Posted by inanimate peanut on July 17, 2010, at 16:00:37
In reply to Re: HELP! NO SLEEP DRIVING ME CRAZY!, posted by chujoe on July 17, 2010, at 11:22:07
Yes, I am on too many meds-- there's a thread about that about a week ago. I happen to be on this many meds to sleep because more have been added over time as less have proven ineffective. I was trying to get to a sleepable dose of nortriptyline hoping that would solve the problem. Plus, I figured if the titration was the most dangerous part, I would just get that part over with (yes- questionable logic there). My BP and temp have not gone above normal in a single test. Not one. I take it every 15-30 minutes for at least 3 hours after dosing but it's been more like 6 hours since I can't sleep anyway and then hourly while I'm awake during the rest of the day. My arm is so marked up from pressure marks from my BP cuff that it looks like I've been fighting with my cat. Had I had even one reading, one single indication of a problem, I would have stopped at that dose. I've had no other symptoms of serotonin syndrome either. I'm at 70 now, which is as close as I can get to the therapeutic dose of 75 (pills too small to split) both for mood and for sleep, so it is where I will stay for 3 weeks to see what happens. I knew that people would think I was increasing too fast and I could have lied about it, but why am I going to lie to a group of people who are just trying to help me. Omission is one thing; lying is another.
As for whether the nortriptyline itself is keeping me awake, I was having sleep problems before this, but I was just taking 1.5-2 ambien but I had to stop that because I will run out of pills before my prescription runs out. I've had sleep problems ever since I went off Zyprexa a few weeks ago.
As for the guilt of the whole thing... I have plenty of things to feel guilty about in my life that could keep me awake, but this isn't one of them. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. The literature says it's safe if you do it right (once again, have your debate about whether I'm doing it right or not) and my doc doesn't want the liability of doing it. That's fine. I take the liability of it away from her. If she knew and continued to prescribe Parnate, she could be help liable if something happens to me-- as long as she knows nothing, there's no way she can be held liable for something I'm doing on my own. As for psychotherapy, yes, I'm in it; no, I won't tell them as they are then liable to tell my doc who then becomes liable. In the end, I don't get my Parnate and end up in the hospital for a very long time. It's all very ugly. If I feel bad about anyone, it's SLS and ed_uk2010 and the others who answered my questions and trusted me to be responsible with the information who I'm sure would feel that I haven't used it responsibly (even though, as I said above, I feel that I took all precautions, even though the dose increase was probably too fast). That's why I stopped posting my dose increases, because I didn't want to worry people unnecessarily. I honestly do value people's opinions but was trying to do it my way at the same time. I don't want people to stop helping me or think I'm not listening because I honestly am-- I just went a little fast this time. I would definitely prefer lectures over no help at all. I really do value your opinions.
poster:inanimate peanut
thread:954704
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100709/msgs/954793.html