[smabie]

I've taken it for over 10 years and am better than ever. Hasn't suffered any harmful side-effects either. Of course, side-effects differ from person to person. But it's worth a try. Z-drugs and benzos are way worse.

Moreover, if you're severely addicted to Z-drugs like OP, the benefits probably do outweigh the side-effects. Not every person is the same, and the cost benefit analysis differs accordingly.

[winocm]

Antipsychotics ruined my life and gave me tardive dyskinesia.

[smabie]

Could you expound? It's always been in the back of my mind and I take a fairly low does, but would love to hear more about how it started, symptoms, and how it's affected your life.

I'm really sorry, that sucks. There is some new medication that is supposed to treat it (I think I saw an ad on TV for it).

[winocm]

I took olanzapine 5mg for a while, but my doctor kept increasing the dose as I was "non-compliant" up to 10mg, then more to 20mg as I kept getting hospitalized for compulsive suicide attempts because the medication completely axed my judgement.

I gained about 40 pounds on it, developed dyskinesia after about 6-8 months and ended up cold turkeying off of it, but 5 years later, the movement problems still stay... Unfortunately it also destroyed my executive function too; I can barely even string together coherent thoughts and perform programming work without being overly medicated on ADHD drugs.

I know there's valbenazine and other Parkinson's drugs (selegiline works decently enough on a daily dose, but MAOIs can become dangerous in certain circumstances), but they don't solve the root problem.

Now I can barely even control my hands, legs or face and it's mildly disfiguring, but it's not like I care anymore...

[TylerE]

Same. I’ve been on Zolipdem for about 5 years now ya amazing not to take 2 or 3 hours to fall asleep.

I’ve never had any meaningful side effects. No sleep walking, binge eating, or anything.

I am certainly, in the clinical sense, addicted - eg if I miss a dose I certainly notice, and there is some degree of tolerance, but I’m still better off than before I went on it.

[GordonS]

> I am certainly, in the clinical sense, addicted - eg if I miss a dose I certainly notice, and there is some degree of tolerance

I believe the correct term is "dependent".

There is a lot of misinformation and stigma out there, so I think it's really important to distinguish between addiction (e.g. insatiable cravings), medical dependence (e.g. someone taking anti-psychotics because they will otherwise have psychotic episodes, or someone taking antidepressants because they otherwise have manic depressive episodes), and physiological dependence, where your body's receptors have up/down-regulated to adjust to a "new normal", and withdrawal symptoms may occur if treatment is stopped.