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Quote:I just read my first post back and realised it sounded really nasty but I had just had an argument with my neurologist on the phone earlier that day and needed to get the thoughts out of my head! lol
I had no problem with it–but I've been reading blogs by one of our members who has a lot of justifiable anger about events in her life.
Quote:My name is Maria, I am 26. I live in Dundee, Scotland, with my fiancée, Lena. I love everything about my life, except doctors!I have had MS for 4 and half years now. Without that I would never of met my girl so I can cope with that! 🙂
I noticed that Lena has MS as well. You certainly will understand the other's bad days, and one hopes, be able to assist more effectively. Given the variations in MS and its symptoms, that may not be a possibility.
Lots of folk/traditional songs about your area of Scotland–I am a folkie, and I know rather more about that area than just marmalade, yummy as it might be.
Do you and Lena have a date yet for your wedding, or does it depend on laws being changed in Scotland?
Quote:I have many other problems too but this isn't a medical board so won't tell you any more! lolSome of us have no objection to that sort of thing. Does the depression pre-date the MS? My husband and I also have acrophobia coupled with a fear of falling, but I think his is worse. I'm bipolar, so I understand the depression aspect of one's life: my depressions have always been long, several months to over a year, and deep as well. I seem to be controlled at this point through my meds regimen.
Quote:I love comedy! Could watch stand up shows all day, everyday!I love going to the cinema too! Films are awesome way to escape from 'real' life! 🙂
They're also good for combatting depression and sometimes allowing one to fall asleep. Some movies are better than drugs for mood altering!
Quote:I'm sorry for my initial post being quite horrible, but I needed somebody to rant at and my Mrs goes to bed early (she has MS too)
From now on in, I will not be as grumpy!
No need to apologize for my sake–I can endure this manifestation of cranky, and sometimes help find help for the source of it. I can't recall if we have private message capability on this site, but if you need/want to talk offlist, say so, and I'll give you my email addy.
Quote:I may have the occasional rant about doctors or government but will keep them to a minimum! People on here don't need me depressing them even more with all my problems!You might possibly be surprised with all the problems of others I read on any given day. I can understand rants as well. We all have our peeves, pet, ghost, or other.
Marina
'AuraTodd' wrote on '25:This is the problem I have found with Dr's that when you mention insomnia, the first thing they do is mention sleeping pills. I actually had an argument with a nurse over this and said in the end 'you obviously can't help me' and left. There is more to life then pills for everything. They put my friend on sleeping pills because she couldn't sleep and she fell from a 10th floor window when opening it up one night to get some air.
Sleeping pills don't help, they make the problem worse. The NHS don't use sleeping clinics, as it involves spending money.
I believe I had the same argument with a physician's assistant, and she had the stupidest perkiness that was supposed to cloak what she didn't know. I think she was the first of the physician practices I fired tat year.
I am so sorry to hear of your friend's cause of death. I can certainly understand your reluctance to take pills. I hope the physician involved was suitably warned/censured or took the event to heart.
In the US, if you're problem isn't fairly obvious sleep apnea, you are not likely to get the medical attention you need, either. Depending on where you live, thee might be a sleep clinic handling other causes of insomnia or sleeping issues, but much depends on your location and insurance contract.
'xdunlapx' wrote on '25:I would have been asleep earlier but mom was watching tv till midnight and that kept me up. I'm about ready to go to sleep but I'm hot and I can't sleep when I'm hot. So it'll take me a while to get to sleep… Grr.
I'm right with you with the temperature thing. If you're sleeping in the same room as someone who wants the temperature higher, it's a pain.
'AdrianBua' wrote on '19:Hi. Im new to the forum, my name is Adrian – I am spanish/english, I am 26 and am studying for a phd in political science at the University of East Anglia (UK). (Any other academics on the site by the way?).
(snip)
since being 23 until starting phd, Ive had relatively good sleep (with some dodgy patches) … but my sleeplessness has come back with a vengeance during the phd (started sept 10), and Ive gone back to developing almost obsessive-compulsive pre sleep routines ….
