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Baron–
Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried a few white noise apps over the years, even a sleep/relaxation hypnosis tape on “cassette” (yes, pre-iTunes, pre-CD.) The one that I tried for iTunes (iPod) was mediocre at best, it was actually kind of obnoxious so I'll be checking this one out. Thanks for the suggestion.
Martin–
if you're thinking of making your own, I'll happily be a test subject. Forest and nature may not be my cup of tea in “real life” but I do like the sounds. I think it would be nice to hear things besides wind rustling through the trees, the “scrunch” of footsteps as one walks through the forest, and some other less traditional sounds. (Those are the only two that I can think of right now, and they may be more conventional than I think.)
Tron Legacy is one of the only movies I've seen in the theatres in literally a year or two. (I pretty much Netflix everything these days.) I admit I wasn't going into it expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had heard complaints about the CGI of the young Jeff Bridges, but I found it quite tolerable, even good. I also, like just about everyone else on Earth loved the Daft Punk score. The plot line was silly, but I liked the way, as one person mentioned it merged old with new, I thought it was a very well integrated sequel considering the amount of time that has gone by and the way technology and effects and such was changed. It was also nice to see a female character, and although I do find the actress, Olivia Wilde, “hot” it was nice that they didn't just “sex up” her character or make her a mere love interest as they often do to females in these movies. My biggest complaint had nothing to do with the movie, but just that I wasn't able to see it in 3-D due to the showtimes that we made it to.
Wow, I'm so happy, that my thread got active again while I was gone. I will come back and post a new quote myself in the near future. Thanks for keeping the thread alive everyone.
xdunlapx–
Welcome. We have some similar diagnoses. I am also bipolar, and have multiple anxiety disorder diaorders. I also had weight gain on many of the meds, though nothing as drastic as yours, but I can understand what you're going through–or at least relate. It's also kind of funny I've finally gotten to the stage where I am drinking caffeine free soda, after being a coffee-and-soda-a-holic for most of my life. We'll see if it helps, but I'm also doing it for other reasons. Sometimes I tend to disappear on this site for a while, but I will always be an Insomnia Land memeber and look forward to seeing more of your posts.
Welcome, Maria. Although I don't have the same diagonoses as you, I certainly can understand the frustration of not having a good doctor. I don't know if you have any other choices but perhaps it is time to go to a new doctor, whether or not she is the best field should be secondary to a good doctor/patient relationship that's comfortable and respectful. I went through a period of a year or so seeing different psychiatrists almost every month, until I finally found a good one. They ARE out there, and if you're unhappy, I say, change. Oh, and good luck sleeping.
Martin–Well, I kept all my media on my external HD, utilized it for storage space, since my normal HD was nowhere near big enough. Problem was, I had no backup for the external.
That said, I have been listening to a lot of Glee tracks lately. I have mixed feelings about the show itself, but I have been listening to Gwyneth Paltrow's “Forget You” cover non-stop, and now I have discovered Naya Rivera, esp. in her “Valerie” cover.
Inception–I really liked the concept of “projections,” I never really thought of them that way, but it makes sense. I also am one of those weird people who almost never dreams about people I know in real life, so my dreams are usually almost entirely made up of “projections.”
Love and Other Drugs–I too will Netflix it, is this the one with Anne Hathaway??? Or was it another actress in the lead. I forget…I just remember it was one of my favorites.
I like that one, a much more eloquent way of putting what people so plainly usually phrase.
So here's my new one for the week/day/moment:
When people ask for advice, I say, “Use your best judgment,” which they clearly don't have if they think I'm the right person to be asking.
-Caprice Crane
Such beautiful patterning on their coats. What wonderful cats!!! I'm a cat person too, although earlier in life I was definitely more of a dog person. Now, I'm the complete opposite. I take care of about 7-8 outdoor cats (hate the word “feral”) in which I feed them and have been able to pet them and socialize with them a bit each day. I'm thinking of possibly adopting one of them, but am a bit reluctant.
