hi ive been on lactulose for years now due to constipating medication for another illness...i was wondering if anyone else been on it for a long time.....im trying to cut down as take too much now and im worried its doing me harm (not told gp just how much i take )

I'm not familiar with lactulose Fairy...Maybe some of the others will respond. I'm not sure if it is a stimulant laxative or not? I think stimulant laxatives aren't really good to take for long periods because they can make the bowel lazy.
If it is and you decide to wean off, I would replace it with a stool softener such as miralax( movicol) or colace (docusate sodium) which draw water into the bowel and make the stool soft.

I googled up lactulose and it seems it does more than just being a stool softener.Maybe you should try what Dawn is suggesting,I'm currently on Colace myself.

I was given Lactulose as my first laxative right at the start of my fissure hell, I only used it for 2 weeks then gave it up as it wasn't having the desired effect, to be honest, it's really not worth taking, ask your GP for Movicol, don't bother with Docusate Sodium either IMO.

I was given Lactulose first too. I used it for over a year, and it really was a waste of time! Things didn't really start getting better for me at all until I started using Movicol/Miralax. Neither my doctor nor my CRS recommended it, I just saw that so many here thought it was the best one, and asked for it.
Might be worth a try!