After finishing work (generally 3-4-5 am) I must have a camomille, a cigarette and watch some documentary or a politics show or something not too engaging, interesting and relaxing – if I dont have camomille handy, and then when in Bed i read my novel …
(snip)
I get very worried about any potential obstacles to these little routines … if theres a guest in the house say, in the sitting room …
What also used to happen (ironically mostly during this 2 year period when I was sleeping relatively well) was that I'd to lie in bed and, for some reason, start worrying about the most mundane things – like checking the lights are off downstairs, or the door is properly locked… over and over again (all the time telling myself – Adrian its OK you seen everything is off and the door is locked 3 times now … but I still cant shake it off) … at one point I got obsessed with checking the fridge door was shut …. so, in order to register everything is shut Id walk round the bottom floor of the house, at 5 am ish, saying out loud “firdge is shut”, “door is locked”, “curtains are shut”, “tv is off” etc etc so that Id register it …. crazy right? and the funny thing is I know its crazy while I am doing it …
(snip)
Then, once in bed, I sometimes get the feeling I have to pee … and ahve gotten up and out of bed reapeatedly, to go to the toilet to find I dont have to pee, but it still feels like it! (snip)
If the obsessive/compulsive nature of this behavior really bothers you, consider seing a doctor for a recommendation to a psychiatrist for meds & a therapist. As for the urgency to pee, my MiL just had something prescribed for her, but went off it. I should ask her what it was so you might pursue it with your doctor.
PhD programs are rather stressful, and I'm not too surprised you're dealing with insomnia due to its stress. I do hope it gets better, and I hope you enjoy our community in any case.
'xdunlapx' wrote on '07:Has anyone tried taking 500mg or higher of the vitamin (?) tryptophan? I know it's the stuff in lots of foods that if eaten in high enough quantity makes you sleepy… So I'm exploring herbal (etc) kinds of drugs that might help me get to sleep, which is my problem usually. I know they sell it in drug stores and on amazon (where I'm currently looking) and just want to know if anyone has tried it?
In the early eighties, I think, I tried it, but as usual, didn't work for me. There was a problem in manufacture with some of it, and it was pulled from the market, but not before a number of people had serious medical problems, including one man I knew.
I believe that was fixed before it could go on market again.
Husband and his mother can drink caffeine sodas all day with no problems getting to sleep. Genetics?
'Elfin' wrote on '17:I have had insomnia since I was a teenager (am now a little older than that now :0) ) I have 7 children so you would think that sleep would be a breeze but no after a brief spell where I only had a few bouts it seems having my son 4 months ago has triggered it off again.
I havent quite got myself into a managment routine again so I am struggling a little with fatigue in the daytime.
I hope some of the older children are pitching in to help with the younger: the fate of older kids in a larger family. How long have your post partum bouts of insomnia lasted before?
While I was nursing my son, I seemed to find a “wormhole” into which I could drop myself and drop off, but it didn't last past nursing. At 11 months, it was clear I needed to go on an anti-depressant, and wean him. Wish I could have nursed him longer, but I really needed relief from the deppression.
I can understand not liking warm milk–mine had better be hot and flavored, even if only vanilla extract. I'd think that decaf black tea with lots of milk is also right out, due to the milk part!
I'm also dealing with thyroid issues, and have been for years: I'm on 125mcg of synthroid these days. One's blood sugar can also affect daytime sleepiness–but I'm not sure what mine is from, unless it's psychologically triggered from seeking avoidance. No way to reall measure that.
I know a wee dram of the local product, Highland or Speyside, won't help. Only time I drink blended or quasi-blended whisky is when I have a cough to quell–and I have to drink rather more than a dram for that. I am allergic to codeine and vicodin, and those are, in the US, the only strong ingredients in prescrption cough suppresants. I'm an Islay girl, though–love that phenolic smoky taste, which is found in the tea world as Lapsang Souchong.
Do look over some of our collection (okay, Martin's) of attempts at insomnia cures, and see what non-chemistry ones might work for you. As to exercise, the only one that makes me sleepy, as opposed to worn out, is swimming in a heated pool (especially in your weather!), which we only have in high summer (the old sun), due to the high cost of heating that much water in the face of cold air and ground.
Marina
Campbell, CA (next to San Jose)
Re: Light therapy
I do have SAD, live in a house that is insufficiently lit from outside, and bought one of these a few years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Verilux-HappyLite-Deluxe-Sunshine-Simulator/dp/B0001ATEJ2/ref=pd_sim_hpc_4
I have been very happy with it. My MiL moved it from our “office” in the laundry corridor to the great room, which is hidden very well from the sun, for her watercolor classes' use. There are also two full-spectrum OTT lamps to focus light on the table. I don't need it, or even the OTT lamps I have, where I work, except when the sky has been overcast or dripping, since the area I work in is so light.
