Posted by trakm on April 5, 2009, at 3:05:52
In reply to Re: PLEASE HELP ME!!! (Calamity of errors!!!) » JohnL, posted by proud mary on January 25, 2003, at 10:30:19
First I wouold like to say that you have been so many different drugs that It might be impossible top know what causes what.
One more important thing about half-life : When you take a pill you must think about 7x the half-life-time untill you can say that the pills are out. For a common used benzodiazepin, diacepam, the half-time is about 35 hours. Then you must think 7x35 =245 hours (10 days !!) untill the dose change is effetuatede or the stuff is out if you quit.
(sorry about my bad english but I just HAVE TO share my story about Imovane/z-drug)my story:
Since i'm working nightshift i started with zopiclona too sleep by daytime. It seemed harmless in the beginning and i used only 3,75 mg.What I then didnt know was that this stuff, because of it's short biological half-life (4 hours) , can give a slightly form of abstinence only short time after you have taken it.
Many, including me, experience awaikening after 4 hours. then the temptation is big to take more. Thats how it started to go downhill for me.
After about 8 hours (at the second half-life) I experienced a kind of anxiety, total passivity, social anxiety and agressivity. I thought it was something wrong with me. Now I understand that this was only the zopiclone which left my body, and my brains GABA-system that was affected.The only thing that helped against this anxiety was to take more zopiclone. I remember the first time i took 2 x 7,5mg. I couldnt sleep so I desided to go out. I dont remember any more.
I woke up in the evening and i had been shopping. My refridgerator was full of food which i had bought but didnt remeber. This is a known bi-effect of zopiclone and other benzodiacepines known as amnesia. Later I also found out that I had called friends and made appointments which I didnt remeber.
I can remeber thou that I had hallucinations. The pattern in my carpet was moving when I looked at it but the carpet itself was not moving. This sideeffect did not dissapear even days after I took the pills.But the anxiety disapeared as long as I took more zopiclone every 4'th hour. My brain started telling me that there was something wrong with me and that I just needed this stuff to survive. But the antianxiety-effect didnt last for long.
To make a long history short. After using zopiclone for 7 years I was now using about 20-30 x 7,5mg per day. I started my day with 7-10 pills just to get out of bed. To avoid drowsiness I used 3-4 fenazon-coffein-pills. At some point I was near to try amphetamin, but thank God I didn't. With so many sleepingpills inside, you are not exactly sane, and your critical sense is very reduced.
I couldn't get out of this addiction alone so I contacted my doctor ( who was only one of MANY, since I had been doctor shopping a lot) I also bought pills from china on the internet.
He contacted a treatment place, and after waiting for 3 months I got in to treatment.Now I dont use anything, and I now understand that many of the things I was suffering from was because of the pills themselves. The treatment was 1 week in 24h institution and 2 months as day-patient.
Now that is half a year ago and I only go there about once pr month for a talk. Some of the side-effects (ex. dry mouth and muscle tremor ) are still there. The doctors say that you will have to use about 1 month pr year you have been mis-using.I didnt start to feel OK untill I had been TOTALLY without pills for approximately 1 month.
Wake up and dont let the farmacological industry fool you, as they have fooled your doctor with luxus hotels and seminars. There are NO farmacological sleepingpills without side-effects and dependence.
poster:trakm
thread:137422
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090330/msgs/888764.html