malamute100

By body in recovery have insomnia 6 months sober ?
Mine is awful , I'm on the 3rd week

silentrun

Yes. It was helped by cutting back on the coffee and getting a CPAP. Also for some reason the Celexa helps me sleep.

FeenixxRising

.

zjw

I ate sleeping pills for months and months after i got sober. But I got tired of that. then i quit coffee and such and started exercising thinking i'll just burn myself out and i'll be so tired my body will collapse that didnt really work either. here i am 4 years sober and I have not slept a full night in years. Now I have a wife and kids and i think maybe i just worry too much I dunno i wake up for no apparent reason at all and stare at the ceiling for hours on end each night.

Then i think maybe i'm getting old and require less sleep? but geeze 37 is a bit young for that and for the level of activity i do with running i should be sleeping 10 hours easily ! no such luck.

So i dunno nixing caffine helps and taking sleeping pills helps I just got tired of those i was short of breath after taking them and always groggy in the morning.

I wish i had better advice.

thisisme

Yes.
Exercise.
It gets better. It gets easier.

ZetaP38

I don't know if you have always had insomnia or if it is a side-effect of alcohol withdrawal (or even if it matters?)....

One of my excuses to drink was "to help me sleep". If a healthcare prof. asked if I drank, "Yes, occasionally, to help me sleep." Heh. Failed to mention that I started 'preparing for sleep' at noon.

It took a while of listening to others before I learned the basics of identifying the crux of the problem at hand. In the case of not sleeping, the problem was that I could 'out-run' the stuff trying to bubble-up from the depths of my mind during the day through activity. However, when my head hit the pillow, the horrible, long parade would begin.

Listening to others, I learned to be patient with my recovery process - to trust that solutions would come but 'line upon line'. Somehow this turned into a 'mind tool':

When a disturbing/regretful memory/situation would arise, I'd simply say to myself, "I don't know what you do with you yet, but I will. Please take a seat in the back of the bus."

It was different from trying to ignore them - I was willing to look , acknowledge their presence, and to see if I'd learned anything I could apply. If not, they took a seat. And it worked.

Over a short time and through an increasing willingness to follow suggestions of others, I stopped watching TV a couple hours before bed and would read 'good-talking books'. There were several but one author in particular 'calmed the churning seas' - Emmet Fox.

One of the oft-heard sayings was, "Feed Hope". Books that 'fed' this were both soothing and helpful with 'mind tools'.

One exceptional mind tool that I gleaned from Emmet Fox was concerning guilt/shame. That neither of these emotions were meant to be wallowed in. They were simply indicators of where problems lie - and not meant to be turned into prisons, as my internal brat had a tendency to do. Ego is a critter of extremes.

AA promised to 'return me to sanity' but within a couple of weeks, I began to see clearly that there were '2 of me' in my head. The one who wanted dearly to be sober - and the one who would try to convince me to drink. I came to see Ego as the blind, emotional, desperate 2-yr old in my mind that first had to be kept out of the driver's seat - and second to be lovingly disciplined into a new way of life. AAers suggested I not speak harshly to it, but lovingly - this went a long way to relieving the 'self hate' pattern. So incredibly interesting to watch, for sure.

I did bribe him from time to time when the pressure to drink was insistent. "I hear you, but I need to finish what I'm doing. If you stop bugging me, I promise I'll take you for ice cream later this evening." - Much to my amazement, he quieted - and I kept the promise. (This evolved from reading Living Sober, and when nothing in Living Sober worked, ice cream was a good side-step.)

Almost from the beginning, I caught the drift that AA was an adventure like no other. Occasionally, I'd play the classic song, "Journey to the Center of the Mind" by Amboy Dukes.

If you can discern the 'separation of voices' between yours and Ego's, it's a helpful thing, indeed. And that awareness also increases the chances of hearing the 3rd Voice, the "not me and not Ego voice" that occasionally lends a hand in times of trouble. Grace - even before the 5th Step.

I fell into the category of 'no relationships for one year' (and that was a withdrawal of a different sort that I'd had no clue was addiction). I don't know the answer, through experience, for folks in committed relationships. I just know it's important to limit worshipping at the altar of sex. Ego uses sex to offset fear, boredom, tension, and other emotions. Emotions are the onions needing peeling, not false solutions.

I've haven't been online and sharing in a while and it feels like that the tips and tools I found useful want to jump out in one post. So, I'll stop here with the line, "Take what you need (if anything) and leave the rest".

I wish you well and continued support for sobriety. Right Desire is very powerful.

Feed Hope,

PJ

"Whenever I'm disturbed, no matter what the cause, the problem is within me. Always."

"What I say is what I most need to hear/remember."

Soberwolf

Have you spoke to your Dr

malamute100

Yes he said not sleeping won't kill me and I should take some anti depressants .
Great help

I actully slept last night , maybe this insomnia cycle is coming to an end .

I do feel very anxious and panicky today tho

JeffreyAK

I took trazodone every night the first 4-6 weeks of sobriety, and it was a huge help early on - maybe a critical help - but after 4-6 weeks I stopped taking it because I didn't want to rely on drugs anymore. The next few nights were challenging, but after that I slept fine, better than I ever did when I was drinking. One trick I learned in outpatient treatment is, don't load up on proteins like meat at night - to sleep better, just eat carbs for dinner, pasta maybe. A big meaty meal will give you slow-burn energy for a long time, and that's not consistent with getting to sleep early.

alphaomega

There's a great supplement called CALM that is magnesium citrate that has helped me tremendously. You can get it at any supplement shop, whole foods or online. Our bodies are profoundly deficient in magnesium BC of soil depletion. And mag is responsible on helping over 200 functions in the body. It also helps with panic, anxiety and heart palps.

