I’m terribly sick and tired

Posted , 5 users are following.

I’m terribly sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time, day and night. What kind of inhuman illness sleep disorder is? It robs and denies the most rudimentary human needs and basic condition for continuation of life, which is to rest up and restore one’s strength to carry on one’s life in a normal way on a daily basis. I’ve been suffering sleep disorder and sleep deprivation for more than ten years, and I don’t have a cure. It really is the terrorist of all illnesses. Monday to Friday are my worst days since I get the least amount of sleep. Weekends are slightly better since I get a little bit more broken sleep, but they’re equally horrible, my bad days.

I heard that sleep deprivation is used as a tactic for torturing people. I now know how it must have felt for the poor victims. It is most cruel and most evil. I was woken up SIX times last night during sleep, and I got this frequent ear pops and eye pain when I was awake. I was in and out and in and out of sleep. I was already exhausted before I went to bed. It made it even worst after the night. I am no longer a young guy that I was. This sleep disorder illness has put a serious toll on my health and being. It takes the humanity right out of me and my life. I’m having a terrible headache while writing this.

What should I do? How could I get better? This suffering is too much and too long. Can anyone help? May God have mercy on my poor soul and body for I’m frail ..........

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Posted

    I'm really sorry for how're you feeling.. I had something similar too once, I could not for the life of me sleep. And after a week - it passed over.

    Anyways, what I suggest you do is visit a doctor, and ask him to give you a perscription for sleeping pills. If those don't work.

    I suggest you buy a bottle of vodka, and have a drink before sleep.

  • Posted

    Please don't ask your Dr. for sleeping pills. Most are highly addictive and being a Klonopin withdrawal survivor I can honestly say the the withdrawals from benzo's are so horrendous you'll wish you were dead. Many drugs fall into this category too, anti-anxiety and sleeping pills. I would hate to see you compound your already ongoing problem of sleeping. Severe insomnia is top on the list if your withdrawing from them or in Tolerance Withdrawal while still taking your medicine as prescribed.

    And for god sake, please don't begin to rely on alcohol to help you sleep. It does not promote good sleeping. I hope you are able to find the source of your insomnia. I used to take Ambien and that was pure hell to get off of. At the time I had no idea it was part of the Benzodiazepine family. And no Dr. ever told me the difficulties getting off them. But the withdrawals from my Klonopin was the absolute worst, they don't let you sleep for days and days and days. I actually asked my sister how long my brain could go without sleep before becoming psychotic.

    I hope you are doing better.

  • Posted

    My thoughts go out to all of you who are suffering from insomnia and would just like to offer my story as an insomniac once admitted to hospital back in 1968 with serious exhaustion due to a stressful job.I was put on Nitrazepam (the cure for everything in the 60's) and have been on them ever since. Sadly I have developed a tolerance to them and have to increase my dose. I just want to say if I could go back in time I would have demanded help to get off them particularly as I left the stressful job but still could not sleep without the drug. I know the doctors will offer sleeping pills for insomnia but only for a few weeks until the sleep pattern returns. Too late for me but hope that maybe this might resolve your problems.

    Best wishes to all.

    Sapphire

  • Posted

    Do you take any drugs to help you temporarily overcome your poor sleep? Or have you done so in the past? My experience is that sleep deprivation can become a real snowball, affecting your entire life and only making things worse. You need to somehow break that loop. For me, I'm afraid of getting any addiction, so I decided I had to establish new routines so I could start living my life again. The http://www.sleepio.com/referrer/patientcouk course has helped me build this new life. I still have my difficult periods, but all in all I feel like I've got more control again.
  • Posted

    I would also have to support the comments from the other posters who advise not asking for sleeping pills (including anti-depressants) unless you have tried every other option you can think of. I have been on Elavil for over 10 years now and have just come off it in the two weeks. I came off it as it is linked to causing swelling in the nasal passage and one of the reasons I may have bad sleep is a very blocked nose. I have had an unpleasant time coming off it and have tried many times over the years. The problem is that I ended up not sleeping and having to go back on them in order to get back to my previous bad pattern. I am now determined to come off them and have put up with staring wide awake eyes at night due to rebound insomnia and withdrawal. Additionally I am also on steroid anti-inflammatory medication for the blocked nose to try to get more sleep. The list of side effects includes in the prednisolone leaflet includes death due to withdrawal - hopefully at a higher dosage than I am on! These anti-inflammatories also cause insomnia. The doctor never told me about that and I am unhappy with their services to put it mildly.

    You have probably tried most things and there are limited solutions that can be tried. If you think the problem is psychological rather than physical then cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may be useful. Scientific studies I have read claim between 50%-80% success rates. If you can't afford a professional therapist then you could try http://www.sleepio.com/referrer/patientcouk which costs about £50. If that is too expensive then you can try books that provide similar programs. You may need to go through a few of them until you find one that you like - some are real evangelical dross! You may also be able to ask your doctor for a referral to CBT.

    I also use a tracker to see what effects my sleep. I use the one at trackitude.com but there are mobile applications as well. If nothing else then the data can be used to show your doctor how bad your problem is.

    I am reading as much as I can on the topic in order to get an understanding of the current state of scientific knowledge on insomnia. I think that self education is the best chance of success. A study into American universities found that doctors in the 90's would only get 2 hours of sleep training in their entire course! That means doctors over 40 who have not specifically cross trained are not knowledgeable in these issues.

    If you think your problem is physical such as nasal blockage then talk to your GP. Sleep issues can also be a consequence of poor thyroid activity so maybe try to get a full physical to see if anything is amiss. I think you can also get your GP to do a melatonin test to ensure that your pineal gland is producing. Normal amounts for a healthy adult male are between 5-25 micrograms.Personally I am not a fan of commercial melatonin (typically 1mg or higher) as the dosages are up to 200 times higher and that is linked to pushing sleep-onset time later the next night - read up on chronotherapy and melatonin for more info.

    I hope you manage to get to a less rocky patch in time but unfortunately I think that many people on the forums (including me!) are looking for answers that as a society we don't necessarily have. You are best to look for your own cure - I am sorry to say that I have found GP's to be lamentable in dealing with my issues.

    Emis Moderator comment: I have removed the link to the competitive site. Patient does a Sleep Diary app - see https://patient.info/mobile

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