• HEALTH & RECOVERY
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules Thread Directory 1 Thread Directory 2
    Mindfulness Links Addiction & Mind
    Sober Living Partner Program (SLiPP)
  • H&R Moderators: streaM Freak

Advice on insomnia issues

D

Daniel_c

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 13, 2015
Messages
2
Hello everyone

Brand new here to the forum and i really hope you can help. Right now I'm suffering from GAD, MDD, Panic Disorder without agoraphobia, ADD, and finally Insomnia. Right now for the depression I'm taking 150mg of wellbutrin IR once a day. I also take 5,000 iu's of vitamin d (severely deficient) and a basic multi vitamin. The issue I'm having currently is my sleep. Some days I get to sleep fine but wake up several times (3-6) a night,or its really hard for me to go to sleep but when I finally so i usually am able to keep asleep for a long period. My general family doctor has prescribed many medications and every single one failed and my psychiatrist that i also less then a week ago prescribed one and it also failed.


Trazodone 50mg - Didn't like some of the side effects and didn't help very much at all for getting or staying asleep.

Amitriptyline 10mg- way to many harsh side effects and i almost had to go to the emergency room due to blood pressure sky rocketing, also hardly did anything for sleep.

Zolpidem 5mg- Didn't do a single thing and in fact made the insomnia worse on some days for the few days that I took it.


Doxepin 10mg - didn't do anything

Mirtazapine - maybe helped in the smallest amount but gave me the side effect of extreme rage where I was just super pissed off for no reason at all which I can't have.

Do you guys know any suggestions or maybe what could be causing all the failures because Ifeel like a Guinea pig all the time with this happening

Thanks
 
Several things. First you have multiple psychiatric conditions. How well are they being treated both with drugs and therapy? Insomnia can result from any of those issues and if you get them under control it may attenuate the insomnia.

Second, other than Wellbutrin and Vitamin D, what drugs are you using either therapeutically or recreationally? Wellbutrin itself can lead to sleep disturbances and other may as well.

Third, have you evaluated your sleep hygeine? Things like going to bed and awakening the same time each day, avoiding reading or watching TV before bed, and not eating or drinking too close to bedtime, especially things with caffeine, chocolate and spicy food can really improve sleep quality.

And last, those doses are all pretty low. Perhaps something as simple as an increase may help.
 
I was talking about the doses of the sleeping pills. The Elavil, zolpidem, trazodone, and doxepin are all the lowest doses available.
 
I didn't try any higher dosses because of the issues or my doctor said that there wasn't a need if they weren't helping me at that point. Also, with my job I am fatigued when I get home so yes.
 
Daniel_c said:
I didn't try any higher dosses because of the issues or my doctor said that there wasn't a need if they weren't helping me at that point.
Click to expand...

Well that makes little sense.

I think you need to continue therapy to work out the issues leading to your conditions, fully read up on sleep hygeine (google it) and perhaps some meditation or relaxation techniques. If those help but still not fully working, perhaps ask for higher doses or a different med altogether. Obviously you wont want amitriptylline but doxepin is also a tricyclic so may want to avoid it as well.
 
I've had insomnia and sleep issues my whole life.
Personally i would recommend working on non-drug strategies as much as possible.
As mentioned - exercise, good sleep hygiene practices, things like routine are all important.

When my sleep cycle became nocturnal for a number of years (due to the nature of my work hours and lifestyle at the time), i found melatonin (in combination with the aforementioned lifestyle stuff) to be really helpful - but i'm not sure it would be effective in your situation, as it really helped me adjust my circadian rhythm more than anything.

Do you drink alcohol? When i drank (even one or two standard drinks) i found my quality of sleep suffered dramatically and i woke up after a couple of hours sleep.

All the best, i know how awful it is not to be able to get a good night's rest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top