How to get off of Ambien?

[Zootal]

I have been taking Ambien for sleep for about a month. I take 17.5mg (one whole tablet, and 3/4 of another) because I had to increase my dosage several times, and I upped it by 1/4 tablet each time. I didn't quite make it to two tablets before I got to the point where I don't need it, but am basically addicted to it.

The condition requiring this is slowly fading, and I would like to eliminate my dependence on Ambien completely. How do I go about doing this? Can I just gradually reduce my dosage until I no longer need it? How much should I reduce it, and how long should this take?

[Zootal]

Sorry - my bad - I thought I'd cut it by 2.5mg - a quarter of a tablet - every couple of days, not .25 mg. I'm just about to the point of doing that. With luck, I won't have to increase my dosage to 20mg, because that is a rather high dosage, even if my Dr. said I could take that much, I really don't want to.

I went for over a week without sleep, which is why my Dr. gave me the ambien in the first place. He said it would take a while to get my sleep patterns re-established and get off of the meds.

[Zootal]

It comes in 10mg tablets. My doctor said I could take two, but I break one of them into quarters and take three of the quarters, plus one whole tab. I've tried to avoid taking 20mg, but got pretty close. I thought I'd cut it by .25 mg every couple of days. That alone would take several weeks ...well, it took a while to get me here, I guess I should expect it to take a while to get back...

[kenneltech]

Yes, you can decrease your dosage, but it has to be slowly.  I'ts really better if a doctor at least KNOWS your doing this, so he can monitor you in case you go too fast.

I've had to do this many times, and they say that you can initally cut the dosage in half for about a week and a half, then cut it in tiny amounts (maybe 1/4 the amount, for about a week, and so on and so on).  At the end, when you are down to a small amount, just enough so your system knows the meds are still in there, you can go to every other night.  But, I wouldn't do this until I was down to .5 or less milligrams.  After that, you should just be able to stop.  ANY signs of withdrawel and you  are doing it too fast, so take a tiny bit more so you don't go into withdrawal.  This could take a month or more, so don't get discouraged or impatient, it is better to be safe.

Please think about telling your doctor what you are doing with Ambien so he can also advise you, as everyone's system is different and I am only telling you MY experience.

Actually, I didn't even know Ambien CAME in that dosage of 17.5 milligrams, that's a lot, so go slowly.