drugs

[fox]

So when I try to sleep, I can feel my body shutting down for the purpose. I can feel my arms and legs get heavy, and I can even feel my fingers get cold - but my mind keeps thundering along, not switching off. I've had the experience before many times of my mind waking up first and not being able to move my body, but I've never been aware of having a kind of sleep paralysis where my mind stays awake longer than my body. Eventually I do fall asleep, of course, but I think this means the vivid dreams I'm having are all the sleep I'm getting. (Normally I sleep very soundly, with the occasional vivid dream just around the edges.)

Which is why the doctor is calling me in a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication, instead of for a sleep aid. I don't know what to expect from that but I'm hopeful that she's right it will quiet things down so my brain can go to sleep at the same time the rest of me does.

Comments

(frozen comment)

[ellen_fremedon]

*blink*

You mean that's not normal? There's another option?

That's... every night of my life, as far back as I can remember. I thought that was just how it worked.

(frozen comment)

[fox]

It's not normal for me. In fact it's ruining my health. I don't know what's normal for you.

(frozen comment)

[fox]

Also. I know you well enough to be pretty sure you meant your comment entirely at face value. But I think you should probably be aware that many, if not most, people will initially see a comment of this sort as carrying a sort of disingenuous faux innocence or ignorance that is very dismissive of the point being responded to.

[laurajv]

That sounds like exactly my anxiety-sleep problem. The doc who initially prescribed me anti anxiety meds said that whenever a patient tells him that they have trouble sleeping because their brain "won't shut up" or "won't turn off", he immediately starts anxiety screens for them because it is "practically diagnostic".

It helped me a lot -- even just having the meds around, even when I most of the time don't take them! Just knowing they are there and I can make the brain shut up if I need to seems to help it settle down at night.

[fox]

Yeah - in my case it's not exactly a surprise, at the moment, but I had called in to say [basically what I said earlier in the week about the limited effectiveness of other pain mgmt etc.] and ask for something; the office assistant put in a note to ask for Ambien or similar, and the doc called me to discuss before calling it in, and when she heard me say here's the situation and I've been worrying myself into a wrung-out mess and having trouble sleeping and here's what I've noticed, she said Yeah, you should have an anti-anxiety med instead of a sleep aid. Which, okay, if it gets me to sleep more peacefully, whatever it is I'll take it. :-P

[laurajv]

The nice thing about most anti-anxiety meds (at least, all the ones that've been prescribed to me) compared to Ambien is that there is (generally) a much lower risk of dependence, and fewer unpleasant side effects. Ambien is fabulous in its place, but I'm really glad I can be on low-impact short-acting meds that are the correct hammer for my particular nail. Hope it's the same for you!

[sanj]

This all sounds right to me. Happy to talk at some length about sleep and anxiety, both mine and other peoples', if it's helpful to you. I do know that if it's anxiety keeping you awake, Ambien is probably not gonna cut it.

Insomnia is a black hole of suck. Good luck!

*hug*

[ellen_fremedon]

I'm sorry my comment came off as sarcastic; I should have read it over before hitting Post. I really did mean it at face value. And I am very, very sorry that you're going through the head-spinny paralysis thing. I know from long experience that it's no fun, and I can only imagine it must be even less pleasant if you're not used to dealing with it.

[kiezh]

I hope the meds help. I second what laurajv says about anxiety meds being useful to have around even when you don't take them - at least for me, it reduces the sense of being helpless against the bodily craziness, because as-needed meds are weapons in your arsenal, which you can choose to deploy or not.

Good luck!

oh and re: your latest post, which I just saw: your initial response to a med may not be the response you get once your body is used to it. I have sometimes gotten more dramatic reactions at first, and then much less intense effects from even the second or third dose. So maybe it won't throw you for as much of a loop in future? It's hard to predict, though, individual biochemistry being the crapshoot that it is. :/

Hope you sleep well. (Are sleeping well? Will have slept well, when you see this? Something.)