Posted by sotired on June 25, 2008 at 18:43:01:Hi everyone, I have been reading this forum off and on for several years and many of the posts have been extremely helpful to me. It is very comforting to know that I'm not alone in dealing with this horrible problem.
One of the thoughts that I have had lately about insomnia is that for a lot of people, including me, it seems to be mostly anxiety-driven. For me, it is like a part of my mind is stuck in the "on" position and it makes it very difficult to fall asleep. I have been working very hard over the years to relax and "re-wire" the negative thought processes that keep me awake (i.e. "I can't sleep", "I'll never sleep tonight", "I'll never sleep normally again"). I have gotten frustrated many, many times and "given up", thinking that I'll be on meds for the rest of my life. But part of me has stuck with it and slowly, very slowly, I've been able to change the negative thoughts. I now sleep well almost every night. I still use meds once in a while to get over difficult times, but I have confidence now that eventually I will sleep normally again.
The turning point for me came when I recognized that changing the negative thoughts takes a lot of time. It takes months, even years, of sustained effort. But eventually it does pay off. Once I accepted that it is really hard to do, things seemed a little easier. At first I was expecting instant results (maybe this relaxation excercise will work... maybe this tape will work...). When my insomnia first started it took about a month for it to progress from mild sleeplessness to full-blown anxiety, with days and days of very little sleep. That was about 4 years ago and I'm still dealing with the problem. It is hard to believe that something that developed so fast can be so difficult to resolve. But that is the unfortunate reality.
Another thing that helped was that I found a very good hypnotherapist (just like anything there are good ones and bad ones out there, but you'll know a good one when you find them). I saw some results almost immediately, but took me about a year of twice-monthly sessions to see a real change. She helped me look at the root causes of my anxiety and resolve some of the issues. But the take home message is - it took a long, long time.
So for all of you out there who are getting frustrated and feeling like giving up, please note, there is hope. Sometimes things just take a really, really long time to get resolved.
- Re: some thoughts about insomnia moonatic 18:36 6/26/08 (1)
- Re: some thoughts about insomnia Alice 20:07 6/26/08 (0)