How To Taper Off Temazepam Completely (Top voted first)

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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My problem...I have been on ambien for 2 years and now temazepam for a year. I want to wean myself off and have been warned not to go cold turkey. I have been using temazepam 30mg every night due to severe sleep problems. I have stopped taking them, substituting herbal teas and meds, but find that I get no sleep at all. Luckily other withdrawal type symptoms have been mild, except for typical post menopausal symptoms. Any ideas on how I can sleep without taking these very harsh drugs?????

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Temazepam comes only in capsules. You can't open these, I'm told it is dangerous. You have to be prescribed lower doses. (Ambien - or zolpedem - on the other hand, comes as tablets, that you can split yourself.) I don't know how low the doses go on temazepam, but I am hoping I can get down to 1 mg or less. Seems different manufacturers make different dosages; the doctors have references to search it out. I reacted badly to one 3.5 mg product - got very sick, hives in the middle of the night - and we had to find another. Takes some work to do all this. My old doc wasn't willing and/or knowledgeable - when I asked how to get off the meds, he just shrugged and said there might be some "insomnia rebound" - what a ridiculous term! So I got a new doctor who is working with me. She has been very willing to take the time to do the research on this. Kent, you might be right that they are trying to avoid lawsuits, but seems the height of irresponsible practice to prescribe these meds so quickly, and then not have a clue how to help patients withdraw.

I do want to say, though, that if you have never suffered from chronic insomnia you have NO idea how horrible and crippling it is. I don't regret getting onto these meds, as it has given me a couple years of blessed sleep - knowing, for the first time in my life, that when I go to bed I will actually sleep, and wake up with some energy. It's helped me get over some of my anxiety about sleep and going to bed. Now I just need to figure out how to do it without the pills. Am looking into various non-drug approaches - including CBT (cognitive behavioral treatment). We'll see.

Good luck to all who are dealing with this...don't lose hope! And find a compassionate doc.

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I have found that doctors don't want to help people stop "psych meds" (drugs used to treat psychological symptoms); and suspect they're afraid doing so could expose them to a lawsuit, because the only thing worse than the suicide risk as a side effect appears to be the suicide risk as a withdrawal effect. Also remember that doctors get their info on drugs from manufacturers, who formulate the info (including misleading statements on the drug’s information sheet and using the ignorance of the average doctor and patient about statistics to mislead them) to keep you on drugs, not to cure you and/or to get you off them. Also, many drugs are not available in dose sizes suitable for a truly gradual weaning; and drugs with a short half-life (typical for sleeping pills) lend themselves poorly to "weaning", because you are already effectively withdrawing every day (mathematical fact).

If you have the mental discipline/fortitude to deal with the withdrawal effects, doing it yourself will probably be your best bet, but try to have someone you trust around to keep you from doing something stupid. If you don't have the necessary mental strength, a friend could help you, but only a friend with enough mental fortitude/detachment to keep you on track while watching you suffer, without calling 911. It's not easy, and if you're taken to a hospital, the drugs they may put you on could be a lot harder to get off of than sleeping pills.

Like "recreational drugs" (including alcohol), "psych meds" impair brain and nervous function, including judgment, how you think, and reactions, and that can lead to trying stupid things to "make these feelings go away", or to just doing stupid things, without truly appreciating or comprehending the risk(s); possibly leading to unintended death (or injury) that will be labeled a suicide (or attempt).

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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 have managed to make almost an entire week from Temazepam. It has been utter hell!!! I called my doc and asked her what I could use to help with withdraw and she said use Gabapentin and Flexiril for the sleep and the physical pain.

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I am also trying to wean myself off temazapam. Was on 15 mg, have cut back to 7.5 that I combine with valerian tincture. That seems to be working so far. Will try to continue the gradual approach. Some say melatonin works for them - never did for me. Tried cold turkey once, and I didn't sleep at all for a week and couldn't function. Graham, sounds like you need to somehow get your doc to give you a lower dose, help you get off these.

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I am trying to quit temazepam also. its awful. Have you been able to quit? If so how did you do it? The docto put me on trazadone but it is awful, I'm like a zombie all the time. Would like to know how you are doing.

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Normally, you need to first find out if there's a physical cause for your insomnia (thorough medical checkup). Some physical problems (e.g., hypothyroid condition; but the trouble is, once you're on psychopharmaceuticals, it's difficult to get the right dose of thyroxin because the symptoms of the wrong dose are the same as many psychopharmaceutical side effects, and the wrong dose can permanently damage your thyroid).

Sleeping and anti-anxiety pills don't work for long. Search on line and read everything you can find about Temazepam (Restoril) and Ativan. Both create dependence, so you have your task cut out for you; and how you do will depend a lot on your mental fortitude. Please heed my warning about not doing it without someone to look out for your best interests during the process.

