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Re: sleep anxiety and meds

Posted by Abby N on August 25, 2001 at 10:13:00:

In Reply to: sleep anxiety and meds posted by Claudia on August 25, 2001 at 00:21:38:

Hi,

Your theory is plausible, but only based on my own anecdotal evidence. I've had bad insomnia episodes intermittently amid otherwise good sleep patterns. With each episode I became less tolerant of just dealing with it and used initially OTC sleep meds. The last episode was so horrible I went to the doc and tried Ambien (no good), flurazepam/Dalmane (yikes!), then finally went on a combo of Paxil and clonazepam (the latter I am successfully tapering off of). I still wonder that if I had never gone to meds at all if I would have just 'snapped out of it'.

As usual, HopeMaster offers considerable wisdom on the topic. You and your physician need to decide what approach is best for you. While I STRONGLY favored a non-pharmacological approach, the insomnia episode corresponded to a time when I felt I did not have the luxury of 'toughing it out' and my body and brain needed the sleep.

I am in therapy while tapering the clonazepam and working on cognitive methods for dealing with fear of not sleeping. The paxil, I believe, is also helping enormously. I don't know whether this approach will eventually 'cure' me but in the meantime I am sleeping well and making some progress on eliminating those self-destructive thought patterns. I also feel like I'm my old self again and full of energy.

Good luck to you; find a therapist and/or doc who will work with you on this.

A.N.

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