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 still the same, unfortunately. I'm pretty much always having the strange wide awake feeling. I still hate it, but I like staying up al night. Staying up al night still doesn't even phase me. I feel weird and abnormal. I'm wide awake in a basically tired world. I hate listening to people complain about how tired they are. I'm worried I will always be like this and I don't want to live the rest of my life like this. I have seen others that have been like me improve and get better, while I'm pretty much the same and it really depresses me. Someone got "back to normal" by perhaps taking supplements. Another person who I know who was going through this is still on meds, but feels back to "normal". She is on a low dose of meds, unlike me who is on a very high dose, and her Doctor thinks she should be able to get off the meds easily. I just don't know what to do. I'm worried I'm stuck like this and pretty much everything I do won't make any difference. I am obviously miserable like this and will be even more miserable as long as I'm like this. I was stressed out enough when this all started and this just makes things even more stressful, in my opinion.
My mom has a doctor she really likes and she told her about me. The doctor said she will do a cortisol test, etc, on me but I do expect everything to come back "normal" because others like me have gotten tests done and they have all came back normal.
My mom has a doctor she really likes and she told her about me. The doctor said she will do a cortisol test, etc, on me but I do expect everything to come back "normal" because others like me have gotten tests done and they have all came back normal.
And yeah it's normal to feel like you're stuck like this when it becomes (seemingly) never ending.
What keeps me going is the thought that SOMETHING has got to work. So many things haven't, but I have to find the magic method. And yes, I've tried all the usual methods, different herbs, supplements and prescription drugs. Most will work for a night or two. I don't remember when I last sleep well for a week straight. I honesty don't remember. If I ever sleep well for three nights in a row, I'll know I'm "healed."
When I told my doc I was tired in the morning but keyed up at night, I was sent for a cortisol test, too -- and disappointed when they said all was normall. ALL blood work normal.
The odd thing? If I go to sleep night, I'm always exhausted when I wake up. But if I stay up all night and go to sleep at 6am and wake up at 11am, I'm pretty much good to go. One counselor told me, "Just get an overnight job." as if finding such a job was like buying a pack of gum.
Beware of "sleep clinics." Most are sleep APNEA clinics. If you don't have sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, they have zero interest in helping you with your insomnia. And the last thing you need is a huge hospital bill for someone not helping you.
I think counseling is beneficial (although I'm in the process of looking for a new counselor) to try to find out why you're not sleeping or when it started. Mine is somewhere between not feeling safe and absolutely dreading each day because of my seriously stressful job (I routinely have nightmares about my job and sometimes wake up, heart pounding, and I even suspect I do this without any memory of it the next day). My goal was to go to a counselor to explore stress management techniques. My last counselor had no clue (beyong printing stuff off of the internet).
You will eventually find something that works for you. So will I. Keep the faith.
It is possible to be stuck due to high amounts of stress and here it is...
http://www.anxietyawareness.com/natural-medicine.php
Yep, stress = insomnia. Give them a call or at least give their documentations a read.
They primarily talk about anxiety and panic disorders which is the culprit in the stress but in reality, any large amount of stress could induce insomnia.
I did and I saw improvements in just a few months. At first I would only get tired really quick and then wide awake again. The tired feeling started getting longer and longer over time.
I'm might try the generic version of a med, Lyrica, that someone like me is on and they are now feeling back to normal. I just don't expect any miracles. I probably won't continue to take it if it doesn't cause drowsiness, which I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. I would stop taking it even though it, the generic version of a drug known as Lyrica, can be used to help with anxiety. My anxiety, I feel, will never get any better as long as I'm like this and as long as I'm going through everything else I'm going through either, regardless of any medication I'm taking for it. I, for example, did not take any meds this morning. I stay up l night a lot, which I like to do, instead of taking the sedative, which is a high dose of Seroquel and another old anti- depressant every night. I laid down even though I was wide awake and was bored and frustrated. I just slept off and on and had a very broken sleep, in which I kept on dreaming and waking up. I kept on waking up. I just don't want to live the rest of my life like this, but I'm worried I will. I might do something drastic if it doesn't get better. I know I would most likely be suicidal if this continues to last or if I do became tolerant to the meds. I don't know what to do anymore.
I suspect my cortisol and adrenaline levels are very high due to stress, but don't know if it will show up on a standard lab test, unfortunately. There are supplements that I could try that are supposed to help with cortisol, but I can't afford any supplements anyway. There are also other supplements that others have tried that were like me and they think that the supplements perhaps helped them get back to " normal".