Welcome (belateldly) and keep with the villainy!
'xdunlapx' wrote on '07:Quote:In 2006 I was finally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder with generalized anxiety disorder. I've been on medications for it since March that year.March 2001, for me, but it's somewhere between cyclothymia and Bipolar NOS or II. I'd only been dx'd with depression, because I couldn't recognize any hypomanias. Not sure–15-20 yrs?–before the correct dx was made. At least my son got a quicker dx.
I get very deep, long, and intense depressions, and damned little by way of hypomania–I might get a couple of hours, since once I discover I'm likely in one, it goes away. Thus I am motivated to take my meds.
Quote:When I started on Seroquel for BP I was able to sleep at night but the problem was I was eating 5 times a night (IN my sleep!) all full bowls of cereal each time.
My son liked Seroquel for its sedating qualities. For the two years I was on topomax, I slept pretty well: best sleep in over two decades. However, while he didn't sleep-eat, he did gain a lot of weight from the carb+fat combos he ate for comfort AND from a lack of portion control. He'd been taken off that for Abilify, but that's damned expensive on our current insurance plan, so I asked for him to be switched to lamictal, which we can get in a generic and cheaper form. He's found that melatonin isn't working very well for him any more, so we may try benadryl, since he, along with the rest of our household, has seasonal allergies. He IS at that teenage sleep stage of late night to sleep and sleep late in the morning. He's on topomax for migraine prevention, but he has had none of the side effects I had.
Quote:Yes the first treatment for it was Lithium but that made me a complete zombie. It was pure hell. And I gained a lot of weight on it, too.He was on depakote and lithium when he started, at seven. Outstripped the ability to bring the depakote level up, and was on just lithium for a few years. When i had to sign a release/informed consent form a couple of years ago, I found that in addition to negatively affecting the thyroid (an issue in my birth family), he wasn't supposed to be taking NSAIDs for his migraines. I asked for a switch, and he went on to Seroquel.
Every so often my pdoc suggests lithium, and I've said I want to save that for if/when nothing else works.
Do NOT let yr pdoc prescribe Zyprexa for you–it WILL add weight, and it will screw up your lipids: it is responsible for a number of not-otherwise-at-risk bipolars and others suddenly developing diabetes.
Quote:Also my anxiety started getting so bad recently that the psychiatrist prescribed Neurontin (which is off-label for anxiety) and it works fine for me.The Neurontin can also act as a mood stabilizer, as well as for seizure disorders such as epilepsy. Given how well so many anti-seizure meds work for bipolars and some migraine sufferers, there is curiosity in medical research for a possible link in sources for each of them.
Quote:I was recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes and was put on Metformin. For years and years I've been complaining to GP about extreme tiredness. Sleeping all day because of it (again, not at night)… The day after I started taking Metformin I was awake! I was no longer constantly extremely tired, i mean the kind of tired that lingers in your head that you feel like you are 100 pounds heavier because of it. Oddly enough this hasn't helped get me on a regular sleep schedule. But my blood sugar is doing much better.I get extreme dehydration with metformin, so I have had to stop taking it, and nothing else seems to work as well for me. Everyone else in the household takes it withf little in the way of side effects, although my son can only take 1gm a day, instead of the usual 2, before he has the same reaction as me. He is doing better with his blood sugar since the metformin and his better portion control, esp. for carbs.
Byetta, an injection, didn't seem to do anything for me, either.
Quote:I have tried diet after diet after diet and nothing works for me to lose any amount of weight, other than maybe 5 pounds… I always gain it back and then some.
Same here. Becomes learned hopelessness.
Quote:Sorry for the extremely long post but I'm needing sleep and feel like chatting. Yeah it's one sided but that's ok.
I can be verbose at any time of day! Some of us are like that.
Quote:I've noticed that I'm losing a bit of weight (not sure how though, i haven't changed my diet in the 2 months). My belly looks smaller when I look down towards my feet and my face isn't so obscenely fat, yeah its still bad fat but not grossly so. So I'm hoping when I go to the doctor in 2 weeks for my 3 month check up I'll have lost some weight.
Perhaps merely being off the Seroquel accounts for it.
Glad you're here–quite a few bipolars here.
