Relationship between sleep problems and addiction

[cjdelphi]

I spent 4 months solid on some high strength benzo's (nitratemazipam , temazipam ) i was taking up to 60mg a night and i did this for a good week still i suffered nothing regarding withdrawal

just stopped without any symptoms whatso ever, same when i was on ambien for 2 months, I'm able to just stop and that's it.

I've been on binge drinking, huge amounts over a period of 2 weeks, i can just "stop" it's like my brain has an on switch and i can just throw it to make it off,

smoked for 3 years, one day i decided enoughs enough and just stopped, 3 - 4 weeks later i was able to smoke say 5 cigarettes with friends at pub just to be social and then not only not touch them again but suffer absolutely nothing, as an ex-smoker i don't hate the smell, i have no affliction at all, over the past 10 years i've smoked maybe 10 times just to be social.

With me it's an "awww" i don't have it no more, it was nice a psychological thing, like you just found $10 on the floor you think, that would be nice and you go for another walk else where on the off chance, i've never in my life experienced shakes, convulsions, headaches, anything as a withdrawel

I think this is down to the fact i'm a sleep walker and a real bad insomnia sufferer i've also had sleep terrors and I read somewhere that my brain is wired up differently and it's been proved people like myself are immune from addiction of certain drugs

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2005/researchers-say-sleep-gene-to.html

I'm wondering if my sleep issues have other beneficial side effects, I dunno
but what i do know is i've never been addicted to anything i've used. take benzo's i used them solid in high amounts every day for 4 months i just stopped taking them same, I just thought people were just weak for getting addicted now I think maybe i'm somehow different and i'm abnormal.

 

[hoptis]

Drug Studies => ADD

Please bounce to Healthy Living if this isn't appropriate.

 

[mcwally]

I think its a bit more complicated with humans than the cocaine with mice in the study. So the insomniac mice get less hyperactivity and less reward from cocaine, but Im in the insomniac human group and bounce off the walls shitloads from stims and am prone to addiction

 

[retired_chemist]

The article said the opposite - that the absence of the clock gene causes mice to get more reward etc. It dis not explicitly say that also increased addiction potential, but I would assume that is the case.

In any event, I've struggled my entire life with irregular circadian rythym, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, when it comes to meth or cocaine, I am a major addict. Not an active addict. BUt I cannot control my use of either and was a meth addict for many years.

Depressants don't generally interest me, but alcohol is a potential addiction too.

The only drugs that I like (I don't like opiates for example) that I can "safely" manage are psychedelics.

Benzos and Ambien etc are not drugs that have real abuse potential for me, example I would never take them to get high or during the day. But I have used them for sleep purposes, and if I am doing say 1 mg xanax for any given period of time before bedtime and I stop, I will experience mild physical withdrawals - not "cravings" but bad insomnia and general mild flu-like symptoms.

 

[mcwally]

The article said the opposite - that the absence of the clock gene causes mice to get more reward etc. It dis not explicitly say that also increased addiction potential, but I would assume that is the case.

lol yeh the OP must have put me off you are right, so the OP is saying he/she has sleep problems (ie perhaps without a clock gene) and doesnt have addiction potential ie less reward - as ret chem said the article says the opposite

anyway someone who was allegedly so un-addiction prone wouldnt have tried so many substances as you (OP)

the article does make some sense I guess but is rather simplistic, and physical or mental hyperactivity are different in humans but perhaps more simple to observe in mice

 

[The Monkey Mantra]

Slow down, guys. People who are insomniacs (like me!) are not missing a clock gene. We're a bit more complex than that, and can't be compared to knock-out mice. Insomnia is probably much more complicated than missing some essential protein.

On the side, however, I took 45 mg of temazepam every night for a couple months and had no symptoms of withdrawal when I stopped. None. My insomnia returned and might have been a bit worse than usual, but I didn't get any sort of freaky withdrawal symptoms - not even increased anxiety!