Warning for users of Imovaine / Zopiclone

[Zealand]

For those that are not aware Imovaine (the brand name for the drug Zopiclone) is used to treat sleep disorders (for more info see http://www.healthyplace.com/medications/zopiclone.htm).

I am a mid 20 professional who travels considerably due to the nature of my work. As a result I am prescribed Imovaine to aid me with my travelling. For this purpose Imovaine is fantastic as it doesn't leave you drowsy post flight. On the occasions when it has been used at home due to a poor nights sleep it has also worked perfectly. At no point have I ever experienced any adverse reactions when used as prescribed.

The problems arise when Imovaine is abused.

My friends and I have abused Imovaine and I want to tell those who are interested our stories so you are better educated and hopefully don't follow in our foot steps. It is also important to note that a number of recreational drug users use Imovane to aid come downs (from MDMA, Meth etc). In my opinion this makes my comments even more relevant as it is these users who are more likely to experiment with Imovaine.

One night I discovered with a friend that you could take Imovaine to enhance your drunken state without falling asleep, essentially it further hindered your motor skills whilst maintaining your ability to converse. The combination of taking Imovaine and alcohol continued for some time. The frequency of taking this combo increased significantly when I met my current partner who through a completely different avenue was also using Imovaine to get an additional high from drinking. This was somewhat disturbing as I had only just started taking Imovaine and already I was finding independent people who were also taking it to enhance their drinking experience!

With my new partner (we'll call her Leigh) Leigh the situation escalated; as she was a flight attendant she had amble supply of Imovaine so now quantity wasn't an issue. At this point the 'blackouts' started to occur (blackouts being complete loss of memory whilst maintaining consciousness). For example on one particular night I guess that I had 6 Imovaine with about 2 bottles of red wine. I recall getting into an argument with my partner and that was it. The next day I woke up with cuts and bruises all over. I was oblivious of what had happened (this had never happened to me before).

Leigh and my friend were able to fill in the missing night for me. Apparently I got aggressive and broke up with Leigh, threatened my friend, smashed a considerable number of dishes in the kitchen. They managed to put me to bed, only to have me escape onto the roof (of our 2 story house) to spy on them as they talked outside. At one point I put my foot through the roof, alerting them and fortunately saving me from a certain fall. Eventually sleep took control and I woke up dazed and confused.

This was naturally a very disturbing situation, my behaviour, the insane paranoia I was displaying whilst being totally unaware that I was even ‘conscious!’. Even more concerning was the fact that the actual amount of imovaine had gone from 60 to 20 in one night. My friends swear that they didn't take any more than 5, so where did the others go? This was a scenario that played out many times and the only conclusion I can make is that you self medicate once you have blacked out making the situation even more concerning.

Although the roof incident shocked us it only took a couple of weeks until we were back into it. And almost without fail the same situation played out, I cannot remember any of that night. Leigh woke up with bruises all over her legs; I had them on my arms and back. Neither of us had any idea where we had been or what had happened the night prior.

You'd hope at this stage one would realise that imovaine and alcohol isn't a good match. And we did stop taking them in combo until a trip to London. Now as we were in London, coming off a 30 hr flight from New Zealand Imovaine was needed. Unfortunately the second night on red wine (common partner in crime) was when the 3rd incident occurred, this one I had greater memory of in the sense that I recall breaking up with Leigh in the most egotistical way, making her think it was all her fault and that she'll never be happy. At this point I must point out that Leigh and I have the most loving relationship, so I have no idea where my approach was derived, regardless it had an horrific affect. According to my friend I subsequently went to bed and Leigh lost it completely. Was unable to be talked to and was totally irrational. My friend caught her in the bathroom of the hotel trying to cut her wrists.

So for the 3rd time I wake up knowing that something has happened but once again having to rely on my best mate to tell me that the love of my life almost killed herself. At this point I realised that I either needed to do something about the situation or someone was going to die, either way I was already beginning to lose friends who couldn't handle the total stranger who aggravated them when I was on Imovaine.

Fortunately I managed to sort myself out. At no point would I say I was addicted to Imovaine, It was simply used to enhance our drinking experience. There were 3 of us who took similar doses (3 - 7 before blackout occurred), all 3 had examples of blackout (in one case it appears my friend drove his car across town). I seemed to have the lowest tolerance which is surprising as I am the biggest of the 3. My partner Leigh had 11 in one night and still appeared fine and she is 50kgs.

Although I wish my story stopped here it doesn't. Months post the Imovaine madness Leigh is away at the moment with work. Historically she took Imovaine way before I did and only on the very odd occasion did she experience blackouts so as a result she decided she would still use them for sleeping purposes. Over the past week we have had some relationship issues, obviously difficult to explain via a blog but she is concerned that I don't want to be with her long term. Unfortunately the country she is in allows you to buy Imovaine over the counter at the local pharmacy.

