because the full dose was only helping me to go to sleep but I was still waking up after 3 hours. This worked well for years because I would rarely use the 30 pills in 30 days. But I eventually built up a tolerance to where the 30 mgs was not as effective.
Last July Dr gave me Trazodone to try instead....that nightmare lasted awhile and then we went to Clonazepam 2 mg which turned out to also be a nightmare.
Currently back to 30 mgs ( 2 15 mg tabs per night) at the same time weaning off Clomazepam. I think she is weaning me off too quick. One week at 2 quarters of the 2 mg and then she gave me 0.5 mg to take 1/2 - 1 tablet a night. Any ideas?

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Turdger,

If you're looking for someone to tell you wha to do differently from what your doctor is telling you, why do you have a doctor? Read and understand this entire thread if you haven't already. You'll also see that you're lucky to find a doctor who'll help you get off; appreciate it.

A doctor patient relationship should also be two-way. Talk to her. If you feel like she's weaning you too quickly, tell her and tell her why; but don't do it in a way that sounds like you're accusing her of not knowing what she's doing. Psychoactive drugs affect everyone differently, so there's actually no way anyone can possibly know what's the best way to stop for you or anyone else. A doctor that prescribes a psychoactive drug is experimenting with that drug on the patient, with our without knowing it, like it or not.

She may be weaning you at a rate appropriate to the half-life of the stuff, without concerning herself with how fast the brain is able to adjust to the reduced dose, which will vary from person to person. Based on the the mechanism, I wouldn't expect it to take less time than it took for you develop tolerance and dependence (e.g., someone stopping after taking Cymbalta for years may have withdrawal symptoms for years after the amount of Cymbalta in their bloodstream is essentially nil). If your doctor understands the problem you're having she might be willing to slow the weaning down...or be able to explain to you why she'd rather not.

Just remember that the longer you're on the stuff, the more your brain will adjust to it. That's what creates dependence in the first place, so the longer you're on it, the harder it is to get off. Also remember that when you change drugs, the new ones can cover the withdrawal symptoms of the previous one(s), so even if you've taken the latest ones only for months, withdrawal symptoms from the one you took for years could be with you long after you're "clean" of all of them.

To avoid getting yourself into the situation again, learn about and find someone to train you in CBT-I (cognitive behavioral therapy - insomnia). It doesn't create dependence or withdrawal, it doesn't stop working, and it doesn't give you inferior quality sleep like all sleeping pills do.

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DO NOT TAKE RESTORIL OR TEMAZEPAM BY ANY NAME. HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. DOCTORS HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO PRESCRIBE IT. MY WIFE IS IN HOSPITAL AND MAY DIE FROM WITHDRAWAL.

DON'T USE IT UNDER ANY CONDITION!!!!!

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Most doctors only know what drug reps tell them. Do your homework. It's your life they are screwing with. I didn't and my wife is suffering now.

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Ken, I am sorry about your wife. How is she doing now?
It has occurred to me that I may be having side effects from 30 mcg of temazepam per night. So sleepy all day long. I want to get off but am worried that the doctor won't even know how to do this safely. Waiting to hear from him. Anyone have any real luck weaning off?

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Ricky, I did manage to wean myself off temazapam about a year ago (see post 29), but it was not an easy process. Like you, I felt increasingly "drugged" during the day, and that the growing cost of dependence on the pills was outweighing any benefit. So I did a taper, SLOWLY weaning myself off temazapam over several months and then having my doctor prescribe low doses of valium for the last few weeks. Here is the website that describes this method of taper: benzo.org.uk/ashvtaper.htm. I showed this to my doc, and she agreed that it was a good approach. In general, doctors seem to be totally ignorant of how physically dependent our bodies become on these benzo's. Be prepared to do some research and educate your doctor! But the information is out there.

I then went to a CBT therapist (cognitive behavioral therapy) that specialized in sleep disorders, for a 2 month treatment. And...it worked! I can't recommend it highly enough. For the first time since I was a teenager, most nights I get a relatively normal night's sleep. It's a very straightforward, focused treatment that sets up a strict bedtime routine, and also treats the anxieties that have led to the problem in the first place.

Good luck to you, and any others suffering with this problem. I hope you find your way to more peaceful nights.

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Ricky, read this whole thread. How someone else gets off of tamazepam won't necessarily work for you, for the same reason that how it affects someone else won't necessarily be the same as how it affects you. Use your head as best you can and above all DON'T GO IT ALONE. With all psychoactive drugs, there is some degree of interference in your thinking, judgement, memory and reactions (while taking/getting used to them and while getting off them), creating a risk that you'll do something stupid and therefore possibly harmful or fatal to your self. Until you know you've got withdrawal under control, you need to have someone around 24/7 to keep you safe.

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I decided I would have to take the long way to get off it. I cut the dosage in half and took half for five months. Then I cut it into thirds and did that for a few months. Then into fourths. It is taking a long time, but this is the only way I can still get some sleep.

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