Posted by Houver on June 29, 2008 at 11:02:50:Hello,
I am Newbie and was very pleased to have found a forum such as this. I have read through many of the threads and many of them were as if I could have written them. I have joined of course because I too have been struggling on and off for a few years with occasions of poor sleep and when they re-occur (like recently), I look for answers.
I will try to make my story as brief as possible. Prior to about 3 years ago I was what I would consider a fairly normal sleeper. Never thought that I wouldn’t sleep without some real tangible reason.
Then, after years of what I would call physical and emotional neglect, unresolved issues and stress that I did not properly deal with, I went through a short traumatic period (about a month) where I thought I had something seriously wrong with me. Of course all tests proved otherwise but in that time I had worked myself into such a frenzy that one night I stopped sleeping. No sleep at all for 8 nights, freaking out. After the 8th night, I went to the doctor and of course he put me on meds. Imovane at first then eventually Klonopin. Each time, as the effects of both wore off, the dosage was raised. By the grace of God (in my opinion), I realized that it was not the way and tried to get myself off the benzos, which I only accomplished through the help of another forum. (Sidebar: My advise to anyone on them is to safely get off them as soon as you can. They eventually turn you and are hell on earth). It took me about 9 months to safely taper.
I have since changed my life significantly and I have come out the other end a better person in many ways but I also now have a friend called Insomnia to show for it that comes and visits me, often for longer than is appreciated.
One of the books (the best one for me) that I read to help me with the Insomnia was “Say Goodnight to Insomnia” by Jacobs. It describes a 6 week, natural program in overcoming Insomnia. Part of the program is keeping a journal over the 6 weeks to monitor progress with the various techniques that are slowly introduced. That was over a year ago and I still maintain the journal. I have been able to enjoy many successive nights of very good sleep (say 4 on a scale of 1-5) but often have relapses to a 1 or 0, often for nights on end. After those nights, the horror of the 8 straight nights of 3 years ago reappears and I struggle to maintain my composure. The truth is, I eventually do return back to a 3 or 4.
My question is this; Am I helping or hindering my long term healing by maintaining this journal? It has admittedly become a bit of an obsession with me. On one hand I think it may be harmful as the act of rating my sleep is a daily reminder of sleep problems that I can have, and on the other hand I think it can be helpful in that when I get into a run of bad sleep I can refer back and see similar situations in the past that I eventually pulled out of.
Your opinions would be most appreciated.
- Re: Long Term Healing sleepless scientist 11:11 6/29/08 (3)
- Re: Long Term Healing Houver 11:35 6/29/08 (1)
- Re: Long Term Healing Natural1 04:56 6/30/08 (0)
- Re: Long Term Healing Houver 11:32 6/29/08 (0)