Chronic-Intermittent Insomnia for the last 2.5 years I believe its unrelated to my drug use (pot is really the only drug I use with any frequency, that alcohol; once in a blue moon I've done something like lsd or shrooms or ex, never enough to have caused this insomnia)
Meds tried:
OTC Pain/AntiHistamine/Doxylammine/Herbal
Xanax [Alprazolam] (0.5mg, occasionally more)
Zoloft [Sertraline] (up to around 150-200mg)
Ambien [Zolpidem Tartrate] IR (10-30mg)
Trazadone (up to 150 or 200mg)
Klonopin [Clonazepam] (0.5mg, occasionally more)
Mirtazipine (7.5 - 30mg) {NOTE Less is more here, Higher doses reduce its effects}
Marijuana [unknown strains, good and bad, wish I could find 100% indica] (small doses at night)
My feelings on them:
OTC Pain/AntiHistamine/Doxylammine - crap for me, bad mornings;
Herbal -{chamomile, valerian, kava, melatonin} better than nothings, nice herbal teas are soothing and good for sleep hygiene, melatonin can give strange dreams, melatonin used to be mildly helpful {NOTE les is more for melatonin, a 1mg dose is plenty, don't be tricked by things marketed as EXTRA-Strength melatonin 10mg tabs... its bulcrap};
Xanax- better than nothing but alone in a small dose not as helpful;
Zoloft- all around crap, no help for sleep or anxiety;
Ambien- no trippiness, little sleep help, wasn't worth the money (even at cheap generic) just didn't help me;
Trazadone- worked at first, starting low doses (50mg) as doses got higher it eventually stopped working; Trazadone has issues with its main metabolite being mCPP [read bad]; it can have bad morning effects though I rarely had these until just lately, thus I stopped taking it;
Klonopin- Much better than xanax; so far is working ok. but Im afraid of tolerance increasing too much; its great in day time at very small dose for when I am teaching and having anxiety issues that day
Mirtazipine - very bizarre; knocks me out, but began to develop weird dreams in the mornings: I'd wake up and do something then wake up agin in bed and go do something else then wake up again in bed, finally actually waking up very confused/disturbed at having dreamed so many random events.
Want to ask the doc/psych soon about trying an Rx for small dose klonopin for occasional daytime use(0.5mg) and something stronger for nights like Temezepam/Nitrazepam
That way I wouldn't ever be abusing the night time slepy benzo, but could occasionally use the knolopin more (Can you blame me for maybe once a month liking to smoke a bit of herb and take a klonopin...)
Don't want to try seroquel, heard/read too many bad things;
Marijuana - This has helped me as much as any Rx drug I have tried, Its probably hard to get a medical Rx for insomnia/anxiety for weed, but I literally live like 5 miles from a state where medical pot is legal; Pot can be good and bad for sleep; you need the right kind of strain and the right dose; too much and you can't sleep because you're wayyyy to high, or wrong strain and you may have body stone but too much mental buzz to be able to sleep etc.
that being said with the advances in medical marijuana, you could get the strain that is tailored just to your needs for anxiety and sleeping. Dear Everyone, legalize medical marijuana, help me out here.
there's my 2 or more cents. I'd love to hear feed back from others.
(of course different combinations of the above apply but that would make this post wayyy to long.
a little herb and a low dose of klonopin works wonders)
