Trazodone withdrawal symptoms

Good luck to all.

I have been off Traz for about two weeks. Besides the obvious of not sleeping well, I have gained weight; has anyone else seen this?

3 years ago I was a heavy Rohypnol user. I abused it for 2 years. 3 years ago I went cold turkey (with a few slips, lol) and the withdrawl symptoms are very very close to clonazepam (they are both benzodiazepines). Its hard to tell what your withdrawling from when your doing more than one drug, but that was my only drug of choice. Heroin was my only substitute because they are so closely related int he sense of effects and withdrawls. I have only taken trazadone twice in my life. I can confirm that I hate it. Each time I woke up with cold chills and hot skin, a pounding heart, dizziness when standing, and pain in my bones. which is kind of funny because these are the same withdrawls as Rohypnol, minuse the crying, depression, suicdal thoughts, diahrrea, vomiting, nausea. So I don't know what to think except i aint doing this sh*t again. I went through Rohypnol withdrawls so I know I can handle it.

I was taking trazodone for the last 4yrs from 50 then to 100 then to 150mg for the last month or so,,, I being the id**t veteran that I am I never questioned anyone about the medication when it was first prescribed to me years ago, I was having trouble sleeping and they told me what to do so like a good little trooper I just did what they said without question. Well now I have been taking 150mg and things not going well actually not sleeping well and feeling bad all day, well since I stopped taking all together 3 days ago I'm feeling like I'm going crazy and can't focus on anything and feel helpless and just don't know what to do.... I threw them away so I don't have any anymore so I'm going to have to try to make it through but I absolutely DO NOT RECCOMEND THAT AVENUE!  I think I may be in deeper than I bargained for....

 

JZ

I am in hell.Please help.I was on trazadone for 20 days 100 mil.And went to 50 mils and went crazy for 8 days i could not work od do anything.Then i went back up on the pill to 100 and things got worse then net day went to 150 and i was insane I was ready to go to suicide watch.But i went to my physicist and he put me back to 50.I inded up in the 5150 suiside.I stayed there for four days and they took me off the other 50 of trazadone.and changed my zipexsto saraquel I was still the same when i left so three days later i went back to the er and said i was suisidel Now it has been four days later and i and still suffering.Can think,confusion,angzity,purser in my head suisidel thoughts all ways body is allays tired and week .Please help.How long do you think my withdraws r going to last?I am also taking 4 mil valuim

Same thing happened to me, I can't get off this stuff. I think I'm going to take a whole year to titrate off. If not i better commit myself somewhere for a week. A desert island would be great.

If you can help me, PLEASE REPLY.   I'm a single mom starting a new job next week.  Not working isn't optional, as I have to feed my kids.  I must come off trazodone.  I have no other choice.  I can't work or even drive while still on trazodone. 

I have been taking 100mg of trazodone at bedtime for the past seven months.  It was prescribed for insomnia.  I did indeed help me sleep, but it also left me so drunk the next day that I couldn't remember names of people I know well, couldn't comprehend what I was reading in my optometry journals, left me banging into walls, made it nearly impossible to get out of bed before noon, kept making my eyes close throughout the day, left me not knowing what day of the week it was, what year it was, or where I was, and worst of all couldn't drive until around 3pm to pick my kids up from school.  (They were taking the bus in the mornings, as I would have wrecked trying to drive with so much trazodone still in my system.)  I was going through a divorce and couldn't sleep without it, so I kept taking it as prescribed despite the horrible side effects.

Now that the divorce is over, I can sleep even without the trazodone.  Nevertheless, I'm having severe withdrawal symptoms unrelated to sleep. I'm out of savings and MUST return to work.  This means I CAN'T be drunk all day anymore.   Yes, my doctor said it's OK to discontinue the trazodone, so long as I can sleep without it. 

This is my fourth day off trazodone.  All the drunk-like side effects are gone, thank God!  However, I'm getting profound anxiety, extreme irritability, and killer migraines since I've stopped the drug.  There's no time to taper, as work starts back next week. 

My question is: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR THE IRRITIBILITY, ANXIETY, AND HEADACHES TO RESOLVE?  I can't work drunk, but I can't work through panic attacks, migraines, or irritibility to the point of aggression either.  My doctor recommended Benadryl for the anxiety, which does help somewhat, but I have nothing to ease the irritability or migraines.  Any suggestions???????  Please help me!!!

