Abuse Of Zanaflex (Top voted first)

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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My husband is currently using this as a sleep aid. His doc prescribed it after he had back surgery. He now is using it to sleep. I am concerned that his use of this drug is affecting his personality. What are the long term effects of using this drug? Especially as a sleep aid.

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The person who said they were hallucinating with the zanaflex made me wonder if zanaflex and flexeril is in the same line of medicines. When i take the flexeril i would hallucinate.

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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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pnut, it's absolutely vital that you put a stop to any chance you have to abuse those drugs. Obviously, as a successful member of the US military you are more than capable of the willpower needed... but you have to drop any pride you have an let someone know that either there is/or could be a problem.

At a minimum, get a close friend who is opiate naive to dispense the 60MG pills as needed(or see if a local medical professional can provide this service). Get yourself one of those AM/Noon/Evening/PM pill boxes and do everything you can to make it obvious when slot is opened early... and IF you do start having real problems, go see a younger(preferably non-euro foreign) doctor. They will have much better programs, and even medications to try. Ask them about Tramadol and Pentazocine.

God bless you rambo chick

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I've been overusing Zanaflex myself because I sleep so poorly at night. I usually start off with 3 and if I still can't sleep after a couple hours, I take 3 or 4 more. I don't get hallucinations, but I sometimes have vivid dreams. During the day I sometimes take 2 or sometimes 3 and every so often I get very light headed upon standing and I feel very dizzy and weak. I see a neurologist/pain management specialist who is treating me for headaches and migraines. He prescribed Zanaflex along with a few other meds. I'm afraid to to tell him that I'm abusing Zanaflex out of fear that he won't treat me anymore. Then I'd REALLY be in bad shape without a treating specialist.

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I take two Tizanidine 2mg, 2x daily. I accidentally doubled up on a dose and had a horrible experience. I could barely stand and when I did I got so dizzy that I nearly passed out. I called my doctor and he told me to stay in bed and to obviously be more careful so that it didn't happen again. It hasn't and it is still helping my calf spasms immensely. I think it's very dangerous to take more than prescribed--for goodness sake, don't do it intentionally. Get some cannabis if you must or better yet, a really good hobby!

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I am in the military currently waiting for my MEB but i take 120 pills a month (4 per day)- 5/325 Oxycodone a month and( 60 per month)-60mg MS Contin a month, and (1 tablet)-12.5mg Ambien CR and now the doc just put me on one 4mg tablet of Zanaflex that i take at night with the ambien. Honestly i am a little scared to take this because i am currently having issues controlling not abusing my narcotics which ends up with me running out within 2 weeks of my script getting filled. I am afraid that the zanaflex will have the same effect that the lyrica had on me and completly numb me out i seriously couldnt even feel my lips on that stuff. and im worried that the muscle relaxer will have the same if not worse effect on me. I dont even know if i should take it because im afraid im not going to feel my body for a couple days..help please

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I just got turned on to them by a friend............never knew they existed..was withdrawing from xanax and they took the sickness away....serious addiction to xanax

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I have chronic neck pain. In physical therapy three times per week. Therapy includes dry needling. Ran out of conservative prescription to take one 2 mg Zanaflex pill at bedtime before eligible for refill. Going to change from seeing a neurologist to a neurosurgeon in 2 weeks. I have a propensity to abuse prescription drugs so I am between a rock and a hard place. It's all so depressing.

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I've been on Zanaflex for more than one year, although I don't take more than prescribed (2 - 2mg capsules nightly). I can see how one can potentially abuse this drug since it's one of the more effective muscle relaxants available (better than flexril). Perhaps switching to another muscle relaxant might yield better results against abuse.

I'm currently on several meds due to chronic back pain. 10 mg Oxymorphone ER, 5 mg Oxymorphone IR, Zanaflex 2 mg, Celebrex 200 mg, Cymbalta 60 mg, Ambien CR 12.5 mg.

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Zanaflex is what they used to give me every time I was admitted to the hospital for a long-term stay to help with my withdrawal symptoms. I would get 2 2mg Zanaflex and a couple Clonodine and it was supposed to make my opioid withdrawal tolerable while I was there, since the amount of pain medication they were willing to give me was not enough to keep me from getting sick. At the time I thought both medications were completely useless because I would continue to get sicker and sicker even after being given them. Now that I've kicked my habit it seems to me both of these medications are actually quite strong, and exceeding a recommended dose of either will put me right out of it. So like anything else, how strong it is is relative to whether you actually need it or not

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I had spinal fusion on C-4 and C-5. My disc where no good anymore and has replacement with Cadaver disc. The effects after surgery is very painfull. Oxycodone 10mg and tizazidine 4 mg works good pain relievers for a very bad screwed up back.

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Zanaflex contains the active ingredient Tizanidine, this is a muscle relaxant.

Unfortunately, yes, these are commonly abused by many people, because of some of the effects you both have described here.

Like any other drug, abuse carries the risk of serious issues, including possible fatal ones.

Kudos to you for getting help.

Common side effects can include: nausea, drowsiness, dizziness and headache.

You can read more here:

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Zanaflex/­

Does anyone have any questions?

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I jacked up my knee really bad and have had four reconstruction's. I also have bad spasms and nerve damage. I dont meet retention standards so theyre medically discharging me.

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I would also be careful about the Tramadol. I used to have to take Tramadol 50mg and enjoy the euphoria so much I got addicted. Make sure to take it after eating or it can cause nauseua. And please remember to take it in small doses. (One to two pills)

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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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Man... I have been on opiate scripts for almost a decade. No problem, it works, NEVER abuse, every once awhile I take an extra as my pain day happens, but I have to account for that by end of month (you know).

So 4 month ago my doc cuts meds in half and replaced them with the tizanadine. Worst past 7 weeks EVER! I go to sleep and wake in 3-4 hours in a fit of intense sweats, the inability to go back to sleep. I am a freaking zombie since. I pass out standing up!

All the ones who have made the story of pain meds a disaster have ruined it for those who really need and not abuse. But stay away from the tizanadine, of rather go without and I am working on getting off them but it's harder than the perks of life.

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I also take Xanaflex to help me sleep, but it messes my stomach up. I have a Peptic Ulcer and it aggrevates it for some reason, so I have to take Carafate and with food before I take the Xanaflex.

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pnutprincess--I am a former "Green Beret" and presently an ortho medical officer for the Army, I deal with MEBs, SRPs, and TDRL evals on a regular basis. This amount of meds seems a bit excessive. What exactly are you being MEBed for?

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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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