As far as the insomnia is concerned, I have some good info, but can't put it all here. Also, there's work involved; you'll have to be willing to change yourself and the way you think about sleep. Here's a paragraph that should point you in the right direction for some on-line searching:

Most promising on this score was cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I, a form of brief psychotherapy that helps people correct mistaken beliefs about sleep and change ineffective sleep habits. Jack Edinger, PhD., a psychologist at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, has conducted a number of studies comparing CBT-I with other treatments, including sleep hygiene and progressive relaxation (that is, the tensing and releasing of various muscles, starting at the toes and moving up the body). While those approaches often helped people get to sleep, they didn’t help them stay asleep, he said. By contrast; just two to four sessions of CBT-I resulted in marked improvement in his subjects’ sleep maintenance, with even better results at a six-month follow-up. Other studies have found CBT-I to be as effective as drugs in the short term and more effective in the long run.

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P.S. When trying to wean off of ANY drug, there is the temptation to cut/break tablets to decrease the dose. With some drugs, this is OK; however, with some it can be extremely dangerous. Before using this technique, find out if it can be done with the medication you're using in the form you're using (what may be OK for tablets may NOT be OK for capsules).

Also, eat a healthy diet while you're coming off, with plenty of fruits and vegetables and as little processed "food" as possible. Your body can repair itself better and more quickly with quality materials than with junk.

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I am going through hell too. Try GAbapentin for the sleep and Flexiril for the body aches. It did help with sleep bu tI think I am going to have to just suffer with the body pain.

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There is no Santa Claus. Before you try Gabapentin or Flexiril, read up on them. I just glanced at the stuff the Gabapentin link brought me to and you'd have to be crazy to even try the stuff. How does the saying go? "Remember when your parents told you not to experiment with drugs? Well with psychopharmaceuticals, your doctor is experimenting with drugs on you at your financial and physical expense (and the manufacturer is laughing all the way to the bank). It isn't even possible to develop a valid clinical trial for these things because the drug, the control and the placebo always have different (or absent) side effects. Einstein's definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". How many drugs do you need to be messed up by to figure out that no matter how good they MIGHT make you feel in the short run, in the long run they created dependence, make you miserable, sometimes leave you with permanent damage, and don't fix the cause of the problem? If someone tells you to touch a hot gas stove to make the pain in your foot go away, and you burn your hand, do you listen to him when he tells you "it must have been the gas, touch an electric stove"?

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One other suggestion to anyone trying to taper off temazepam - try GABA. On the advice of a friend I've been taking it this last week, along with a low 2mg dose of Valium, and I'm managing to sleep. It's an over-the-counter amino acid that has the same calming effect on the nerves as temazepam, but not as many side-effects + hopefully not as addicting. I plan to ease off the Valium in the next couple weeks, and stay on GABA for a while while I look into other treatments for insomnia. That's the plan, anyway...

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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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Wow, very sorry to hear what you are going through.

30mgs is a high dosage and it is going to be hard to wean off of them, without medical assistance.
Regardless of how you try, if you try to cut the pills and take less or take them less frequently, you will probably still experience some withdrawal symptoms.

Have you tried finding a new doctor that might be able to help you?

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Temazepam/­

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Heh. Do not go cold turkey off Temezepam. You have a good chance of dying. It's not smart. It's one of the rare ones that can kill you. Trust me I'm an insomniac with night terrors. Also an ex addict that was on suboxone for 3 years of hell. Right now my dr has me on 60 mg a night of Temezepam. After I'm done with this suboxone mess I don't know what I'll do about temazepam. I prefer taking temazepam to night terrors. Morning suck but oh we'll. But I can help you get off 30 mg. temazepam is much harder to lower. You need a dr to switch to diazepam aka Valium. I've read a million studies that it's much easier to taper. You will start at 27 milligrams and slowly do it. One thing that may help is clonodine. Just take two and knock yourself out. I could sue the s*** out of my dr at this point. He never warned me of anything ahead of time. Not until it was to late. Then he tried putting me on adderall the second I said I couldn't focus. I'm an addict and your prescribing me adderall? Trust me on the diazepam. Even try taking a couple over the counters with it. Clonodine is amazing and any dr putting somebody through withdrawals should know this. It'll also help during the day. Take it with an energy shot until you can handle it. Only take one during the day. Your dr can't cut you off by the way. They put you in the mess it's there job to get you out. Good luck. Please trust me I really know what I'm talking about for all of you who are having a hard time. I'm terrified of getting off 60 suboxone took me 6 months to get my skin to stop crawling. Still does on occasion.

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You're right Rob, ambien is even worse. I also started on it and was switched to temazepan because of side-effects. I didn't mean to suggest that switch, was just pointing out that one was in tablets where the dose could be adjusted; maybe if you're on ambien you could do your own taper. I'm looking into switching to valium so my dose can be slowly lowered. There is a British doc that has worked all this out, including the process of switching over:
benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s9

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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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Start to taper if you get 30mg tablets take 3 quarters for a few weeks then half and so on.
The meds you have gotten to help you are perfect to help with wds from benzos...

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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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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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