Hypocritical

Try some Valerian Root. You can get it from WalMart. Really, It works wonders.

silentrun

Your doctor has suggested anti depressants and you haven't tried them? Are you against them for any reason? I know some people are so I am just asking. It never occurred to me to take them but right around a year sober I was still having extreme bouts of anger. It is mostly tied to PMS. I would get so worked up I thought I might have a stroke or something. I went in and asked the doctor to help. He gave me Celexa and I felt normal again. I have been on and off them for the last year and a half and I do so much better when I stay on them. I was 46 the first time I ever took them. I plan to stay on them until menopause is over then go off for good.

Anxiety runs pretty high the first year. You seem like you have more of it then I even did. Consider trying them for a few months. They helped me calm down and sleep at night. That screwed up sleep can really mess with a person.

Dee74

Just curious...did you try the anti depressants?

D

malamute100

Yes I did try 2 different types of antidepressants
The first time my reaction was so bad I ended up in hospital , the second time it gave me tinnitus which I still have now .

I belive I have PAWs , the symptoms of it and the cycles are the only thing close to what I'm experiencing .

Now the problem with paws is most doctors don't know about it , also it mimics other conditions .
It mimics anxiety disorder , depression , panic disorder , health anxiety , bipola , chronic insomnia and a load of other stuff . During the cycles of this the doctors miss diagnose your condition . For example , doctor says its anxiety so here's some ssri for that , not believing the anxiety will proberly go away after a cycle before some other cycle begins .

Also with paws as the brain is rewiring if you hit it with loads of head meds it can mess things up more and then you have the withdrawal of the meds to deal with as well .

Now I'm no doctor of expert but I do know my own body , so this is what ive read about and this is what I belive .

I maybe compleatly on the wrong page with all this but ive had every test possible , blood work , head ct , mri etc and they are all fine .

Paws is what I believe and hope , if it's not that only God knows what's wrong with me

Dee74

Sorry I remember now.

If you're convinced it's PAWS, then I wish you well and hope the symptoms go away soon.

If not, you may need to revisit the idea it's something else.

Sometimes it takes a little time to find the right med.

D

malamute100

Thanks dee , and thanks for the reply , you guys are all helping me loads

ScottFromWI

I still say don't rule out anxiety. ( and if I remember correctly you haven't seen a therapist yet, correct ) ?

malamute100

Seeing one in a week

ttamelbon

Hey Malamute,

I'm with you. My symptoms continue, though they are getting better and better.

However, yesterday I had the telltale sign that a PAWS episode was coming because my stomach started doing flips and the nausea hit me hard. Last night my every sense was so keenly wired that it felt like electricity was running through me.

Today, I woke up so tired that I had two naps and couldn't get my head together. I was so sleepy and fatigued. I went with my wife and kids to an outdoor movie. I felt like I had to urinate, got up, felt lightheaded and dizzy. Felt like I barely made it to the washroom. Barely a tinkle. Almost got in a cab to go to the hospital because I was walking in circles debating my condition. Rejoined my family and had a ginger ale (soft drink). I immediately went from lethargic to keyed right up. I worried I might vibrate because my senses were so assaulted by the noise, lights, and people. It has since died down quite a bit with dinner and a quieter environment.

I was on top of the world for the past week: cycling my ass off, playing with my kids, walking and feeling great. Then it all crashed down all of a sudden. When it's happening, I think I have some terrible affliction. When it subsides, which it invariably does, I can clearly see it for what it is: PAWS and my body healing.

Others hear our symptoms and think it isn't PAWS or that we should take the antidepressants. I don't know about you, but I know that these bouts are not "me" and not something alcohol was masking. It is something alcohol caused. I know I don't need drugs, just time.

We drank a lot for years. It's been almost 11 months for me, and I know it's the booze because it's all getting better. I biked 100km this week, which is more than I've done in a short time in years. I'm getting stronger, more functional, more social, less anxious, etc. But an attack can bring me right back.

If you're not noticing improvements from your first week or month, maybe there is something to looking into medication. But if you're noticing improvements, even small ones, then maybe it's the booze and not your natural wiring.

Take care, and stay strong.

malamute100

Well wrote ,thank you .

Sorry to hear you had another episode .
So far ive left my drugs in a sealed packet in the bedside draw. I must admit ive had them in my hand looking and thinking for hours .
Ive come this far with out them , why now I ask .
Well now is a stage of paws at 6 months that has been hell , the last 6 weeks ive hardly slept , ive had a feeling of being plugged into n electrical socket , my head has had a lobsters claw pressure feeling , my ears have been ringing and head buzzing louder that I can mask out with outher sounds and it's almost broke me .

I hope and belive in paws so I will pray this will cycle will pass soon , it was only 8 weeks ago I had 3 weeks of pink cloud , it was amazing .

All my Drs say Anxiety Disorder !! I know that I have this but ts the paws that has gave me it .
Being worried for the next flare up etc .

Bike riding is good as is all activitys , I plan on making new goals this week and try not to let my symptoms win !

Good luck mate