Tonight I received a call from her tonight drunk and on Imovaine, she was completely irrational. Her purpose of the call was to let me know that she was going to kill herself. She'd taken 1O Imovaine and she was going to take the remaining 110.

To cut a long story short I managed to talk her out of it, although the main reason she didn't do it was that I believe her threats are a cry for help from someone who suffers from depression. Imovaine in this situation in conjunction with Alcohol is a lethal combination. One that may have resulted in the loss of my beautiful girl if I had missed one phone call.

I apologies that this is such a long thread. And it maybe a waste of time as no one else out there maybe silly enough as us to take high amounts of Imovaine as us. But just in case you got this far, 3 last points to conclude.

1) Imovaine and Alcohol is bad bad news. It can totally change your personality and has the potential to send you into a conscious albeit catatonic state.

2) DO NOT take Imovaine if you suffer from depression as it focuses your problems and can lead to suicidal thoughts (and I have no doubt actions).

3) Use it only as directed. It is simply not worth the risk.

Anyway, I hope this was of some help to those of you who might find this relavent. Any questions or comments please don't hesitate.

As I am keen to post my story on as many health sites as possible so if anyone could point me in the direction of other medical sites that might benefit from this information please let me know.

Regards,

It's been a hard night

Dave

[zippysgoddess]

Thank you so much for you wonderfull honest and informative post. I sure hope it helps to save others from making these same mistakes, you are very courageous to make these types of posts and admit what happened to you and face up to it in order to help others.

Thank you!

verwon@gmail.com

My information is not guaranteed correct. I do not get them right all the time, but I do enjoy the hunt~

[mpvt]

Booze and benzo's are a terrible mix.Just before I got control of my addiction I went on a bender and lost 3 days mainly due to benzo's and booze.There is nothing worse then waking up and not knowing what went on the night before or for the last couple of days.I was very lucky I didn't die from respitory failure......Dave

[valleylaydee]

A very well written source of advice. I have had similar experiences to the ones you described.
The only disagreement I have with your advice about imovane not being compatible with people suffering with depresson.

I suffer from depression and have been on imovane for a while... it shouldn't be a problem for someone with depression, in fact, it has the muscle relaxive properties of medicenes that help with depression.
I am sure that the negative experience your girlfriend has was more related to the alcohol as all alcohol is a depressant.

Anyway, thanks for the post. I hope the situation between you and your girlfriend has improved

[MOTU1]

Before I start, I totally agree with everything you said in your post. That being said, i couldn't help but laugh.

I have gone through pretty much everything you mentioned while using Imovaine as a recreational drug (apart from getting on the roof!). To anyone who is still thinking of taking it to enhance the effects of alcohol, I seriously urge you to reconsider. It can evoke a Ketamine like like state, however you still have full body control but a total lack of concious thought.

In my experience imovaine also increases the 'high' from smoking marijuana, I have been told of doing the most bizarre things and having insane conversations that I have absolutely no recollection of.

About taking a lot more than you remember, I can also relate to that. I think 12 7.5 is the most I've taken in one night, although I have no memory of taking anywhere near that much.

The side effects of regularly abusing imovaine get progressively worse. Ironically, for a drug intended to make you sleep, abuse of it will give you terrible insomnia. If you burn a strip in 2 days and can't get any more good luck getting any proper sleep for 3 days.

Although it is not supposed to make you 'hung over' in the morning, frequent abuse will leave you exhausted all day, making driving inadvisable and frankly, down right dangerous. I experienced increasingly frequent mood swings, periods of depression and a general lack of care over my personal appearance, and a total lack of appetite (perhaps partly due to the horrible taste it leaves in your mouth).

I understand that this may seem quite severe, and that most people won't go this far. However, the type of person likely to indulge in imovaine as a recreational drug probably knows their way round a medicine cabinet and more than likely has a history of experimenting with class A and B drugs. Its the loss of memory and habit of taking more and more of whatever happens to be around when high on imovaine that scares me the most now. On one occasion a friend and I got smashed on vodka and imovaine. At some point, we decided to snort codiene, lots of codiene. How I am still alive is a mystery to me, and to my friends Girlfriend who is a nurse.

Long story short, I very nearly died. The situation only arose because I was abusing imovaine, at no point previously had I thought that snorting a heart stopping amount of codiene was a good idea. I have had the same experience with a few other drugs while taking imovaine but never to such an extreme.

I can not stress enough, do not take imovaine as a suppliment or booster for other drugs, it can be very, very dangerous.