Posted by Gracie2 on February 14, 2003, at 21:32:01
In reply to Re: Sleeping yet?? No!!!!!! » lostsailor, posted by jodie on February 14, 2003, at 0:39:06
Jodie-
I haven't been around for awhile but sometimes I come back on and lurk just to see how everyone is doing. My heart goes out to you because I know exactly what you're going through. Chronic insomnia is hell, just sheer hell, and I've had trouble with it since my early teenage years. I always managed to get through it somehow until a couple of years ago. I was having a lot of personal problems and my insomnia revved up to an unbearable degree. I'd wander the house like a ghost until 3:00 or 4:00 am, fall asleep from exhaustion for a couple of hours, and then have to drag myself off the couch (I couldn't stay in the bedroom because I kept my husband awake all night, tossing and turning and switching the reading lamp on and off, so I figured why put him through the same torture) and go to work. I would drink pots of coffee in order to be able to function during the day and, of course, this only made the insomnia worse. At times I would become so exhausted, I'd just weep from the frustration of being unable to sleep. Eventually I started taking very large doses of over-the-counter medications, trying to knock myself out. Because of my history of drug abuse, and particularly after a serious suicide attempt, my doctor would not give me benzos or prescription sleeping pills, and I couldn't blame the guy. I swallowed handfuls of Benadryl in sheer desperation, not even caring anymore about the damage that I knew must be going on in my body, anything for a good night's sleep. Ironically, the Benadryl kept me awake. I found out later that a paradoxical reaction to some medications is typical in people with bipolar disorder. So is chronic insomnia.Naturally this could not go on forever, though I held out for a very long time before I crashed and burned. Eventually it became obvious that I was in serious need of psychiatric help and heavy-duty medication. I am now stabalized on the anti-psychotic Seroquel at a pretty hefty dose of 400 mg a night. I've had some adverse reactions from some posters on PB when I attempted to praise this drug for saving my life, which it certainly did. And it's probably true that this dosage of Seroquel would knock out an elephant, it's certainly a powerful drug that should be avoided by those who don't need it, and it did take me some time to adjust to this dosage.
However, this is what it did for me: as long as I take Seroquel at bedtime, I go to sleep within a reasonable period of time and I sleep all night, every night. I wake up in the morning like normal people without feeling groggy, and I do not have to increase the amount of Seroquel that I take for it to remain effective. This drug is literally keeping me alive, because I could not continue to function as I once did, day after day and night after night with little or no sleep.
I would have eventually killed myself with over-the-counter medications in my attempts to get a little sleep.Although different drugs work for different people, this is certainly an option for you if you do have manic depression.
God Bless-
Gracie
poster:Gracie2
thread:36481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030208/msgs/200545.html