Hi Morwenna, I'm one of those who don't like taking anything, even headache pills if I can get by without. In my family there are folks who have and have had "addiction" problems. I am aware that people in families who have this problem can become addicted to almost anything, (even collecting stuff, and I'm like that myself) so once I felt I was human again with the HRT, I thought it had done its job and I didn't need it any more. The doc said if I wanted to come off the pills to cut them down gradually, I have tried this 3 times now and each time after a month or two I am back in a dreadful state. I now realise my body needs then and probably always will, so I'm sticking with them, they are one of the higher dose pills, but they are working for me most of the time until I get into a state over something, and then until I can talk myself down nothing is going to help. I think though, if I wanted to go lower, I'd ask for a lower dose pill instead of mucking about with the dose myself. (coming up 59 now)