Quote:
Originally Posted by Deejay14
I was quite afraid at first to even decrease my meds, but not willing to up dosages. My psychiatrist and I did a tapering using Dame Heather Ashton's model which is about a 10 % reduction every 7-10 days. For awhile I even used diazepam so I could get over the anxiety as I was tapering down the ambien. See my thread "trying to get off Ambien". This whole process took a while. Taking your time is important as it allows your body and brain to stay out of withdrawal. It is very hard to sleep when that happens. Please PM me if you think I can help further.
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See so am I! I'm trying to be very cautious and slow. I stopped all meds "cold turkey" for three months and that was a horrible mistake. So now I'm a little scared to even decrease a little. I know this will be a journey so I'm willing to go back to my original dose if needed but no higher. Yes, I'm understanding now that your body and brain adjusts and there are ways to help keep away severe withdrawal (I never knew about withdrawal until after my withdrawal experience. I was aware of relapse but not withdrawal).
Perhaps I will look into this model. Right now I am reading Will Hall's Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Of Psychiatric Drugs. I tend towards depression so I may go ahead and take Cymbalta like my psychiatric nurse suggested to help initially, but I'm wanting to eventually be off as many meds as possible if I can.
Thank you for the advice and I will check out your thread and PM you if I can use more help.