There's various schedules on how to do it, here's a good starting point: https://www.aafp.org/afp/2017/1101/p606.html
My personal rule is to never be taking benzos for more than 3 days in a row, to avoid being in a dangerous withdrawal situation.
I did not know this could have been life threatening. That's... comforting...
[1] https://qz.com/677980/opioids-arent-the-most-dangerous-drug-...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_synd...
Doctors are often ignorant of the need to taper benzos over a long-term period, and not rapidly. Some might see you coming to them with a problem quitting an often abused drug as a sign that you need to be taken off of it as soon as possible. Sometimes instantly.
Of course you should always let your doctor know when you're taking less medication than you're prescribed. I suggest consulting with a specialist before trying to quit with a GP or your run-of-the-mill psychiatrist.
I ended up moving my prescriptions to my GP and managing the tapers myself, because the doctors don't really know how to do it.
My partner started taking sertraline (Zoloft) for depression, and started grinding their teeth at night. Their dentist asked if they'd started taking any new medicine lately, and was like "oh yeah that'll do that."
My partner's psychiatrist literally did not believe that the medication could cause this - despite it being right there on WebMD, not exactly secret knowledge.
Currently looking for a new psychiatrist.
That happens in every field. It’s just shitty when you’re depending your health on them instead of a deadline.
I've had a lot of complaints about various psychiatrists, but one constant even among the worst has been that they were always very, very cautious about the need to taper and the possible risks involved.
It makes you look a bit dorky but it's better than not sleeping (or mania).
The product used in the study (and the one that I've seen work) is:
Uvex Skyper Blue Light Blocking Computer Glasses with SCT-Orange Lens (S1933X)
Before, my eyes were super heavy and aching by the end of the day, and now they feel as though only an hour of screen time has passed. Thing is if I take them off while working/looking at any screen without a blue light filter, they start aching within 10 minutes :/
Once you have insomnia for a few weeks it tends to be self-reinforcing. I didn't get adequate medical care during the first few weeks, when it was acute, so it became chronic. I tried, but the doctor wrote me a half-strength prescription for Ambien, and that was all. It didn't work.
But the thing with insomnia is that it is self-reinforcing. You get conditioned to lying in bed awake, and that's what your brain then expects to do when you go to bed. And then you get anxious about it, which makes it worse. Once you have it, removing the original cause doesn't solve the problem.
In my defense, I worked under these conditions for five years before it became an issue.
https://willhall.net/comingoffmeds/
I consider it the bible.
Honest question: Have you ever considered that your insomnia was psychosomatic and, through your doctors involvement in for-profit sales of pharmaceuticals, socially re-inforced?
In my case, I see my psychiatrist once a quarter for fifteen minutes. Klonopin and Remeron are two of the cheapest drugs there are. My meds cost me less than $40 a year. I don't think anyone is making a lot of money off of me.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or biofeedback, which are two alternatives that were presented to me, would have been far more expensive.
You may take the view that you can always take them, but circumstances change (your doctor may no longer be allowed/feel comfortable prescribing for a long time - this happened with opiods) or you may not be able to get access with them for other reasons.
The drugs will most likely stop working or rapidly increase in side effects after very long term use, it's generally just a matter of time.
I would strongly recommend you get a plan to taper if possible and look into alternatives. Many think the benzodiazepine withdrawal is as bad if not worse than opioid (plus it can be lethal).
I guess I'm just agreeing with you from a philosophical point of view.
For what's its worth for anyone (including OP) reading this, I found success in studying philosophy as a poor man's CBT especially Existentialism. I think an argument could be made that these two things are the same thing but represented slightly different language and with slightly different goals.
I tried CBT, and it didn't work. Admittedly I only tried it once. There are lots of different flavors of CBT for insomnia, and maybe if I had tried harder I could have found one that did work. The problem is finding a doctor who knows about it and will work with you, especially if you don't live in a big city.
Benzodiazepines are worrisome drugs, but I have to admit that for my insomnia, they were almost magic. Once we got the dose right it went away almost literally overnight. But then, as the OP illustrates, doctors aren't necessarily helpful in getting back off them.
Truth!! I had to discover this for myself as well, and I'm continuing to figure it out as I go (currently lost about 50lbs in a 150lbs weight loss journey).
I'm sorry if I came across as judgemental, nor do I want to diminish your accomplishment. As someone on both sides of these drugs, it is no easy feat to make this big of a change. Kudos!!!
It sounds like the medication has done its job in that it has given you relief to get some sanity back and to focus on other options.
A few years in, I found a psychiatrist who was willing to experiment and we discovered that the two meds above helped tremendously with the insomnia. I was then getting a solid eight hours most nights. There were side effects but they were much better than suffering with the insomnia was.
Now, after a decade, the insomnia seems to be completely gone. Knowing that I have medications available to me that can help me get to sleep is enough that I think I don't actually need the medications any more. So I'm very slowly going off of them. Klonopin first. There are, as far as I know, no guidelines for how to do this. I tried cold turkey, but the side effects from that were fairly severe. So I started tapering. I'm now down to half my original dose. If things go well, within four months I'll be off the Klonopin for good, and then I'll start on the Remeron.
These medications are not easy to stop taking.