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Mental Health Cannot Deal With This Insomnia. Any Advice?

llama112

llama112

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
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First off: I have severe anxiety, moderate depression, ADD, and some kind of mood disorder (waiting lists are long....). I'm on pregabalin (Lyrica) for anxiety/panic attacks.
I'm in school right now, this is the second time I've had to deal with exam/final project week. I was working for a few years before that and just decided to back to school for a year.

I've always had difficulty going to sleep, it usually takes an hour or so. But lately I have literally NOT been able to get to sleep. I didn't sleep for two nights and was hallucinating. For the past week-ish, I have slept:
Apr 14, 5 hrs
Apr 15, didn't sleep
Apr 16, didn't sleep
Apr 17, 6 hrs
Apr 18, 6 hrs
Apr 19, didn't sleep
Apr 20, didn't sleep
Apr 21, 4 hrs
Apr 22, 4 hrs
Apr 23, 8 hrs

For the past few months, it's generally just been 1 night/week where I haven't been able to sleep. This is far too extreme.
I've tried what feels like everything. Melatonin ... well past that. Dipenhydramine (benadryl), up to 200mg for it to be effective. Alprazolam, well my tolerance is VERY high but I've tried it. Any type of benzo to be honest, doesn't work anymore. I also have a sleep mask and black-out curtains in my bedroom because sometimes I will get to sleep at 5 AM or something ridiculous.

Is there anything else?? My doctor is away for three weeks so I could go to a walk-in clinic but I need to think of what would be effective because I'm tired of walkin clinic doctors prescribing useless stuff.

I HAVE to sleep. I am so forgetful. I can't focus. I am so tired that everything is hurting. I mean it's probably the stress too. But I need help getting through this week.

Any advice please!!!!
 
among herbs, valerian root actually works. the capsules work, the container says to take 1 but i find 3-4 more effective. supposedly it has mild anti-psychotic properties. have you tried the anti-psychotic pharms like seroquel? they usually work well for sleep...
 
i'm similarly really afflicted by insomnia. it's awful.
i've ben through the whole range of nasty drugs too - benzos really fucked me up for a while there.

do you follow good 'sleep hygeine' procedures (no bright lights or tv/computer/phone screens before bed, no caffeine late in the day, etc)?

one herb i had some success with was mulungu - i have a massive tolerance to benzos, but that stuff knocked me out.

i hope you can get some sleep - i know what you're going through, and it's hell
 
I have tried Valerian-root without success but who knows, maybe I just need more. I don't remember how much I had because that was back when I was only using melatonin haha.
I think I've gotta ask my doctor for just like a weeks worth of seroquel, I have heard that one specifically helps, sometimes they are ok with giving you a script for a short period of time.

I do try to follow good sleep hygiene practices although I am programming 24/7 but by the time it gets to 2 hours... well that should have gone away. No caffeine either x_x

I've always had insomnia but never this bad. Like I was watching the curtains and they were like ghosts then the cat jumped through the ghosts and I thought my cat was gone and yeah.... I was using benzos to get to sleep by that point. It was weird.
 
Tramadol maybe? I've never taken it but know someone who has and it worked well for them if I remember correctly.
 
Hmmm interesting. Any suggestion that I can look into is a potential option :)
Doctor in the ER gave me a script for something that should be "better" than the OTC meds but I haven't gotten a chance to get it filled as I've been getting better sleep. Probably due to lack of school stress but I'm going to have that again so all suggestions will still be helpful. Right now I can sleep til 1 PM so not really an issue :p
 
Ambien is the only thing that actually works for me to be able to go to sleep. Just don't abuse it and try to fight the sleep. Cause you can do some crazy stuff and not remember it the next day. Take the pill and go lay in a bad. You will fall asleep and rarely wake up in the middle of the night
 
As far as OTC stuff goes you don't have a lot of choices. Try some doxylamine (it's like diphenhydramine on steroids).

You'll benefit a lot more from working with a doctor to get a prescription sleeping med that is appropriate given your circumstances though.

What kinds of sleeping meds have you tried before? Do you take any medication or substances other than the pregabalin you mentioned?

Sleep is sooooooo important! Hope you catch some Zzzzz comrade llama!
 
Sometimes people need to exercise a lot to get a good night's sleep. I'd highly recommend it. Dealing with other psych. issues tends to improve sleep quality and length, too.

Obviously, stimulants aren't going to help you here.

If you haven't been able to sleep for days, despite real efforts, that's serious enough to warrant a hospital check-up.
 
Hey don't try Tramadol, it will make things much worse!
I do recommend Lyrica with its light anxiolysis at low doses and its GHB-like effects at high doses, at least 1 hour before sleep.
Also, I see nobody here has recommended weed, I'm not a fan of weed (only tried it a couple times in my life) but I do believe it's quite harmless and good to induce relaxation and sleep.
 
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