How To Taper Off Temazepam Completely (Page 3) (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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Hey, I am NOT a Dr. but I cut down by breaking open the capsules and gradually lowering the dose. I want to quit too.

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Heather: If you've read this entire thread, then you've seen that worse insomnia is a possible symptom during withdrawal from sleeping pills. That you're apparently one of the unlucky many means if you want to get off the stuff, you'll have to somehow get through withdrawal insomnia. Getting some training in CBT-I might help; if not during withdrawal, certainly to prevent future insomnia after you've withdrawn. As far as accurately measuring the dose when breaking open capsules, ONLY IF IT IS SAFE TO DIVIDE THE CAPSULES, WHICH IS NOT THE CASE WITH ALL PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS, Allie's answer is adequate. Sleeping pills have a relatively short half-life in the body, therefore the amount in your body can vary significantly over the course of a day. By comparison, inaccuracy in the dose won't be as large. It's hard to tell from your post how you're trying to decrease your dose. As you've seen, stopping cold is not a good idea; however, decreasing the dose every day is also not a good idea, because if your body doesn't have time to adjust to the change, withdrawal symptoms can reasonably be expected get worse with each change. Don't expect this to be an easy or a fast process. Your brain had plenty of time to modify itself to counteract the effect of the drugs you took; it will need as much or more time to reverse those changes. Nothing says you have to decrease your dose by 15 mg or 7½ mg or even 5 mg, but unless you're super sensitive, changes less than 5 mg may not decrease withdrawal symptoms enough to matter, while dragging the process out. What's important is to restrict your decreases to a level of misery you can tolerate. Stick with each decreased dose until you feel you're ready to decrease it further. I hope you have someone around when you're doing this; withdrawing alone is also risky.

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try melatonian 3mg at 7:30 then 6mg at 10.00pm only time released 10 and only walgreens has it talk to Dr first but temazepam is a slow rocess to come of of and make sure to go on line to see if you can mix both as you wean yourself i think you can GOOD LUCK

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You CAN open the capsules. I have been taking them this way....opening and taking half the powder...ever since I started them and doc said its fine. Now trying to get off them. Down to 1/4 of a 15 mg pill. Side effects suck even at this small dose!

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Thank you for saying that your Dr. also said you could break capsules. I have really felt bad since posting that- I was only trying to help. I am still taking the partial capsules but I hate it. I just don't have the courage to go cold turkey yet because I have to keep a job and I can't do it if I don't sleep. I really, really wish I never started taking these.

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My shrink had me on a variety of meds for years and they really screwed me up. Don't know anything about temazapam but stopped seeing shrink and my GP continued my prescription for clonapin for a few years...but as I needed more he cut me off and told me to see a shrink. I just was too scared to do that again, as I remember by boss telling me how "stonefaced I appeared every morning during one period where I was takeing Seroquil and Trazadone...same time! Christ...I'm lucky I did not get a DUI....driving to work...but the clonopin withdrawals were so horrible I remember having screaming fits and panic attacks requireing emergency room visits. BTW Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac went through some of this. There is a new recognition world wide of the danger of these drugs. Great Britain has made this entire family of drugs illigal to prescibe for more than a week. For some people the hell of withdrawal is beyond any imagination. I still take valium, but limit my use to extremely stressful situations. I do know I have been changed for life.

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does anybody remember the movie "I'm dancing as fast as I can?" altho this is not considered a "real" drug, the effects on the body are irrefutable. i have been surprised at the efficacy of more basic drugs, such as benadryl to wean you off several medications, tho you may need to bevrepeated every two to three hours; and, as others have pointed out, a support network or a very strong mind set makes a lot of difference. i don't know if you can be functional as far as driving, etc., tho, becuz the original drug (the benzo) has flat-lined ur physical/mental interface (?) with the world, your reality. it can feel like every molecule is vibrating becuz the medicine has artificially suppressed the the normal ebb and flow of emotions we experience in response to life.

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I do remember that movie with Shirley McClain. I finally quit 30 mg of temazepam by taking lorazepam as a substitute. The lorazepam was tapered very slowly. But at least I was free of the restoril. My gosh, I was having such horrible nightmares on that drug. I am still not 100% free-I take .05 mg of lorazepam here and there but I am SO GLAD to be away from temazepam/restoril.

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Gosh. I stopped taking 30mg Temazepam cold turkey last Tuesday night. It is now Friday morning and I have had wretched rebound insomnia. I knew this would happen and "thought" I would be prepared! Ha!! I am semi retired and grateful I'm not employed at this time, as being able to show face early in the morning for employment would be horrible. I've been on this medication for about 6 months. Prior to that, I'd been taking 10mg Ambien. My NCP also prescribed me Dexedrine in the a.m.! REALLY became concerned with the addictive aspect of all these meds. Two weeks ago, I discarded the remaining Dexedrine in coffee grounds. Cold turkey. Did not experience side effects...miraculously, Praise God. I have been in prayer and felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I needed to STOP all of these addictive meds. So...finally got up the courage and asked for the Lord's help and threw out (in coffee grounds) the rest. I'm also in Alcoholics Anonymous...so I felt like a hypocrite and that DEFINITELY these meds were interfering in my walk with the Lord and in my participation with the A.A. fellowship. I decided if I'm not sleeping much better by tomorrow, Saturday...day 5 without this medication, I will go to the V.A. emergency room. Thank you.

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you may need to go to an n.a.meeting and disscuss what you are going thru, I'm sure they can help you, good luck

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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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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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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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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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Samantha, what dosage of temazapam were you originally taking and for how long? I went from 30 mcg to 15 last night. Didn't sleep much but am not groggy like usual. I wish there was a natural for, of sleeping med like herbs that really would help me instead of putting this drug in my system!

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Ricky, look into CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia). From what I've read, it works better than any drug, and unlike drugs, it doesn't give you the wrong kind of sleep, and doesn't create tolerance (which is what causes drugs to stop working and created dependence). CBT-I requires work on your part, but there are a lot of people out there who have tried it, like it, and can tell you more.

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Thank you, Kent....
I will look into BCT. I am trying to wean off of the temazapam. Dr. said to take it about 7:30-8:00 p.m. I don't understand that...won't I have trouble sleeping through the night? I didn't sleep through the night last night on my first try with just one pill instead of two. I will try it earlier tonight.
Do you understand his thinking? I was not groggy today but I am tired from not sleeping much.

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