Can one get off sleep meds after many years?

Posted by toren123 @toren123, Mar 10 2:03pm

I am 86 years old and not really a depressed person. Most of the anxiety I have is connected to sleep. I have chronic insomnia and have been on sleep medication for 25 years. I have taken the course in CBT-I. I believe my sleep hygiene is pretty good. But I can’t sleep at all without medication. But where I live, almost all doctors are associated with the same organization. After 25 years of trying and using many different sleep meds, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find one that works. When you do, it no doubt is a controlled substance and doctors here don’t like to prescribe them. One doctor even refused to help me after that. And some don’t like to because of my age and I might fall. So you are put in a category that basically says ‘all old people are the same’. So my question is, does anybody know if there is some sort of rehab facility similar to what there is for illegal drugs, for long time sleep med users?

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Profile picture for dragonflylady @dragonflylady

I had been on Ambien for 20+ years while I was working due to insomnia and the day I had to quit work due to health reasons I put them down and never looked back!! I only took them so I could function the next day. I looked at it like this ~~ I don’t have to worry about getting enough sleep to go to work anymore so I just let be whatever would be. I stayed calm and actually started enjoying the 3am early morning routine of sitting on my porch listening to nature wake up and thanking God for another day. I’ve never been a big sleeper so I figured why fight a losing battle and just find joy and peace in what I can’t control. And if need be take a nap if I need to. I’m FREE to be me

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@dragonflylady hi sounds amazing - did you actually stop without tapering without any withdrawal symptoms?

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I stopped cold turkey and actually gave the full bottle to the physician that originally Rxed them to me. I think I previously mentioned I haven’t been a good sleeper as far back as I can remember so when I guess being awake at 3am some would consider it a withdrawal symptom but I didn’t it was just returning to my old self

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