Insomnia Forum Posting

Posted by Lynne on March 15, 2001 at 05:11:50:

In Reply to: Hope - you have anal personality posted by B.C. on March 14, 2001 at 10:58:11:

To all you critics of Hope,

I would just like to say that I am 100% on Hope's side. She has said some very useful and thought-provoking things in this Forum. I think it's great if people inform others what worked for them and what makes them feel better, because it could always help somebody else, if not everyone.

There is a lot to be said for 'personal experience' as against 'scientific evidence'. It's the scientists who get us into all this trouble in the first place, getting us hooked on tranquillisers, anti-depressants, etc., creating all sorts of new diseases thanks to the chemical poisons they inundate us with. I agree with Hope that a lot of our problems are probably caused by toxins (see my earlier post on mercury/amalgam). A lot of chemical toxins which people are completely unaware of can affect the nervous system. So what appears to be 'psychological' and is often judged as such, in my view is simply some form of poisoning. I know nothing about colonics, so I have no comment to make on that, but people are perfectly entitled to talk about what worked for them.

My 'personal experience' is that for the past 15 years I have had to take drugs of various kinds for insomnia, starting with benzodiazepines and ending with antidepressants. I say 'had to' because if I didn't take them I simply could not sleep at all and this could go on for months at a time (sleeping about 6-8 hours per week, minimum to stay alive I imagine). I have suffered like hell, like a lot of you reading this.
For a few years I managed to more or less stablilise with trazodone. But every time I tried to reduce the pills to try to quit altogether, I just stopped sleeping again and could not stand it, so had to increase the dosage again.
Then all of a sudden in September I stopped sleeping again altogether - the trazodone simply stopped working. For six months I went through hell, hardly sleeping at all and passing sleepless night after sleepless night. I was eventually put on Remeron, which did not work for me at all and only made me feel extremely groggy. After seeing dozens of doctors and getting no help whatsoever (on the contrary, getting treated either indifferently or downright rudely), I finally decided that was it.

I bravely threw away my pills and said: 'No more'. I thought to myself, if my body doesn't want me to sleep, then so be it. I will resist, I will go on and on without taking pills and eventually I should be able to sleep (I wasn't sleeping with the pills, anyway). So I just did it, cold turkey. It was the best thing I'd ever done. Although I continued not sleeping, I felt so much better, more alert and more positive and, somehow, stronger. The insomnia continued for almost three weeks, but amazingly enough, I felt psychologically stronger and managed to stay optimistic. Meanwhile I was taking Kava Kava and some special non-pharmaceutical drops given to me by a 'healer'. Now, the incredible has happened. For the past three nights I have slept - not a huge amount, but enough. I feel so good and so happy. I know it's a bit soon to say that I'm 'cured', but I feel sure that the antidepressants I had been taking were ruining my brain and now I know that whatever happens, even if I spend two or three or more sleepless nights in a row, I will survive.
Basically, I feel that as I was never depressed in the first place (just very miserable because of the insomnia), the antidepressants did me no good whatsoever and, on the contrary, made me feel more depressed and weaker. This could be true for some of you, too.

So, if you feel brave enough, go for it. Believe me, before I threw away the pills I had really reached the depths of desperation, so I know what I'm talking about. You can do it. Your body will eventually get rid of those awful toxins and will re-balance itself.

By the way, for all you women out there, check your iron levels, because I had low iron levels, although I was not anaemic and apparently this is enought to make you weaker and less able to withstand the rigours of insomnia. I started taking iron pills at the same time I threw away the meds, so this might have something to do with my renewed strength.

Good luck to you all and keep up the good work, Hope!

Follow Ups:

---

Copyright ©1995-2005 Sleepnet.com., All rights reserved