By using MoodChangeMedicine.com, you agree to accept this website’s terms of use, which can be viewed here.
August 14, 2024
By Joie Meissner ND, BCB-L
If you’re taking medication to help you sleep or to control anxiety you may be considering getting off the meds because you’re worried about side effects or because you’ve noticed these drugs aren’t working as well as they used to.
You might also have noticed that you need to take more and more of the drug over time. The body builds tolerance and the drug becomes less effective. What you may not know is that the use of sedative hypnotics, including common anxiety and sleeping pills, are linked to a spike in mortality. Research says the risk escalates as the dose goes up.1
One scientific review called a meta-analysis found that while one of every six people treated was harmed by such drugs, only one of every thirteen was helped. 2 And though those specific odds apply just to people over 59, a range of serious side-effect dangers exist for people of any age who take these pharmaceuticals.
But DON’T JUST STOP taking sleeping pills on your own without first getting the help of the doctor who prescribes them for you. That’s because if you suddenly stop taking sedative hypnotic drugs like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, Ativan, Xanax and others—you risk having a life threatening seizure. Your prescribing doctor can design a gradual taper schedule to safely wean you off the drugs in a way that helps prevent bad withdrawal effects.
If the phrase “weaning you off the drugs” sounds like someone trying to kick a narcotic, that’s not an accident. Sleeping pills such as sedative hypnotics can get you hooked, meaning when you stop taking the drug, you go into withdrawal. It can be the full-meal deal: nausea and vomiting, stomach cramps, panic attack, hallucinations, fatigue, sweating, lightheadedness, uncontrolled crying, and anxiety.
Depending on how long you’ve been on the medication, the dose and the speed of the taper will strongly influence what withdrawal symptoms you may have and their severity. A gradual taper schedule can greatly ameliorate such symptoms.
It’s very common for people getting off sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medications to experience rebound insomnia. It can be even worse than the original insomnia or anxiety that led you to begin taking these pills in the first place.
But there’s no reason to despair about not getting a good night’s sleep or to feel hopeless about overcoming your anxiety without pills because it’s possible to sleep well and defeat anxiety without taking drugs.
Mood Change Medicine’s sleep program offers safe, drug-free treatments including cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which has been shown to be superior and safer for the treatment of chronic insomnia than sleeping pills.
Mood Change Medicine also offers biofeedback as well as hypnosis and other natural and holistic treatments—all of which can help you defeat your anxiety and reduce stress.
You can take heart in the fact that many long-term medication takers report sleeping much better and feeling less anxious when off the pills than when they were on them. But remember do not try to taper off these drugs without the help of a qualified healthcare professional.
To find out how Mood Change Medicine helps people with stress and anxiety, click link below:
To find out how Mood Change Medicine helps people with insomnia, click link below:
Care informed by the understanding that emotional and physical wellbeing are deeply connected
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
By using MoodChangeMedicine.com, you agree to accept this website’s terms of use, which can be viewed here.
Citations
- Kripke DF, Langer RD, Kline LE, “Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: a matched cohort study” BMJ Open. 2012;2:e000850. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000850 ↩︎
- J Glass, KL Lanctot, N Herrmann, BA Sproule, and UE Busto. “Sedative hypnotics in older people with insomnia: meta-analysis of risks and benefits.” Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Quality-assessed Reviews. 2005. ↩︎
Mood Change Medicine 
Discussion
No comments yet.