Thanks for the reply.
So I've continued to feel pretty lousy, but less lousy than the night at the ER. Any idea how long I can expect this to last? Anxiety has also been up quite a bit. I assume that's the Lunesta as well (hits GABA so expected).
This stuff is evil. I had thought that the withdrawal would be minimal given the ramp down to 1mg for so long.
Thanks again.
You were on it at 6 months + at the 1 mg dose? Lunesta and ambien are relatively potent at low doses, which I'm sure you know. Dropping off of 1 mg can still be too soon.
For tapering from antidepressants, it is typically advised to cut back 10% of the drug every month if the pills can be cut or a liquid solution can be made from it. For a benzo I would imagine a longer taper, 10% every 2 months.
I would estimate you wouldn't be back to normal for many moons. Though your symptoms would become more tolerable, less extreme over time, of course.
Benzo withdrawal is a two-phase process stretching out over months and months, some former addicts or long-time nonabusive dependents can have the milder symptoms for up to 2 years later.
I keep speaking of benzos because even though Lunesta and Ambien are nonbenzos, they are very very close to benzos, and behave much like them and have similar withdrawals. Benzo withdrawal has been much more studied than the z-drugs, that's all. But this withdrawal is the primary reason why benzos are scary devils.
I'll tell you what I've done, it helped me so it might help you too a bit (but it's not likely to outright banish all symptoms). I've been on and off Ambien a few times in the past ten years, with years between short use, but now I am on Ambien (10mg immediate release) indefinitely unless I chose to stop. There have been a few hiccups in the past with a previous doctor's office failing to fax refill requests back to pharmacies in a timely fashion. They did this to me three times, every time blaming the pharmacy for the fuck up (which was wrong). So I was suddenly cut off from Ambien for weeks, one time it was a whole month and a half. Needless to say, I got a new doc, who is much because he oversees all his patients' prescriptions directly instead of delegating it to lazy, stupid office clerks.
I would coast strangely well for the first 10 days to 2 weeks with some mild anxiety/irritability increase, aside from the fact that my sleep schedule was obliterated and gave me monster migraines (Ambien is the very first ingredient in my migraine prophylaxis regimen). Then the mega-tsunami hit me all of a sudden with a vengeance. What. the. fuck. is this black magic?
Since I was unprepared, I had to use what was already in my house. Obviously the goal here is to handle a GABA crash which results in a glutamatergic shitstorm (which can actually do real damage to neurons, especially related to hearing -- tinnitus is one of the semipermanent or suspected permanent symptoms of benzo withdrawal because glutamate went shoop da whoop at the major auditory nerves). You can simultaneously do things that could help level out the GABA and things that control glutamate.
With OTC stuff there is not a whole lot you can do about GABA. The benzos and z-drugs act on GABA-A, but with OTC substances you typically get ones that act on GABA-B (herbs, mostly). So you're left with these supplements: GABA itself, picamilon, taurine, active B complex, magnesium, lithium, potassium, maybe theanine. Foods: kefir! Herbal teas like these (my favorites, I'm pretty particular about teas because of all the BS in most major tea brands):
http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B00E5CPB1C
http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B0030EGQ7E
http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/B000CMIYWM
http://www.amazon.co...f/dp/B007M8FRV0
You'll note the presence of licorice root all over the place in teas because it's most often used as a sweetener. But it turns out that licorice might be awesome for your purpose:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22543233
Hypnotic effects and GABAergic mechanism of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) ethanol extract and its major flavonoid constituent glabrol.
Abstract
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra, GG) is one of the most frequently used herbal medicines worldwide, and its various biological activities have been widely studied. GG is reported to have neurological properties such as antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anticonvulsant effects. However, its hypnotic effects and the mechanism of GG and its active compounds have not yet been demonstrated. In this study, GG ethanol extract (GGE) dose-dependently potentiated pentobarbital-induced sleep and increased the amount of non-rapid eye movement sleep in mice without decreasing delta activity. The hypnotic effect of GGE was completely inhibited by flumazenil, which is a well-known γ-aminobutyric acid type A-benzodiazepine (GABA(A)-BZD) receptor antagonist, similar to other GABA(A)-BZD receptor agonists (e.g., diazepam and zolpidem). The major flavonoid glabrol was isolated from the flavonoid-rich fraction of GGE; it inhibited [(3)H] flumazenil binding to the GABA(A)-BZD receptors in rat cerebral cortex membrane with a binding affinity (K(i)) of 1.63 μM. The molecular structure and pharmacophore model of glabrol and liquiritigenin indicate that the isoprenyl groups of glabrol may play a key role in binding to GABA(A)-BZD receptors. Glabrol increased sleep duration and decreased sleep latency in a dose-dependent manner (5, 10, 25, and 50mg/kg); its hypnotic effect was also blocked by flumazenil. The results imply that GGE and its flavonoid glabrol induce sleep via a positive allosteric modulation of GABA(A)-BZD receptors.
That said, don't overdo the licorice. You can have one of each of those teas daily for a while with no problem. I do all the time, especially the ginger/turmeric.
With GABA and GABAergic substances you often have to wait 2 hours before it kicks in (it's the same deal with gabapentin and similar drugs), so you need to keep this in mind and plan ahead.
I didn't list phenibut... because it's phenibut. I did use it a bit in these periods of panic, but I don't think it's good to use for the purpose of stopping a benzo.
I know I'm forgetting some stuff right now. I'm sure someone else would have something to add.
What not to do:
stimulants, caffeine included , unless they are like ginger which shouldn't mess with glutamate (except to perhaps modulate it a bit) or cause you to lose electrolytes faster than usual (like caffeine increasing Mg and K loss)
substances that are claimed to be anxiolytic but interact with glutamate in an undesirable way (you see nearly everything being called anxiolytic these days including sunifiram and aniracetam, but they do something one way or another to stimulate glutamatergic neurotransmission so you have to check for things like this)
skip meals (lowered or impaired cell energy production = lowered glutamate excitotoxicity threshold)
fail to hydrate (same)
