#medication for sleep disorder

[soysaucevictim]

It's a bit above pay grade (more emotional bandwidth than intellectual understanding).

But been talking abt the age old fandom scenario abt Virgil and anxiety medication. And how there's nuances there depending on which class of medication we're talking about.

Like - talk therapies and serotonergics like SSRIs are better for folks who have more constant/chronic anxiety. And the way they work tends to take months/years to fully become effective (because they're giving your brain some building blocks to make healthier bridges with, aiming to slowly tame your anxiety to becoming more appropriate and manageable).

Benzos are extremely fast acting and potent - and are best used extremely short term and on an as needed basis (i.e. someone w/ acrophobia NEEDING to get on a flight for some reason, kinda deal; tho ideally they should be working on other strategies over time to not need the benzos forever). They're very appropriate for acute episodes of anxiety/panic.

But one of the main risks they pose is addiction, because the withdrawal symptoms can render them completely copeless. And this ramble got me thinking abt an intense what if, "What if c!Thomas is experiencing benzo (or other substance filling that specific need, w/ similar drawbacks) withdrawal? What would Virgil and the others be like?"

[whitegoldtower]

Just wanna let my panic disorder and somnophobia folks know that it’s okay if you’re a grown ass adult and still need to hop in bed with your mum/dad/parent.

For me personally, I cannot sleep alone. Luckily I’ve found a way around it: weighted blanket, electric blanket, body pillow, background ambience of people, audiobook. This works for me, but it might not work for you.

Before I figured this out, I’m literally over 20 and my brother (6 years younger than me) would laugh at me because every night between 1 and 3AM I would run into my mother’s bedroom and get into bed with her because my panic attacks convince me that something is seriously medically wrong with me, that I’ll die painfully in the middle of the night or stop breathing in my sleep and that nobody will be around to help me.

He stopped laughing about it when he came into my room when I was already asleep (moments before a panic attack woke me up - he came in at 1AM roughly because he wanted his water bottle and I’d nicked it) and saw that I was thrashing around and making sounds of extreme distress.

The only way to calm me down would be to wake my mother up, get her to check my pulse/temperature, reassure me that my symptoms are just a panic attack and then have her hold me until I would fall asleep.

It’s a fucking nightmare and it’s embarrassing as hell, but you have to do whatever helps, and if that means being a grown man who still needs to be cuddled to sleep by his mother then so be it.

[akumaii]

Nightime Anxiety

Also called: Nocturnal Anxiety, Sleep Anxiety, and more

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Definition: Nighttime Anxiety, also known as Nocturnal Anxiety, is a type of anxiety that occurs during nighttime hours. It is characterized by feelings of fear, worry, and unease that may interfere with a person's ability to fall asleep or stay asleep.

(Please search this up for more symptoms and information !)

.・。.・゜★・.・☆・゜・。.

Requested by: no one

↩︎ request info

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(term coined: N/A) (flag made: 08/04/2023)

[semiotomatics]

lol. i think ive reached my limit.

[contentment-of-cats]

Sessions with the brain-fixer and solutions

So, my nightmares from medical trauma have not been fun. I know this is my brain's way of trying to process everything that's happened, but the sleep disturbance is hard to deal with. I'll have a run of good sleep, and then nightmares busting out of the cracks. My shrink tells me it's more common than anyone imagines. She's a good shrink, very to the point, and constantly tells me that the things I am going through - as much as they suck - are normal.

It's comforting not to be the only one.

The last round of nightmares edged into night terrors with a side of waking paralysis. Spiders, claustrophobia, missing cats, then in the dream I watched black tumors erupting from my body and knew I was dying. I couldn't use lucid dreaming, the terror was too overwhelming for thought, I just managed to wake myself up. I was awake for hours, even switching from bed to couch didn't send me back to sleep. I didn't want to take a Ramelteon (works on serotonin receptors and is non-addictive) or an Ativan (asked Onco to order me a couple for my MRI because of claustrophobia and now have a bottle of 120), so I was up from 2:00AM onwards.

Nightmares can't find me during the day. Naps are great. :)

So, she wants me to try neurofeedback - a kind of biofeedback. Biofeedback has always struck me as the wooiest woo, but I am old and now it's an evidence-based treatment. I'll give it a shot, but in the meantime my gabapentin dose gets a bump.

I can't believe that in these times, people want to censor talk about mortality, death, dying, and the process of disease, treatment, and so on. Skip the next paragraph if you're that extra.

I talked with her about The End. I said it was kind of comforting to have a general idea of what would kill me. I am okay with the concept of my mortality. It's not the end, but getting there that's the Big Scary. I've seen that part of the trip. I've prepared for it was much as possible, but in the end... well... we find out, don't we? Only 15 percent of people diagnosed with my type and stage of cancer come out the other end of chemo and radiation. Twenty people walk into a room and three will walk back out. I am deeply grateful to have had two-plus years of life when I wasn't sure that I would see my 56th birthday. It's been a lovely surprise.

[chipmunkweirdo]

Well, I have learned that the recommended dose of melatonin gummies only works for ONE night, maybe two.

