[Trish27]

Hi. I understand your fears. I have been going through the same thing. I also get Psychological Services and take Xanax for anxiety in addition to Ambien for sleep. I was afraid to quit anything for a long time until my cognitive abilities and memory suffered.

Over a period of six months I have reduced my Xanax from 3 * 0.5 mg per day to 2 x 0.25 mg per day. In the last 10 days I have also reduced my Ambien from 10 mg at bedtime to 5 mg.

I have been following the sleep recommendations offered here and it has helped tremendously.

The first week was hell but unlike you, I do not work and I honestly do not know if I could have done it if I had to report to a job. The sleep programs recommend that you do not call into work  or blame your inability to function on insomnia. I do not entirely agree with that because when a person is going through withdrawal symptoms, hasn’t slept, and can’t think straight, I think it is impossible to work and dangerous to drive. So I don’t know how you would handle that except to maybe start with the Sleep hygiene and instructions without reducing the medication and then after a while start with medication reduction during a vacation or else reduce at a slower rate and therefore it won’t be so difficult.

It takes a lot of commitment and patience. This last week has enlightened me to the fact that poor sleep habits contributed more to my inability to sleep than reducing my sleep medication had. When I had previously tried to reduce my Ambien, I could never sleep but after implementing new sleep habits, I am actually sleeping on half a tablet which is huge for me. I am obviously not where I want to be yet, but I believe it will happen with perseverance. I wish you the best. I would be happy to go through it with you if you want to try.

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