Mental Health Night Terrors

[delphinen]

The story so far...

I have been addicted to benzodiazepines for some years, in the last 2 years I have tried to get off of them, switching to Diazepam, talking with my psychologist, taking Pregabalin, etc; sadly I still have major depressive disorder which makes coming off benzos even more difficult. I had a mal petit seizure 6 months ago waiting in line in a hospital and I was given Lorazepam (then switched to Diazepam again because of the longer biolife). The Pregabalin is mostly for sleep. Last week I was given Venlafaxine which, it still too soon to say, but I think it's the better antidepressant I have tried (I tried Lexapro, Sertraline and Prozac) because my super depression and lack of will to do anything. SO far, it has given me a mildly feeling like taking some kind of Tramadol with lower opioid effect, although it still feels good... but this story is about last week, I was also out of benzos for 2 days and I had a multiple night terrors..​

It was horrible. My dad died almost 3 years ago, and I first I was super scared because I couldn't find him, then I realized he was dead when waking up, only to have another night terror where he was buying an orange Nintendo 64 for him and her new wife and I was unable to make contact with him, I was desperated, I woke up again, very scared, I really was fearing falling sleep again, I don't remember if I did take some pill or something, but I finally slept again, this time dreaming again with him but being able to talk with him about the console and her girlfriend I think.

I can't describe how scary are night terrors. I knew I could have seizures by not taking my benzo medication daily, but I had no idea I could have night terrors. The next day I begged a friend to lend me some money to buy some Lorazepam because all my sleep was "floaty", I was still very tired and super scared.
Please people, don't ruin your life, do not abuse benzos, even if you have access to them and are cheap. The withdrawal of these drugs kills and ruins everything.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I've heard and read about night terrors. I know that they are extremely painful. But I've never experienced them.

Night terrors doesn't sound to me like something that benzo withdrawal can't create. If you're going to taper off, do it very very slowly, depending on dose and length of use and nature of use (prn or regularly).

You can speed up your recovery by talking to a counselor about confronting any specific fears, because I suspect that a thread of them is active while you're awake, but it may be "hidden", for lack of better words.

A non-benzo sleep aid such as trazodone or ramelton might help.

MBSR meditation helped me a lot in learning how to self-calm.

CBT is about defending a good mood and healthy outlook. It could help you battle unwanted feelings while awake. If you become good enough at this, it seems to me that it would become automatic enough to help you while sleeping.