Posted by fachad on March 17, 2002, at 18:06:25
In reply to What type of sleeping difficulty? » fachad, posted by Hal on March 17, 2002, at 17:06:49
When I started Prozac last May, I immediately developed a severe problem with frequent early awakenings and poor quality sleep. I thought it would go away, and the depression was lifting, so I stayed on Prozac.
My pdoc gave me Ambien (he was extremely anti-benzo) and it really helped with rapid sleep onset, but I still had early morning awakenings.
Since my pdoc at the time was extremely anti-benzo, it was Ambien or nothing. So I took Ambien.
That pdoc closed his practice and now I have a new pdoc. He is not anti-benzo, and when I told him that Ambien was costing me a fortune and was not helping with my frequent / early awakening, he gave me temazepam.
Now it turns out that I did not used to have a problem initiating sleep, only a problem staying asleep, but after 7 months of regular Ambien usage, I cannot fall to sleep easily without it. And I still wake up early! Doooooo!
Just quit Prozac, you say? Well I tried and I got severe discontinuation symptoms. I know you are not supposed to with Prozac, long half-life and active metabolites, etc, but if I miss a dose I get a sore throat and feel flu-ish all day. By the second day I am miserable. Even though I did not expect discontinuation symptoms, I got them; and my direct experience is real to me regardless of what the textbooks describe.
I have managed to taper Prozac very gradually from 20mg/day to 5 mg/day over the last 6 months. I'm hoping that when I stop taking Prozac, my sleep will find it's way back to normal.
In the meantime, I need to sleep so I can function, but I don't want to create another problem like I did (inadvertently) by taking Ambien.
BTW, I did not develop any tolerance to Ambien, even though I took it EVERY night, without fail for 7 months. I don't have any "moralistic" problems taking benzos indefinitely if they keep working. I'm really just wondering if tolerance develops: Always, or Usually, or Sometimes, or if there's a decent shot that they'll keep working for sleep.
What say the PSBers?
> Hey,
>
> I am sorry if I missed this in your post, but what is the cause of your insomnia (medications, unresolved depression, primary insomnia, etc)? Do you have difficulties falling asleep, early awakenings or during the entire night?
>
> Hal
poster:fachad
thread:98391
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/98495.html