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After 2 weeks of Cymbalta I can now honestly I say I feel that it is helping. Monday it was like the song, “I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see allll obstacles in my way.” I'm not nearly as anxious, although it's still there. But I feel like I can take a step back and evaluate the situation. Because of this my sleep has gotten much better, not every night. But in the past week and a half I have gotten many nights with five hours of sleep (although not all at the same time) which is a Godsend for me. I started taking the medicine in the morning instead of at night which made it so my medicine didn't worsen my insomnia. I'm still on ambien, but I feel like if this sleep thing continues for a few weeks then I can work on taking myself off of it gradually. I feel like I finally have a little control over it, which has made me feel better all around. My counselor and I are working aggressively on my anxiety now. I'm nervous about the no ambien thing. I know I've probably gotten more tolerant to it, BUT I'm not going to think about it until I come to it. One thing at a time. Right now I'm just enjoying the fact that I can concentrate in school, life doesn't seem so sucky, and I get to graduate in a few months.
Boo. Yah.
Man, thanks. They put my on Cymbalta, and my insomnia has gotten worse since I started 3 days ago. My ambien works until 2 instead of 4 and then poof I am awake and I can't fall asleep. I mean this feels pointless. I went on them to HELP my insomnia, not make it worse. I didn't think it were possible to sleep less. Not to mention the godawful constipation. My intestines are hurting, and I shake constantly. I'd rather go back to the way I was with 4 hours of sleep. I'm supposed to make it through the first 2 weeks or something, but these 3 days have been kind of yucky.
http://insomnia-ambienblog.blogspot.com
It's just all of journal entries since this thing started… But it gets quite funny at times.
'Martin' wrote on '22:What do you do to try when trying to get some sleep that you find the 'experts' often advise against? What seems to work for you, when you're told it shouldn't?
This could be interesting.
Well, when I can't sleep in the middle of the night I now get up and get on the computer. I didn't used to, because I was told not to. But I find that it helps better to get my mind off of everything instead of sitting and worrying. Reading a book in the middle of the night sucks (which is what they tell me to get up and go do) because I'm so tired that I don't remember what I've read.
Eating before bed. They say not to eat an hour or so before bed, but I'm hypoglycemic (not diabetic, just the one thing), and not eating makes me wake up at night, hungry. It makes it more difficult to sleep, stay asleep, and go back to bed. So I make a cup of whole grain cereal an hour before I take my ambien. I've found that I don't have as hard of a time not eating when I wake up at 4 and my defenses are down. I don't eat anything with a lot of sugar, just something that will last a few hours!
The only ones that I don't find annoying are any that consistently just play rain. Rain makes me calm and puts me to sleep. Birds and animals make me feel anxious (but really what doesn't these days?). Whenever I hear rain though, it's just… peaceful and quiet. People don't scream outside in the rain usually. You can count on a sort of peace after it's done until the people come out again. I love that feeling.
The movie “Moon”- has anyone else seen this? If not it's on your Netflix. Weird movie. Cool though.
Also- Wristcutters, a Love Story has an interesting premise
But my favorite movie lately has to be Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Quotable and has all the best video game action.
Thanks. Been ups since four again this morning (went to bed at almost 1). Just awake with a nervous stomach that never seems to go away. I hope that these work as they are sort of the last chance, aside from the expensive and almighty sleep study.
I feel like so many people handle this much better than me. I've only been doing this for four months, and some people do it for years. I think about doing it for years and want to crash and burn.
My New Years Resolution:
1. Find a way not to be so depressed? Seriously since this insomnia started I keep getting sadder and sadder.
2. I wish I could say go off of sleeping meds, but my doctor keeps telling me not to push myself too hard or else it will make my sleep worse. I don't fall asleep without them when I try. So I will say find one that works longer. Ambien works for 3 or 4 hours. That was good when I wasn't sleeping at all or sleeping an hour a night. Now that I sleep 3-4 hours every night only on ambien I've realized I need to do something else. Some people think I should try an anxiolitic because the anxiety I feel exacerbates my sleeplessness.
3. Get into a sleep clinic and make sure nothing else is wrong.
Thanks for that Marina. Always nice to know you're not alone. I'm on ambien. I'm about to start taking it only every other day so that I can maybe see how my sleep is during Christmas break with no stressors. Lots of people freaked me out about ambien before I started it, but it's really not so bad. I don't sleep walk/eat/sex/drive. It only lasts for about fourish hours though, and then if my body doesn't want to sleep I'm up for the rest of the night. No dopamax for me! Ambien CR lasts longer, but it's expensive (8 dollars a pill), and I'm waiting on better health insurance to start in January so I couldn't take much.
I was trying to do this last night–come up with some sort of positive. It was hard. I don't see any positives to insomnia. I sit up at night crying after three hours of lying in bed–I used to get out of bed, but now I'm so exhausted that it's hard for me to do so– and during the day I feel like a zombie.
