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I was on clonazapem for 4 years. I started in Dec 22 to taper down and came off in March of 22. I really do not have withdrawals any more but it was tough. But clonazapem helped me sleep – as it was a pharmacological treatment for anxiety and sleep. But, it’s not meant to be taken long term even though the Dr. (as is the case with most psyche MDs) just kept prescribing it and …it did work.
“If 7 out of 7 nights of sleep were good — if you were to reach that goal of 100% of nights being good for the rest of your life and never experiencing even one difficult night ever again — what would you be doing differently?” THAT’S WHY I’M HERE. TO FIND SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT I’M NOT DOING THAT WILL WORK AND RETURN ME TO A COMFORTABLE TEMPO OF SLEEPING EVERY NIGHT OR AT LEAST SLEEPING WITH SOME DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE THAT I’M NOT GOING TO PUT MY HEAD ON THE PILLOW AND FOR SOME REASON NOT GET TO SLEEP.
I still don’t buy the advice of “accepting” as it is “not struggling” not “chasing.” Chasing is a word that is somewhat pejorative to trying to find a way to end insomnia. In that sense we are all “chasing” if framed with that word. We seek tactics to get rid of insomnia. A sleep window, that builds sleep drive, is effective; But it doesn’t always work. One can have a high amount of sleep drive and, for whatever reason, hyperarousal just comes … and you’re “wired and tired.” And yes I’ll probably sleep better the next night, but I have to endure 24 uncomfortable hours before I can.
When sleep doesn’t happen, IT BECOMES A STRUGGLE. I can tell myself not to struggle, but I do want to help myself and I do want to avoid a bad day the next day. So, yes, I can suck it up, accept it, and just bear through the day with say 4 hours of 2-3 hours of sleep. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m seeking ways to fall asleep. However, there’s this “Catch-22.” If you seek, you’re more aware of it and it does cause anxiety. Taming that anxiety is very difficult.
Getting out of bed when you can’t sleep helps moderately. Sometimes it helps; most of the time I return to bed and the sleep is not great, or fragmented, so I wake up with fragmented inadequate sleep that hurts the next day. I’m successful about 24-26 nights out of 30. But I want 30 out of 30. Trying to get to 30 out of 30 is why I laid down $500 to take this course. Now one can blame me – well sounds like you’re trying to hard, or you’re effort is working against you, but hell – tell me what to do to get to 30 out of 30 nights?Call it what you want, when you can’t sleep, it still sucks. “Accepting” wakefulness does not make those nights feel better. “Welcoming” wakefulness does not help …at all. Not being able to sleep sucks. I’ve lied awake at night without struggling, just saying to myself let it be. And the next morning with little sleep, still sucks. Not struggling, accepting, letting wakefulness in, doing things you like (hard to do things you like when it’s 3:00 AM and you feel like tomorrow is going to be a bad day – plus you’re rather tired, but kinda wired).
So I really don’t get this whole section of the course. Taking this course is “trying” to overcome insomnia. Before I had insomnia, I was taking clonazapem and slept, without effort, sufficiently and functioned well. Since coming off of it, my sleep is unpredictable and is good about 6 our of 7 nights. I would like to return to 7 out of 7 nights being good. Not sure how NOW or AWAKE helps me get to 7 our of 7 nights.
I recently started using the CPAP this past April or so. I failed at it for at least six weeks.
Determined to get it right, I began to put it on when I’d awake in the middle of the night and also if I’d lie down to meditate during the day. Eventually I had some zzzs in the middle of the night with it on. I eventually got up the confidence to put it on when I went to sleep (after striking out several times doing it) and now… I have to have that mask on! My resting heart rate dropped and I went from 32 apneas per hour to about .5 to 1.5. Stay committed to finding ways to use it even if the ambien is a crutch to get there. But do avoid getting hooked on ambien as it and any “z-drugs” are very hard to get off of. I know, I successfully tapered off Klonopin using the Ashton Method (switching over to valium and then tapering off over a 4 month period.).
I moved away from the benzo because I had to. My doctor has is license on hold . Benzos are now highly regulated and the Drug Enforcement Agency is clamping down on prescriptions. I tapered off my benzo over about 4 months. During that time I didn’t sleep well about one out of 7 nights. I’m now about 35 days off the benzo. Just recently, I’m having about 4 bad nights in the last week and it’s very discouraging because I had been doing so well. I don’t really believe it’s a withrdrawal symptom. The night before last i talked myself into believing that I can and will sleep and in fact I slept well. Then last night a bomb dropped and i slept terribly.
