[Freedom2023]

Hi there
I started zopiclone to help me sleep after a cancer diagnosis in May 2020. (all in remission now for over 2 years)
I wish I never had started but it did help me to sleep through treatment and recovery.
I also had taken lorazepam for 2 years and have just weaned off – 21 days off tomorrow!
I stumbled on the sleep course and though knew and practised some of it, a lot of it is really helpful. Thanks, Martin.
I really like the bit about aligning my day with my values – before this it was “waiting” until bedtime so I could try and go to sleep again and felt isolated and alone in the day.

I would love to come off zopiclone but after coming off lorazepam (Ativan) thought I’d wait a month off it before I start to taper off zopiclone more. I’m on just under 7.5 mg per day at the moment.
I’d come tapered down to 3.5 in May last year but had a severe PTSD and anxiety attack and onslaught of insomnia which lasted for months so increased the dose.

I’d love to hear success stories of people who have come off zopiclone or similar – I tried cold turkey for a couple of nights and went into severe anxiety and hyperarousal.

I have cataract surgery in early Feb and once that is successful hopefully anxious arousal will decrease and I can take the opportunity of time off work to start to taper down more.
Thanks for the listen.

[Chee2308]

Hello and happy new year!

I used to take ambien but it quickly stopped working so I quit after only 3 days. And I never looked back since. I think taking this courageous step actually accelerated my recovery because if I had kept taking it, it would only reinforce my delusional dependence on it and could have gone on for far longer than necessary.

I think for anyone who feel they need medications to sleep, if you are in a position to taper and are disciplined to see it through the end and sticking with it even if your insomnia gets temporarily worse will come to a conclusion that you actually don’t really need them. Think about this for a second, if you didn’t need zopiclone pre-2020, so how did you actually sleep all those years before? What changed then? Could your body really change so drastically within a few days that suddenly warranted a life-long need for sleep medication? Or is the dependence illusional? Which of this is likelier based on your sleep history? Good luck to you.

[Martin Reed]

I feel as though my podcast discussion with Sally might have been tailor-made for you!

How Sally improved her sleep after 60 years of insomnia and 10 years of sleeping pills (#19)

I hope this helps!

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