Posting on Insomnia Forum22

Posted by Anne (2) on March 05, 2004 at 08:42:34:

In Reply to: Message for Anne (2) posted by the crusader on March 04, 2004 at 14:31:24:

Hi. I have not had the length of insomnia that you have by any means. I really feel for your situation. For me, it has been about 4 years. I had no trouble sleeping at all prior to my insomnia started. I actually remember watching that movie "the haunting" I think it was called with Catherine Zeta Jones in it and thinking how blessed I was to not have insomnia. My insomnia started when my youngest child was born. She was colicky and had bad insomnia issues herself. She wouldn't sleep 4 hours straight until she was almost 2 years old. I ended up taking her to the Children's Hospital here in Boston to see Dr. Ferber (national sleep expert). My insomnia started due to all those nights being up and getting stressed out of when my child would wake again. She also had asthma that made things furthur complicated and was hospitalized once. Anyways, for the first 2 years I only slept 2 hours max a night. I finally went and saw a dr. myself, or actually several. I needed sleep badly. I didn't understand how my body forgot how to sleep, as I said, I never had problems before. Sleep was always my means of dealing with issues. If I was stressed I would just sleep it off. Anyhow, I have been through maybe 4 psychiatrists/psychologists and some sleep specialists that may have been those as well. My daughter is seeing someone still for sleep issues as well. My dr. (primary) first put me on Paxil, of which I gained weight rapidly and freaked out. I have history of eating disorder in past. She then put me on Celexa. Sleeping got mildly better, but still major issue. I was having migraines and feeling faint a bit, ended up seeing a neurologist. He suggested Elavil. THis helped furthur, but difficulty getting rid of weight gain from paxil. The neur. said I was having issues with Blood pressure dropping etc.My bp tends to run really low to start with. Since this time I have also been prescribed trazadone (got very ill on and over prescribed once), buspar (never taken yet) and have tried over the counter meds. It is hard to sum up my history, but am giving it a shot. I am not sure what is helping now. I think it is forcing myself to be active, my daughter's sleeping more (she doesn't wake once asleep for the most part and I am more relaxed about how quickly I need to fall asleep), medication (now taking celexa in a.m., diphenhydramine in pm and elavil if sleep gets worse) and knowing that I have a supportive family. I am home with my kids. I watch a little boy 2 days a week, which I never would have been able to do before. If I am tired, I stay here with them and don't drive. We play in and out in the fenced in yard. I also clean our church one day for a couple hours, but I can go any day I want before sunday comes, so can go on a good day. I think feeling helpful gives me less anxiety as well, which in turn helps. I also joined a gym. It was only 19.99 a month. i was spending that easy in prescriptions and appointments. Our insurance now has free mail scripts, so we thought it was worth me joining the gym and doing them that way. I try to go every other day and walk on treadmill etc. It is good by myself time with no kids or stresses. I find it helpful. I have tried going off medication altogether too, but my sleeping worsens. I don't know if it is because I think about it too much. Anyways, I don't know if this is making sense to follow. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. I have two preschoolers needing some attention here and there, so have been running in and out of computer. :) Anne

Follow Ups:

• Re: Message for Anne (2) Anne (2) 08:45 3/05/04 (1)
  • Re: Message for Anne (2) the crusader 15:22 3/05/04 (0)

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