[ealina75]

Hello, friends,

Would love some advice on where to start since I just stumbled on this site today and am chomping at the bit to figure this out.

A little background: I started having pretty severe insomnia when I was 9 years old. It sorted itself out a bit in my teen years and early 20’s. But gradually it started getting worse and worse, particularly after I stopped taking the klonapin that I’d been on for 10 years. At that point, I was getting about 2 hours of sleep every night due to the constant physiological terror running in my body 24/7 (that’s the nature of those meds—they block the body’s ability to soothe once you stop taking them).

Once my body healed more from the effects of that toxic medication, I was getting more like 5-6 hours of sleep. But there were so many night when I would get 2. With a very young child who was still nursing AND running my business as the sole bread winner and dealing with chronic autoimmune issues. Oof.

3 years ago, someone introduced me to the magic of marijuana, and I started sleeping beautifully for the first time since I was a young child. But of course now I’ve become completely dependent and am developing a huge tolerance so that I’m needing 4x as much, as well as other tinctures and gummies. It is time to stop this cycle!

My challenge: really, it’s the anxiety I’ve built up around sleep, exacerbated by a long history of complex trauma where anxiety/terror was a daily part of my existence. It’s hard to believe anyone when they say they can help. After all, I’m almost 48, and I STILL haven’t cracked the code on all of this. So how can someone who doesn’t understand complex trauma really help me? Is understanding complex trauma even a necessary prerequisite? I don’t know, but I sure would love to be proven wrong!

So how/where do I begin? I have really good sleep hygiene (except that I love to read myself to sleep, as I have for decades. Looks like I may need to read out in my living room and THEN go to sleep). I also have a very healthy diet of organic vegetables and pastured meat, exercise/hike barefoot almost every day, meditate/pray, am connected to a beautiful, supportive community, and feel a deep sense of purpose in my life. Now I would love to add to this list: “And I sleep beautifully every night!”

Thanks for any support you can provide while I’m stepping onto this path of sleep reclamation!

[Martin Reed]

Welcome to the forum! Reading in bed doesn’t prevent sleep or cause insomnia — so, if that’s something you enjoy there’s no need to stop doing that!

If you slept beautifully every night, what would you be doing differently in your life? What would you be doing that you are unable to do right now?

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If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

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