Same single mom here again.  This is now my fifth day off traodone, and I'm developing even more withrawal symptoms.  In addition to the anxiety, irritablilty, and migraines, I'm now starting to shake as if I were a crack cocaine addict, getting weepy for no reason, and feeling sleep deprived despite eight hours of sleep every night.  Maybe I'm not getting any deep REM sleep; I don't know.  My question is the same: How long does all of this last?  Is there anthing I can do or take to ease the withdrawal symptoms?  I'm so horribly miserable that I'd just go back on the stuff if it didn't make me so drunk.  I have exactly one week left before I start my new job.  I can't work with these withdrawal symptoms, but I most certainly cannot work while on traodone either.  If you read my previous post you'd know why; trazodone makes me drunk!  Help!  How in the world did this stuff get marked withou being registered as a controlled substance?!?!?!

Thank you!!! You're the ONLY person in over 200 posts who shared how long it took for most most of the horrible side effects to disappear! You have given me hope as well as the will power to tough it out while withdrawing. I pray my side effects disappear in about a week as well. That seems like a short time for a drug with a half life of twelve hours.

Thank you for letting me know that the first week is the hardest. This gives me hope, as I'm still on week one without trazodone. Nice to know that withdrawal might ease up next week.

Thank you for sharing this information!

Thank you for sharing this information!!!

Single mom here again.  Anyone else even reading this thread? Please reply! Thought I'd share my two cents on how I'm able to sleep without trazodone.  I've had life long insomnia, so as a teenager I was prescribed 75mg nortriptaline at bedtime for sleep.  I've been taking it ever since, and I'm now 44.  Works like a charm.  I'm still on day 5 off trazodone and have been suffering severe side effects except insomnia.  About an hour ago it got so bad that I called my doctor for help.  He said to double the nortriptyline (take one at bedtime and one in the morning).  So an hour ago I took an additional 75mg of nortriptyline, and guess what: my withdrawal symptoms are virtually cut in half!  The irritability is gone, and the anxiety, headaches, depression, and shaking are nearly cut in half.  I don't know if I'm the only one who responds to nortriptyline this way, but thought it would be worth posting in case anyone else wants to ask their doctor about it.  One warning: I have no idea if it's habit forming, as I've been on it virtually all my life.

Yes, I'm gaining weight off trazodone too. I always get crazy hungry when I don't sleep, so weeks of poor sleep means weeks of heavy eating, which explains my 5lb weight gain. I'm hoping that I'll start sleeping well again soon, and thus start eating less, and thus stop gaining weight. Will let you know in a few weeks, but for now I'm downing cashews as I type.

Help!  There are over 200 posts here, but hardly anyone is sharing how long it takes for the withdrawal symptoms to abate!  Why?!? It would only take a minute.  To everyone who has posted: please share how long it took for your withdrawal symptoms to abate!  Please!!! This is day six off trazodone, and my head hurts so badly that I want to cut it off!  I know it's a migraine, but it has lasted for six straight days!  I can't take it anymore.  Not even Percocet helps.  I need a thirty day supply of Imitrex but only get three tablets per month- just enough for my monthly menstrual migraines.  If Imitrex were a street drug, I'd buy it at this point, and that's coming from a Christian.  Completely out of character for me.  I'm so irritable that I'm about to bite my kids' heads of and throw dishes at the wall.  If I thought it would make me feel any better, I'd really throw the china at the wall.  It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I'm refusing to see my family, because I'd end up yelling and cursing at them- and I've never spoken a single curse word in my life before.  I'm taking a 75mg nortriptyline capsule this minute.  There.  I pray it helps me like it did yesterday.  Guess I'll wait an hour and see.  Will definately let you know.  I want to rip the carpet out of my house this minute.  It hasn't been replaced for 15 years, and the stains and snags are driving me crazy.  I need Valium badly.  School is out today, and I'm refusing to speak to my kids, because I know I'd yell at them.  I don't know HOW the rest of you are coming off trazodone without being able to sleep.  If I couldn't sleep on top of all this, I'd be suicidal and ready to commit myself to a psyc ward.  How on earth did trazodone get marketed as a non-controlled substance?!? Why didn't my doctor warn me how addictive this stuff is before she wrote the script?!? I'm sure you're wondering why I won't just give in and take the trazodone again.  It's because I have to start back to work in six days, and trazodone keeps me bedridden and brain dead.  I'm divorced, and if I can't provide for my kids I lose custody of them.  So the reason I won't give in and take trazodone is because my love for my kids is stronger than the hell I'm going through right now.  I've never cursed before, and I just did.  Will let you know in an hour if the nortryptaline helps me like yesterday.  In the meantime, please someone reply!  I can't go through this alone.