[Pattie]

I've got other posts out here as to how I've been feeling, but I think if I could get some decent sleep it would help. Ambien quit working when I quit cymbalta (I've had insomnia for a long time). Doctor gave me 2 mg klonopin to sleep at night. Works for a while, but feel like crap from it and still not enough sleep (been dealing with hypomania, also, since I quit cymbalta). Are any of you having this problem? I'm at the brink of exhaustion. Even if I was willing to go back on cymbalta, the quack shrink I was seeing for 7 months was giving me sample of cymbalta for 4 months (he was too damn lazy to contact my health insurance co. to get authorization), and for other reasons, I won't go back to him. Tried another shrink a few days ago. He was a jerk. Anyways, any suggestions for sleep?

Oh, and when I do fall asleep, I have such nightmares, I wake up.

[Dingle]

I dropped off cold turkey on 12/18/10. Yeah I know, very bad thing to do but its better than the alternative of prolonging the inevitable and withdrawal symptoms of weaning off. I have had the "brain zaps" that occur many times daily. I called the shrink that pushed this crap on me telling her that I am having these withdrawals and if there were anything i could do to lessen the severity of these uncontrollable brain zaps. I was told Cymbalta doesn't have any noticeable side effects from withdrawal other than possible weight loss. She wanted me to come see her and also pay the 26 dollars for not showing up on a scheduled visit (BULLSHIT). SO i immediately forgot that route and decided to seek the information myself. What I found was troubling. I too am prescribed ambien (zolipidem tartarate) and even when taking 2-4 doses a night (do not do without consultation from a medical professional). The Ambien does help quiet the severity of the zaps almost to get some sleep. I personally found that smoking cigarettes, alcohol consumption, Certain vitamins (B-Complex), and caffeine can cause or aid in these brain zaps that make life unbearable. At least for me that is. This is very VERY bad advice but take 1-2 ambien with a glass or so of the booze of your choice. This will shave a bit off the zaps. And since you said you had clonazepam pop one to two mg and that should help quiet them enough to get some sleep. Albeit its not by any measure great sleep and you probably will wake up intermittently, you could be able to get more sleep than I did when i first figured out a little cocktail. Unfortunately the only other thing that has helped quell the storm in my brain is cannabis. Funny how you have to result to buying illegal chems just to stop the influence of the legal chems those bastards force on people in the name of the all mighty dollar.

[Pattie]

Hi Dingle,
Weird thing is that I never got a brain zap. I started out with two weeks straight of nausea and such a bad head fog and headache I felt like I had a high fever. I couldn't think straight or function at all. As soon as the first symptom of withdrawal started, the ambien quit working. I do smoke cigarettes and have some caffeine, but I don't drink. I can't drink alcohol because it can turn me into a raging crazy person or make me extremely depressed. I've tried many times in my life to smoke weed, but that reacts really weird on me too. It also turns out that I have a paradoxical (reverse) reaction to benzos, which I just recently figured out, so that xanax XL my doctor had given me just heightened the hypomania from the withdrawal. Then I was taking the klonopin, and figured out I should probably stay away from all benzos. I don't know what kind of screwed up brain and system I have, but I think I'm wired differently than most people. I think I'm coming down a little from the hypomania now, but I have a lot of anger and rage and it's hard for me sometimes to control it. When I talk to my friends on the phone, I'm swearing like a trooper and in a rage about all doctors and how the world is so screwed up. I've been on antidepressants for 12 years because doctors actually seem to push them. I swear, I am never going back to any of those evil pills again. My 31 year old son said that all he does is smoke weed and he's fine. I think he's right. I just wish it worked on me. I've never heard any stories about people going through all this crap on weed. And, all those doctors can shove those prescription pads of theirs up their a__! I made an appointment with a psychoanalytic psychologist (he has a doctorate degree but cannot prescribe meds) who also has experience with additions (which I now feel in many cases taking antidepressants is -- an addiction to try to feel better but it just messes you up instead). I am mad!

I've quit around 11/8/10. I think the ambien is slowly starting to work again. However, if I want to get more than 2-4 hours of sleep, I end up having to take another one (which I've done 3 or 4 times) and I'll run out of them if I keep that up, so I'll have to stop doing that.

I feel like you do -- quit cold turkey instead of postponing the inevitable. However, I have ended up twice at an after hours clinic and once in the emergency room. The emergency room was a mistake. They just gave me an EKG, gave me an ativan, and told me to get to a psychiatrist asap. My diagnosis was a 'panic attack.'

Keep me up to date on your progress. Good luck.