Posted by bleauberry on May 6, 2011, at 17:01:12
In reply to Zyprexa withdrawal and insomnia, posted by jms600 on May 4, 2011, at 16:53:08
> I'm finally off Zyprexa following a tapered dose over a period of 2 weeks. My last dose was just over a week ago, however, I'm now experiencing terrible insomnia. I have difficulty falling asleep and wake up throughout the night.
>
> I was on 10mg for around 4 months.
>
> Does anyone know how many weeks the insomnia generally lasts for??
>I would think maybe 3 to 6 weeks. Sorry. 10mg to zero in 2 weeks seems an extremely fast taper to me considering the med involved. It took me 3 months to taper off of 5mg after being on it for a few years. Your 4 months isn't bad, but it's still long enough to be hard to get away from.
I'm not sure what you were taking it for or whether it was helping or not. A return of old symptoms could happen. Other withdrawal symptoms could happen in the coming days and weeks. Or maybe in another day or two you'll sleep fine and everything will be fine. There's just know way to tell. But with Zyprexa I don't know, I think it would be a while. I hope I'm wrong.
In the meantime there is help. You could every now and then take a chunk, maybe 3mg, just to help get a fairly decent night of sleep. And while not completely off it, you are very close. I had to do that. About once every 3 or 4 days I just needed a tiny chunk. After several weeks of that I didn't need any more.
If you want to stay off it then treat the insomnia. If you can't sleep, everything is likely to get worse. You could use meds such as Lunesta which helped me getting off zyprexa (the others didn't). I used it maybe very 3rd or 4th night.
Boatanical medicines can help a lot. Tops on my list that have been most helpful include Lemon Balm, Skullcap, Passionflower, and Valerian. As with most plant medicines they work best in combinations. 2 or 3 of the above. Another option is a combination of zyphus and schizandra. That's a Chinese sleep formula used by Dr Zhang treating Lyme patients who need help sleeping.
Sometimes magnesium is helpful to calm everything down so you can sleep. The quickest way is a soak in a warm bath with epsom salts.
I do best with the herbs when I need them.
Anyway, zyprexa withdrawal stuff, yeah, I can relate. That was a tough one.
> Thanks
poster:bleauberry
thread:984564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110502/msgs/984734.html