Marina
'Baron' wrote on '20:i'm interested in doing a sleepy study. it sounds like it could be very useful to me. one of my best friends took her kid for a sleep study as the kid was suffering from some sleep apnea, and the results were illuminating. they discovered that even aside from the sleep apnea (the kid has unusually large tonsils and has since been scheduled for surgical removal), their brain woke them up 5 times an hour. combined with the sleep apnea caused by the breathing trouble, and it was a whopping 13 times an hour. the poor kid was never able to fall into deep, restful sleep. naturally, they were suffering from health trouble–cognitive trouble, attention-deficit, behavioural issues, etc.
the downside is i understand it can be quite expensive. something like 3 grand, in this case. i'll have to check with my insurance and see what it's going to be like for me.
Poor kid! Glad they found causes, and hope the surgery & CPAP help.
As to your insurance, you may need your doctor/specialist to explain to the insco how it's “medically necessary” for you to have this. Best of luck!
Hello, Pete!
There are other reasons I don't live in a traditional big city–I start getting claustrophobic, as I don't deal well with large masses of people.
At this point, I have no real sleeping pattern, because part of recovering from surgery to remove a bonespur from my right heel NYE 2010, is not being able to go up stairs (in a chair lift only) unless someone also brings up my knee scooter. So mostly I'm in this room, mostly by myself, and don't really have a schedule.
I suppose noise level and activity depend on where in a large city you live: you can be in the city centre, or in a quiet neighborhood. I live in a town adjacent to San Jose CA. We live in a very quiet neighborhood with few ways in. While I'm a block away from a heavily travelled street, we seldom hear much in the way of noise from it–nor from the freeway, a few blocks further west. Some of it is all the nice tall trees in the neighborhood, but I really don't know the secret–but I AM happy to take advantage of it.
I'm current off everyone else's schedule in the house. I've noticed I never seem to visit the blog save when it's very early in the morning.
Welcome, and I hope you find what you need here.
'Martin' wrote on '28:A bit off-topic here, but I think they should simply add an option to the ballot 'None of the above'. A lot of people want to vote, but not for any of the candidates on offer. I think you'd see an increase in voter turnout simply by adding that option.
I think that it is possible in every state of the union, and possibly in the District of Columbia as well, to write in a candidate for whom you would prefer to vote for, for each office. People often write in a “joke name”: someone who's dead, Noah Ward (no award), and a few other options. Is that what you mean by spoiling a ballot?
The Senatorial race in Alaska this year was a stellar example of the write-in vote. Lisa Murkowski won on write-ins after she'd lost the primary. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write-in_candidate for a more extensive explanation with examples.
In 2003, in a recall election for California governor Gray Davis, there were 135 candidates who qualified for the ballot. I think it was the longest candidate list anyone had ever seen. Usually there are fewer than ten candidates for a given office–and it was hard not to find someone with whose politics you agreed.
Annelies wrote:
Quote:I like both the truffles and the waffles. Did you know there are 2 kinds of Belgian waffels? There's the Waffels from Brussels and the one's from Liege. I like the latter because the dough is thicker and they are sweeter.I may have only had the Brussels version. I had no idea there were two types.
Quote:I'm Flemish. It's a bit difficult in Belgium on that matter. We've had elections in June but the politicians aren't able to form a new government. The differences between the Flemish and the Walloons are too big. We are now at 227 days without a government.In California, we sometimes approach that duration without a State Budget!
Quote:Our politics are really difficult to understand for outsiders. Even most of the Belgian people don't really know how everything works.It seems that a large number of Americans don't understand the financial workings of this government…
Quote:You can imagine this is a big issue over here. But not to worry. Things are peaceful. Belgians just don't care enough about our politics to start a civil war or anything like that. And we do have 'governement of ongoing affairs'.The last prime-minister is still at work only now he's called 'the resigning prime minister'. One wonders how long you can be called that?
It took us 7 months before somebody organized one minor demonstration about the situation.(only about 34000 people attended). But enough on that matter.
Do the majority of Belgian citizens vote? Americans who don't even register to vote is a big sadness for me. Our voter turnout is scandalously low. Unlike some countries, such as Australia, voting is not compulsory in the States.