Welcome, Dave. Sorry to hear your insomnia has resurfaced in light of this stress. I agree with you and Martin though, if it's meant to work, it will. I had a long distance relationship with someone from England that worked for several months…until it did not. But on the other hand, I had a five year relationship with another person that worked just fine and was in fact, my longest relationship. So…you never know. 🙂
Welcome, Molly. I know it's been a number of days since you first posted this, but hopefully you were able to get some sleep. I also hope to see you around more.
I've always thought computer animated “people” looked a bit creepy, and having half the face be the eyes doesn't help. Lol. That said, it seems like design trends like that aside, it really has progressed over the years. I have not seen any of the Millenium/Girl Who movies…but they are in my Netflix queue. I don't usually like remakes and I still haven't seen the originals or read the books, but I'm kind of curious to see what David Fincher does with the American remake. (He did “Seven,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Social Network.”) Also, Trent Reznor of NIN fame is doing the film score.
Black Swan I am dying to see!!! I don't see many movies theatrically, I watch most of them on DVD and BLU. But I might actually make it out of the house for that one.
Sorry to hear the Topamax along with the already present post-menopausal issues were interefering with your creativity and word choice and such. I can only hope it improves for you, but I know all too well, that sometimes it just doesn't. Have you considered or are you able to lower your dose at all??? I did that in one case, and noticed I did suffer some stability, but I was able to “get my creativity” somewhat back.
Hi cherrychapstik. As Martin mentioned, I have done the rounds on psychiatric and insomnia medicines. I am diagnosed with, among other things, multiple anxiety disorders and I am no stranger to “obsessive worrying.” I also find a lot of my problems overlap, example: insomnia brings on depressive states, anxiety induces insomnia, etc.
SSRIs are one of the more common ways to treat anxiety disorders these days. They have added benefits in many cases in leveling out the brain chemistry, so for example, it might help with depression (obviously.)
I admit, it can be pretty scary looking at side-effects for meds. Even though it in and of itself causes worry for you, I think it is actually good that you go in knowing what to expect, so that if and when you experience those side-effects, you are more prepared and can make the decision of whether or not the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
I myself found SSRIs weren't that helpful in treating my anxiety. However, they were for a time helpful in treating my depressive states. SSRIs are also used for other mental health problems such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Try to keep in mind when reading the list of possible side-effects, that they are only POSSIBLE, and in fact, in my experience and that of most patients you'll probably find most of them subside significantly or go away entirely as treatment goes on. When they do the clinical trials of these medications, something that only happened in say…4% of patients, might end up being listed as a possible side-effect. It could be higher or lower, but remember if you know what to look for, you can try to prepare yourself for it.
For drugs that cause insomnia, that can be one of the scariest ones of all for someone…with insomnia to begin with. I'm on a medicine now that while not an SSRI is known to cause insomnia and be a “stiumating” anti-depressant…so the solution in my case, was to take it first thing in the morning and it usually does not impair my ability to sleep at night. (And it is an extended-release formulation.)
Another option, that I hinted upon earlier, is that there are often medicines that can be added to treat unwanted side-effects. The problem is that you can start to build up a pharmacy worth of medication that you'll “have” to take. But in my case, I found I had a particular medicinally induced condition and the simple addition of another medicine (one with NO side effects, in my case) solved the problem.
I hope I've been helpful. If you have any other questions or specific medicines you want to ask about feel free. I don't always get on Insomnia Land as regularly as I used to, but I will try to check this topic again whenever I do.
For example, one almost everyone including myself fear is weight gain. One of the ways to manage this is through diet and exercise. I'm lazy, so I leave out the exercise part, but I work hard to try to eat smaller, more frequent meals. It's not always easy, but by “forcing” myself to eat at certain times and trying to “avoid” eating at other times and sticking to an eating schedule, I've managed to go from gaining too much weight on a recent medicine to starting to lose said weight on the recent medicine.
Sex drive and related side-effects is another scary one. Unfortunately, it is fairly common with SSRIs in both males and females. And while drugs exist for physical symptoms in males, they do not for females, and no real legitimate medicine exists that I know of for inducing sex drive in someone who does not have it.
