klonapin, ambien and uncontrollable night eating - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

cookfan56 · 04-13-2011, 09:37 AM

Hi. I feel like I'm in a bind, a never ending cycle I can't get out of. I take 1.5 mg of klonapin a day for anxiety, have been for two years. I also take 12.5 mg at night of ambien for sleep. I've found that the only way I sleep is by taking all the klonapin at night with the ambien. This way, I still wake up one to two times a night, and I EAT. By that, not healthy foods, but like half a pack of graham crackers, eight cookies, etc. After eating healthy and counting WW points all day, then I consume more than 500 calories in the middle of the night, during a trance state. I have talked to psych and therapist about this. We have tried tapering klonapin. Can't seem to get below 1 mg. Plus, tried spreading out klonapin during the day, but when I do this, I get up 4 to 5 times at night, and still eat. Between not sleeping and all this eating, I am a wreck. Gaining weight, and becoming even more depressed and sleep deprived. Then, can't even work out because of fatigue. Has anyone gone through this because of ambien and klopapin combined? I am willing to go off ambien completely since I know withdrawal is minimal, but have yet to find any other sleep med that worked. I'm thinking of taking 500 mg of valerian at night with 3 mg of melatonin as substitute for ambien. Klonapin with drawal is much tricker. Therapist and doc claim that the two together are causing the trance state night eating. Anyone, help?

Wildflower · 04-13-2011, 11:01 AM

Hello...

I've taken Klonopin on and off for 10 years (eeek!) and I actually find it reduces my appetitie. I always lose weight when taking it regularly. I haven't mixed it with ambien, but I've taken ambien a few times and it knocks me out pretty well so there is no oppertunity for me to be up and eating.

That said, I wanted to share that my ex experienced this "sleep eating" while taking Seroquel for sleeping. Ambien/klonopin didn't work well for him so he started taking 100 mg of Seroquel at night. He would litterally be up and cramming food into his mouth while looking like he was going to pass out. I was so worried about him because I thought he was going to choke!!! It was really bizarre and freaked me out...I mean, his eyes would be closed, his head back and yet he'd be shoving cookies or chips into his mouth.

My ex was a jerk and just yelled at me whenever I mentioned it to him (he though I was just "picking on him") so he never saught help for it but he never chocked to death either...he only gained tons of weight.

This is probably not helpful, but I had never seen this before so I thought I'd share I understand what you are going through. Are you in bed when you take the pill? It doesn't seem like it is helping your sleep much if you are up eating, maybe you need to take more of it? Or take it earlier? He would wait until midnight to take these meds, when I personally think you should take anything for sleep much earlier (say 9/10 pm if you are getting up at 6 the next day). Maybe try taking one and getting into bed early and doing a crossword or reading until you fall asleep? I don't know what your routine is, but I know he would take them and stay up watching tv/on the computer which I think contributed to the sleep eating because his body was fighting to stay awake since he was sitting up...

Good luck. :9

cookfan56 · 04-13-2011, 06:14 PM

Hi Wildflower, thanks for the reply. I take all pills approx. 1 hr. before sleep, and then I do go to sleep, soundly, but am up 2 to 3 hours later, eating in a trance state. Then sometimes again. Some nights, I'm up 3 or 4 times, but not eating all those times. My therapist says he feels that ambien and high doses of knopanin together have a synergistic affect, and that the knonapin loosens my inhibitions so that's why I eat. He says that ambien itself is strongly implicated in sleep eating. Anyway, he is a holistic therapist (yay) so he will work with me in other ways to attempt to get me off at least the ambien. Funny that a therapist knew more than my psych doc admitted to. It is very hard to withdraw from knonapin if you've taken it every day for years, which I have, but ambien is not so addictive. I am going to try replacing the ambien with melatonin and valerian root. We'll see what happens.

Wildflower · 04-14-2011, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cookfan56

Hi Wildflower, thanks for the reply. I take all pills approx. 1 hr. before sleep, and then I do go to sleep, soundly, but am up 2 to 3 hours later, eating in a trance state. Then sometimes again. Some nights, I'm up 3 or 4 times, but not eating all those times. My therapist says he feels that ambien and high doses of knopanin together have a synergistic affect, and that the knonapin loosens my inhibitions so that's why I eat. He says that ambien itself is strongly implicated in sleep eating. Anyway, he is a holistic therapist (yay) so he will work with me in other ways to attempt to get me off at least the ambien. Funny that a therapist knew more than my psych doc admitted to. It is very hard to withdraw from knonapin if you've taken it every day for years, which I have, but ambien is not so addictive. I am going to try replacing the ambien with melatonin and valerian root. We'll see what happens.

Yes, I've gone off klonopin several times. When I was taking it at .5 mgs a day it was no problem to stop, but once I got up to 2 MG a day it was really, really hard. Go sloooow and be gentle on yourself. It took me 2 tries to get off and now I only take it as needed. I won't go back to every day after how hard it was to stop it. I unfortunately spent 6 months to get off 2 MGs only to have horrid insomnia and go onto Ambien, which I hated, so I eventually went back on the Klonopin. and then spent another several months getting off it again.