Quote:I'm not the one who is fan of Loreena McKennitt? Haven't got the slightest idea who that is. I'm sorry.Ah. Then you're not the woman on the Old-Ways list. Not to worry. Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer who started with Celtic music on the harp, and who has branched out into various cultures' music and into other musical instruments. She has her own recording company, at first because she was too much of a small-fry, and after signing up with Warner Bros. Music to distribute (and nothing else–she still handled all the production details and financing) her albums, she did not renew the contract because they didn't do an adequate job. A large number of Canadian musicians and singers have their own label, in order to control costs and details, and because they don't like what they've seen from the major recording labels. If you'd like to see what she's produced, and check out the music, go to quinlanroad.com/, and explore.
Marina
'MsG' wrote on '24:What lead me to join this forum are the newest medications I've been prescribed for sleep and to get rid of the broken record of myself talking to myself in the 3rd person. My diagnosis from have ranged from schizophrenia, bipolar, ADD, ADHD, anxiety and extreme OCD. Really one person can have all of those??? I have now made an appointment with a new doctor because frankly I think it is the lack of sleep and high doses of meds that are making me feel this way.
As a bipolar NOS, who knows various folks with AD(H)D, and OCD–as well as the usual anxiety that many folks without other diagnoses deal with–and who has read up on the subjects (my son has early onset bipolar, and I started by researching that–we were both diagnosed on the same day, even though we were there at the pdoc for him).
Do any of these conditions show up in your family history? I know your parents' generation may not talk about this, but it is possible that you can look at behaviors and guess rather well. In my family, and in my husband's family, the last generation had it, as far as we can tell–because it was never diagnoses or treated. In my husband's family, his brother and his eldest son have it–the brother seems to manage the cycles somehow, now–but his som in BPI, and doesn't follow instructions for his meds. My son and I are motivated to take ours due to wanting to avoid the deep depression we were each plagued with!
On one axis, we have ADD/ADHD to bipolar, don't know about OCD, on another, cyclothymia, bipolar, to schizoaffective disorder, and then to schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. However, I agree that you need a better/more definitive dx. Have you gone to one of the university psychiatric departments? That might get you someone better trained in diagnosis. What meds are you on presently?
Quote:When I talk to my husband about my sleep and odd thoughts doesn't know what to say to me and I definitely can't share this info friends or family.
The odd thoughts sound like a mania or hypomania–very fast, sometimes painful thinking–but you do need to mention them to the doctor, including what else might be happening about that time, like sleep patterns.
Why can't you share this with friends and family? Now, we got a lot of flak from people when Arthur was dx'd–no such dx, you're drugging your kid instead of using discipline & behavior mods, you're drugging your kid, what an awful mom you are (no one ever said what an awful *dad* you are to my husband….), so I understand a certain reluctance.
Let me know how I can help you–I give good info.
Marina
“When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake.” ~Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk
Hi, Annelies, I'm Marina from Campbell CA (right next to San Jose CA in Silicon Valley).
I'd rather have Belgian truffles than waffles. Are you a Walloon or are you Flemish? Would you happen to be a fan of Loreena McKinnett? I seem to recall an Annelies on the Old-Ways list.
Quote:Now I'm up to the point where I can't remember what it's like to get up and be rested.I always get up tired. Either I just can't catch sleep or I wake up several times a night.
Until I was put on Topomax for a mood stabilizer, it had been about 20 years since I'd last had a restful night of sleep, but Labor Day weekend of 2001, I had one. I was dumbfounded. I did have some annoying side-effects, and it only worked for me for two years, but I certainly slept well.
Quote:I'm jealous of other people who seem to radiate energyI've been deeply envious of people who never get headaches (much less migraines), people who had better dental genes than I do (lots of fillings, maybe a dozen crowns. Used to have a dentist phobia, but my current dentist and his staff have pretty well eradicated it), and people who had no problems getting to, and staying, asleep.
My husband falls asleep as quickly as yours does, but he often snores. It used to be much worse, but we discovered eucalyptus and a local acacia have such bad pollen for us both that when looking for places to live, we need either of those at least a block or two away. He still snores–we both do, to some extent, when congested, but this house has two trees called crape myrtles right outside our bedroom window. They flower in the summer. The one closest to our bedroom is doomed to be removed sometime when we have the money to do so.
So, welcome, and yes, you will be surrounded by those who understand your situation…and know that going to bed earlier just prolongs the amount of time you lie awake. It certainly did when I was a teen, and was to be in bed by 9pm!