After 3 nights of the recommended dose, I have developed a general lack of physical emotional responses, loss of interest in everything I enjoy, and I am drifting in and out of drowsiness like a zombie. It feels like I’m back on Zoloft like I was as a kid. NOT FUN!

Anyway, I didn’t take any last night and breathed a sigh of relief when my nightmares came back. Hopefully, the creative juices aren’t far behind.

CLOSING MY EYES AND THEN WAKING UP WITH NOTHING IN BETWEEN WAS SO SCARY!

Most people: Melatonin heightens my dreams and emotions!

Me: The rollercoaster is a flatline and night dreaming AND daydreaming are impossible.

I am going to let myself re-adjust and then only take it when I’m REALLY struggling to sleep, never for multiple days in a row. One gummy instead of two.

The pains of being AuDHD when literally every recommended dose is an overdose on you because of how your body reacts.

It’s probably going to take until Saturday to feel completely me again, but I hope I feel back to usual tomorrow.

[whitecatcrime]

guys. on top of the narcolepsy, i apparently now have mild rem-onset SLEEP APNEA. the universe was like, "you're (SOMEHOW) not sleepy enough already" and gave me TWO SLEEP DISORDERS. what kind of curse is this.

[blackcurrant-juice]

wondering why im so fucking sleepy for no reason then remembered I forgot to take my meds for 3 days

[waitineedaname]

wwx has bipolar disorder I know this in my heart

[nervousloveheart]

When your anxiety, social anxiety, depression, adhd, autism, past eating disorders, lack of sleep, INFJ straits, and forgetfulness towards taking medication come together and you're just like:

[doveshovel]

ahghdsfjhdsfa sorry guys i forgot i had an anxiety disorder and have been doing nothing to manage it for a week 👍will probably have more energy after i remember how to deal with this

[fauvester]

i think my coworkers and friends think its a little excessive that Im so militant about my sleep schedule but its hard to describe the extent to which the terrors fucking get me if my circadian rhythm is even a little fucked up

[learningfromlosing]

I want so badly for adults to understand me. Very deeply. I hope there's a day I walk into a new pharmacy and they look at me with my tattoos and my black lipstick and not see someone who abuses these medications I've taken since adolescence. I hope so deeply I do not need to convince any new doctor of my ailments. I crave so completely to have the whole world explained to me in diligent detail so I can understand.

I am 25 years old. And I do not see myself as an adult. I feel like a nervous child who, in tears, begs to be understood, and to understand. To have them see no malice in my mistakes.

I want everyone I come across to accept the olive branches I am carrying by the bundle.

I feel lost at sea. Starving, exhausted, sleep deprived, and in pain. Watching the boats turn their noses up at my decaying being, and pass me by.

[maddiemuu]

i've had such bad insomnia these last few weeks and honestly by this point i'm just embracing it lol. if im gonna be up til 3-4 AM i may as well get some work done or have some fun yk

[nagichi-boop]

How do you deal with doctors that are incompetent? /hj

I am pretty sure I’ve been dismissed from the care of the sleep specialists cuz my overnight study was normal and so I apparently don’t have a sleep disorder. From what I’ve read, the PSG can only rule out sleep apnea and restless legs, not narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia - you need an MSLT for that. But my doc also said that I can’t have narcolepsy because I don’t fall asleep suddenly or have a full body collapse when I laugh, and I can’t have IH because I don’t sleep 16-20.

So the summary of my advice? Improve sleep hygiene. While I appreciate that can help to a degree, I’m upset that I have basically been told that I can only get better if I live my life flawlessly - I should sleep 10pm to 8am, can’t be in bed unless I’m sleeping (so screw me if I’m in pain - also I don’t rly have anywhere to go when I’m not in bed that won’t also increase my pain significantly), do activities to stimulate my brain (except everything I do makes me more tired), exercise (I said that makes me more tired), should only nap between 1-2pm (I normally get a sleepiness wave around 3pm) and only for 30-45 mins.

There are parts of this I will try like the nap duration and maybe moving my sleep time backwards, but idk how I’m expected to do all of this, especially because this isn’t my only issue. And it ticks me off that I didn’t even get thorough testing and that my concerns about N and IH were dismissed because I am not the textbook stereotype. It felt like they gave up and just told me to sleep better and all my problems would go away. Idk, I plan to eventually go back to the GP because I get the feeling my tiredness won’t go away, but I don’t know what to do to not loop back to this same situation. Maybe ask for a neurological sleep specialist? Pretty sure the one I had was a respiratory sleep specialist, which is the only reason I can hold any degree of grace.

I know there is a chance I don’t have N or IH, but I don’t feel confident in moving on when I haven’t had the proper testing for it and my lead doctor also dismissed me because I don’t fit the textbook example of narcolepsy or IH (not to mention he spoke like N with cataplexy is the only type that exists).

[dirt-grub]

Yea I didn’t rly acknowledge it continuing off that post you need to be normal about people who do drugs recreationally as well as addicts especially if you’re a self proclaimed leftist