Posted by Racer on October 12, 2000, at 1:53:39
In reply to Re: Link to insomnia from going through chronic pain? » m1man, posted by chdurie2 on October 11, 2000, at 22:20:19
Many sleep drugs are habit forming, and many can be addictive in very small amounts. Tolerance can be caused by a lot of factors, too. At the worst of my depression and anorexia, when I weighed about 110#, I could take 80mg of valium on rare occasions and still walk and talk as though normal.
My experience is that valium will relax me, but not put me to sleep. Xanax will put me to sleep, but after a short time, like two weeks, I go through such awful withdrawal that it's not worth taking.
The drug that works for me, which I take rarely, is an anti-histimine. It makes me groggy the next day, but it puts me right to sleep.
As for long term, have you tried behavior modification? That's worked great for me. I was a chronic insomniac, sleeping a couple of hours per night, after tossing and turning for hours and hours. It's hard to remember what happened or how I did it, but I know that part of it was only getting into bed to sleep. Any other time of the day, any time I wanted to stretch out and relax, I'd choose the sofa rather than the bed. Then, getting into bed, I'd read for a few minutes, to relax myself. Then, if I wasn't getting sleepy, I'd tell myself a pleasant story. In the midst of depression, that's damn hard to do -- but it's possible if you force yourself. Let's see, some I remember were giving riding lessons to the cast of the X-Files, teaching them the real way to ride, not just the sit here, hold this that actors usually get. Another was being swept off my feet at a dance by a tall, dark and gorgeous hunka man. (That one was particularly nice: he heard me discussing favorite slow dance songs with a group of friends, and had the dj play them all, so that he could dance to them with me. By the time they got to Miracles by the Jefferson Airplane, I was melting. Couldn't stay awake for the denoument!) Some of the stories got to be so familiar that I'd drift off before I got through to the end.
Oh, and the most important part of all this: I get that wild thinking, where you list compulsively all the things wrong with you, everything you've ever done wrong in your life, and how awful and worthless you are. That will keep you up, days on end! I had to learn to breathe, to stop the train of thought, and to force my mind onto another track. That was the hardest part for me.
Good luck, and may your pain stay far away.
poster:Racer
thread:993
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/1000.html