Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
I'm scheduled from 10am - 2pm where I work which isn't a big shift but i don't fall asleep until 10am. my anxiety levels are spiking like crazy thinking that i won't sleep at all and i just feel like crying. i keep begging god to let this end but it doesnt and im taking 20mg ambien just to HOPE that i fall asleep while mixing over the counter meds. everyone tells me that it's not safe but at this point i'm beyond caring about "safe." if i take too much of something and i get knocked out or die, so be it as long as i'm not awake. i'm religious so i hold onto the whole "god has a plan for me thing," so if i do overdose while mixing and matching i have a feeling he won't let me die, but it's a comforting thought these days that i have the ability to end my own life if i have to over this, or if it becomes too much to bare. my dad keeps telling me that we'll find a way to fix this but i hear about people who haven't had a good nights sleep in decades and the fear for myself becomes even larger, the anxiety higher and the depression greater. i wish my doc would just prescribe me roofies.
If you could for instance stop worrying about sleep for say just the next 24 hours, what do you think would happen? In other words, for just the next day anytime a worried thought about sleep popped up, what would happen if you were to just let it go. You could choose to do this. You could just worry about all that the next day if you wanted.
What would happen? If you think the answer is nothing, then this helps to expose a thought distortion. You are hurting yourself with all this worry, but you have the power to make it better right now.
You have a choice. You are in fact in charge of your thoughts.
Please listen to your doctor and only take your meds exactly as prescribed. Work with your parents, or counselor, on getting to the root of your worries and just let them go. You can do this.
And have hope and faith. You can get through this and I assure you it will get better.
I would approach your Doctor with every ounce of determination in showing him/her just how much this is affecting you...I know the exact feeling about God as I have thought those same things about accidental overdose, that if I wake up then it is God's will...
I have a lot of faith in you as you are very young and you are taking action and working at it...I truly believe you will beat this...
The last few nights are started to yell (NO!!!) inside my head whenever I laid down to sleep and my mind started racing...I would force my mind to either go blank or take me to the ocean or the Mountains...I was shocked to wake up the next morning realizing I had slept...I have also been taking sleeptrials and others advice and it has eased the tensions...
You are doing the exact right thing by being determined and taking back control over your sleep.
Sleep is a process of letting go and relaxing. Seems we can't force or will sleep no matter how hard we try. If fact trying harder and worrying about it usually us the other way, more toward a state of worried wakefulness rather than drowsiness.
But you can relax and let go, think positive and supportive sleep thoughts, and by doing so, be confident that your own inherent physiologic requirement for sleep will do the rest.