Negatives: School used to come easy for me. Now I have to work 3 or 4 times as hard to get the same amount of work done. My memory has gone way down. My processing speed has gone way down. I keep my husband up when I cry and ruin his sleep, and now he has problems falling asleep. We are going to his family's for Christmas, and I'm terrified of slowing them all down and them thinking I'm this big party pooper, because I have no energy at all. Mood swings, hysterical crying. Depression. Let's see…. I used to have problems sleeping, but never like this. I wonder if it will ever end.
'GoneWithTheSun' wrote on '20:no, really…i got those maximum strength sleeping pills at Rite Aid but they don't work…fml.
i wanna get prescription but people tell me i'm too young for them…i'm 21…what ya think?
I haven't posted on here in a really long time. Mostly I just lurk, trying to figure out how to deal with this whole insomnia thing after three months. I'm on ambien, and I am 22. My family thought it was a bad idea, because I was “too young.” They scared the crap out of me with stories of what it does to people, and how it would hurt me. Then I talked to my doctor. I've talked to several actually, and a counselor. One out of the four people I've talked to scared me half to death about taking Ambien and made me feel like a drug addict. He was older, and I've heard this is common in older doctors. The rest of them said with the severity I am experiencing insomnia it would be a good idea for me. My counselor said, “If someone broke their leg, would you tell them not to use crutches? Your sleep is broken right now, and this might be your crutches. Sleep is the most important thing right now. We'll worry about the pills after you get it.” My doctor (not the old guy. I only went to him once) said, “Are sleeping pills the best thing? No, but if you had to be on them for the rest of your life it wouldn't be the worst thing ever. If that's the only way for you to get any sleep, I see the pros outweighing cons.” You should talk to your doctor. They aren't for everyone, but if it's serious enough they might just be for you. You hear a lot of terrible things people say about them, but I'm telling you that if I hadn't taken them I'd be sitting at an hour of sleep a night. I still don't sleep that well, but the four or so hours they give me is precious.
We think it's because of stress. I have a counselor and a doctor. I'm going back to the doctor because I ran out of my two week ambien, and tried to sleep on my own, but it was horrible. I've heard ambien causes rebound insomnia, but I'm at a place that I can't do the rebound insomnia anymore than I can do regular insomnia. I'm in school and that makes it hard to do any sort of insomnia. One day of focusing is an entire day lost you know? I'm so worried because I DONT want to be addicted to pills. I don't even know how to tell if I am. But last week was the best week I've had since this started and that was because I took ambien each night and slept, and was starting to be able to get back to sleep if I woke up. Feel as if I'm just going to make it worse and have to start all over again now that I have no more ambien. Going back to the doc on Tuesday. I'm feeling the need for reassurance that if pills are the best way to go for now I should just take them, but all I really get from people is that they will mess me up and it causes more stress.
My band is a rock band. I love it. It helps me deal, and I'm just in it for fun!
Chipotle really is the best. I found one the other day and I was excited.
I saw the Social Network last week. I thought it was amazing. Even Justin Timberlake didn't fail me. Every actor did a good job.
Holy goodness I just ate sushi… twice. Once and then leftovers. So good. Half price at a place near my apartment so we ordered: A Rainbow Roll, A California Roll, A French Kiss (tempura shrimp, crab, topped with salmon and a slice of lemon. Freaking good? Yes!), A dragon roll, and a spider. Wish I could have had me some Nigiri- Toro, Akami, pretty much all tuna, and salmon (sake?). I love sushi. Favorite food all time. If I could have it every day I would.
Thank you all so much for your replies. I was very desperate. Going on weeks with an hour or no sleep a night made it hard to concentrate and my emotions were all out of whack. I couldn't control them. I started going to a counselor. I've been trying to overcome stress, and it's been very hard. My insomnia, has gotten better in some cases. When I started the ambien it was helping to get my sleep cycle back to normal, but still I don't get too much sleep. Sometimes 3 hours, sometimes 4, sometimes 6 (and then I feel good, but that is rare). After only 1.5 weeks (last thursday) the ambien stopped working as well, but still it helps psychologically I guess. I try to fall asleep on my own and if I can't I take an ambien. I've tried herbal supplements. That didn't work at all. I'm trying to stay upbeat. It's very frustrating, but so nice to know that there are people that understand. Sometimes it feels like… no one really does. And when I was at my worst it felt like life was pointless if I was a zombie (not in a suicidal way, just in an “I can't get up in the morning and during the day I'm listless kind of way”). I'm in my senior year at college and professors don't really take the excuse “sorry I can't focus. I have insomnia.” One of my professors does, however, and she works with me, because she has insomnia too! Lucky me.
I am feeling better, because 4 hours is better than no hours, and I feel like if I at least have a few hours, even if they're not continuous I can make it through the day. I read a lot of the articles and posts on here at night when I can't sleep, but I don't say much. They just help me to feel better.