Be strong and the most important thing is to have a plan on how you will manage your anxiety/insomnia once off the meds that helped it so much. Ambien/Valerian/Melatonin sounds like a good plan. Also, once you get under 1 mg, go extremely slow...my psych gave me a much faster tapering plan that I could handle, take it at your pace.

lynnie923 · 04-14-2011, 11:48 AM

I find that I eat during the night alot when I am stressed and my mind is not at rest when going to sleep. Have you tried meditation or reading a book before you fall asleep? Blogging seems to help also. Good Luck!!

cookfan56 · 04-17-2011, 10:55 PM

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement. You're right, Wildflower, it seems anything over 1.0 mg of klonapin daily is hard to kick. I also got down to 1 and had to go back up to 1.5. My psych tried the slowest route possible, decreasing by .25 mg per day for 14 days, then another .25 for 14 days, but even then it didn't work. Next time I guess only decreasing .25 mg every 3 weeks or so? Actually, my psych doc honestly doesn't know so I'm just guessing myself. I never in a zillion years would've taken this had I known i was so addictive.

yoni4299 · 08-14-2011, 04:39 PM

OMG, I'm EXACTLY the same boat? Did you find any answers? I need help bad w/the Ambien eating. Keep putting on weight; very depressing. I'm new to this site, so not sure how to go about seeing if you found answer to this issue. I hope so!!!

Esofia · 08-14-2011, 04:49 PM

I haven't tried Klonopin, but Ambien makes me hallucinate the night I take it and then be so stoned for the next week that I'm not safe to cook. It's got a strong reputation for causing various behaviours during sleep; be grateful you're not going out and driving in your sleep, as some people do on it!

Try this website for a few more approaches to sleep problems. Darkness therapy has been a complete lifesaver for me, and I find the effect to be roughly equivalent to a good sleeping tablet. Melatonin tablets never did a thing for me, and you can't get it on prescription in the UK because it's deemed to be ineffective, but getting my body to produce its own melatonin works a treat.

Valerian - check that it's compatible with your other meds, check that you are using a reputable company, and be aware that it reeks to high heaven. I get 400mg capsules from Bio-Health (UK company), and use them when I'm going through rough patches of sleep for whatever reason. Usually I will need one, sometimes I need two, so 500mg sounds like a good dose to me.

Meanwhile, if you know that you're likely to eat 500 calories or so at night, measure how much you eat at night for a week by counting how many crackers are in the box before and afterwards, and then dock the average from your daily calorie allowance, or as much as you can manage. It's not a problem that you are likely to solve immediately, so you may as well work around it. Or are you already doing this?

Barbarams · 08-16-2011, 08:40 PM

Have you tried Ativan? I have significant experience/knowledge when it comes to natural supplements--concerning all aspects, from depression and sleep, to weight loss, thyroid/heart/adrenal issues, male/female specific issues etc. It is tricky finding the right fit for everyone (same with medication). Have you tried either GABA or 5-HTP? I find that passion flower, hops, melatonin, jujube, magnolia, phellodendron, lemon balm, valerian, skull cap, magnesium, calcium, l-theanine, tryptophan, HOLY BASIL, kava all really help. They really vary in effectiveness by brand, mg strength, ingredients etc. I found Holy Basil to be a life changer for stress/anxiety. All of these need to be taken regularly and they are more effective as times goes. I used them to slowly taper off of medications. Holy Basil is great for stress/supporting the bodies physiological functions, as is Ashwaganda and Rhodiola. I use adrenal support formulas as well. I wish you all the best-- it is such a frustrating process. I think the key is not giving up on yourself, and finding the least harmful/side effect and most long-run beneficial thing that works for you. I have been in a few stupors years ago, when I bought boxes of angel food cake mix and either ate them mixed with sugar free syrup as a "pudding", or microwaved them. I don't remember much, but I hated the feeling of being in a daze. If you can find a few good sleep aids with a mix of time-released melatonin (circadian rhythm), and a few herbal/natural/botanicals, it might be worth trying.

uwfan27 · 08-24-2011, 02:44 AM

Yikes and hugs to you

I have started taking Kolonopin recently, about a month or so ago, and all of these stories are freaking me out!! Can someone please explain why it's so hard to get "off" of it? Side effects? Increased anxiety?

About 18 months ago when I was weaned off Effexor I had such bad withdrawal symptoms I had to take a leave of absence from work. And it was during that leave of absence that I was prescribed Ambien and woohoo, let me tell you, it is NOT the drug for me! I only took it for about a week because I wound up liking it too much... made me euphoric and so I felt high (and sleepy, but the high feeling won out). Yes, from that experience I have definitely learned I cannot (repeat, cannot!) take Ambien!

Right now I take Wellbutrin, Lamictal and the Kolonopin as needed. But I usually take 1 - 1.5 mg per day. I really don't have any advice, but I will say that taking the medical leave of absence from work is what saved me while i weaned off a past med so if it's an option for you, it's a lot easier to take 3 weeks and just get past the withdrawal without any additional stresses (like work etc.) I really don't have any useful advice, I just want to say hang in there!!!