sorry brother, but your tolerance to pills and abuse of pills for the past some years means that pills will never "truly work" for you. it is time to try alternatives before swallowing and more tablets and capsules. seriously investigate your diet and exercise 3-4 times a week for atleast 15-20mins. try CBT. try therapy, there is so much out there besides drugs man. the drugs are like a band-aid, they temporarily cover up the symptoms; however there is a false bottom my friend! more pills leads to more pills i can tell you that!
I'm compelled to chime in here, because I believe you've made some absolutist statements that aren't factual, and ignore the subjectiveness of this pathology.
Definitely increase your activity (exercise) if sedentary, try not to eat too late past sundown and ensure adequate nutrition is obtained, and get plenty of UV exposure from the sun - I do these things fervently. CBT is hit and miss. For me it did nothing at all. I hear for others it works.
Sometimes though, medication is an answer - it provides a solution and if resulting in an improvement in quality of life it should not be so summarily dismissed.
i empathize with you because i go through similar PTSD/anxiety/social anxiety or whatever you what to call it, i have anxiety and it sometimes it is extremely difficult to hit the "off" button for my brain when i am trying to sleep. pills work for only so long, then they stop working if you take them daily, and you end up worse than you started! hah! life is a bitch, and then we all die!
I don't agree with this at all. Use and abuse lead down different paths, and alternating medication mitigates reduced efficacy resulting from adaptation.
also, sleeping for 8hrs of the time is a 20th century thing, people in the past used to sleep for 3-4 hrs, wake up for 1-3hrs, then sleep for another 3-4hrs. people started sleeping for 8hrs and doing the "9am-5pm" gig after the industrial revolution took off.
This is just blatantly false. Sleeping for 8 hours is actually suboptimal as it is
not enough sleep from an evolutionary perspective extending well beyond the industrial revolution. Ten plus hours of sleep per day (usually in
one large portion) is far more accurate of our ancestral behaviour than your intermittent sleeping pattern suggestion.
when you cant sleep, dont stay in your bed! get up and do something, and realize that YOU are the one who causes the anxiety when you dont sleep. shit people in the army and tweakers go days without shut-eye and still function. i had to get a routine 30mins before bed, exercise frequently, and eat healthy. before bed, i go to the bathroom, brush teeth, take out contacts, and then i did some light yoga/stretching and meditation. does have to be anything fancy, i like bridge position the best. lay with your back on the ground, face up, arms fully extended and palm down to the floor. then with your legs/core push up so that your knees make somewhat of a 90degree angle to look somewhat like this picture -------- ( o_--/\_ ). then just do normal streching for a 10-15mins. put your cellphone on silent or turn it off, and dont turn on any tv. try eating a snack packed with tryptophan (cheese, turkey, milk, ect...) and some fiber 60-90mins before you go to bed so that the meal will keep you full so you dont wake up from hunger pangs.
There are too many of your opinions and statements to address individually. Suffice to say that how military personnel and tweakers function with little sleep is not comparable to those who are not the aforementioned. Notwithstanding the fact that it is
suboptimal functionality, and deleterious it is not a solution or worthy advice to an insomniac.
And whilst technically it is
you who causes the anxiety, it is not your
volition that keeps you awake, and therein lies the pathology (neural abnormalities) which requires treatment.
the brightness of your house lights, and the lighting outside (night and day) regulates your melatonin production. at night, when lights start to dim, the moon comes out, and the sky is black, your body secretes natural melatonin triggering sleepiness and somnolence. this means that before bed make sure to keep the lights on low and dimmed, this means lighting from TV, phones, computers aswell as these synthetic light sources affect your circadian rhythm (decrease melatonin production)
Our circadian rhythm is affected by UV exposure timing, prandial phasing, and excitatory stimuli (most specifically activity). This means get plenty of sun exposure during daylight. Reduce or eliminate eating within ~2-4 hours of sundown, and reduce/eliminate activity <2-4 hours pre-bedtime. Removing lights and electrical components from your bedroom is advisable, but the former more than the latter.
have you ever tried gabapetin and/or pregabalin? they work really well for sleep and anxiety, ESPECIALLY when combined with a benzo. in addtion, have you given thought any holistic therapies for sleep in addition to your benzos for sleep? Organic (as in not man-made) compounds interact and affect (in a positive way) on both a molecular and cellular level altering cellular structure and DNA (like vitamins and antioxidants in broccoli, green tea, coffee, ect..) as well interacting with CNS neurotransmitters like synthetic/semi-synthetic drugs (i.e. oxycodone, benzos, tramadol, methadone, LSD, ect.... ) i think of it like how a car needs motor oil to work properly, and gas to have energy to use.
now why the fuck do you care about using holistic plants for anxiety or sleep? well, they (coffee/tea, magic shrooms, kratom, kava kava, ect..) get you high (a plus), and similar to how "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," amd why your mother used to tell you to eat vegetables. in other words, they keep you healthy and happy; you get your cake and eat it too! some great herbs : marijuana, valerian, marijuana, blue lotus, skull caps, chamomile, marijuana, passion flower, peppermint, ect.... oh yah...and did i mention marijuana??
I would suggest continued therapeutic consults. Anecdotally I've found
natural remedies ineffective (except marijuana, which I don't advise using to treat your condition), but the main point of my contribution to this thread is that for
some perpetual medication is a solution.
