Re: Insomnia Help

[Guest guest]

Could someone tell me the best regimen for sleep?  Is there anything that I can take that would be ok?  It has been 20 years of taking pills and my eyes rolling back in my head and zonking out till morning so trying to get to sleep in a different way is difficult.  I have been on carbamezabine, which I will stay on till now, but have been using Ativan, Seroquel, and Lorazapm over the last 4 months for help with sleep.  I realize I have to ween these off.  Any suggestions for what can help, I would appreciate.

>>   **  Hi ,  I'm going to paste your 1st email below because it has more details.

    wrote:   <<Hello.  I was diagnosed 20 years ago with bipolar schizoaffective and have had 2 hospitalizations since that time.  I have been a really good patient and took my medication as told but in January of this year, I really started to question everything and have been working with a counselor to understand myself more and see that I am not bipolar for life but have had extremes in judgement and by consistently working with my higher self and connecting to that place of peace, the adrenalin rush I have been on would cease.  It has been a very interesting journey.  I have not reduced my mental health medication as I have had a lot of sleep problems this year - but I think most of that can be contributed to the continual questioning I have been doing and an overall state of confusion.>>

**  I'm going to take you at your word.  But by doing this I'm going to challenge your words and your actions which are not in accordance with each other.

   You say all the right things but then say you haven't reduced the " mental health medication " you're currently taking.  You state you've not done this because of difficulty sleeping and speculate that your difficulty sleeping could be related to your " continual questioning and an overall state of confusion " .  But when I read on I see that it is not just that you haven't begun reducing the drugs but in fact, have ADDED three drugs since January -- an anti-psychotic, an antidepressant, and a benzodiazepine on top of the " mood stabilizer (primarily an anticonvulsant) you were already taking.

   You said:

<< I have started on a homeopathic last week and I am keeping on the path that the answer is not outside myself but inside.>>

   ** You speak of an answer but I don't see the question.  Do you have a well-articulated question?  This is important.  An undeveloped question cannot be properly answered.

   You speak of being confused.  Here's the good news -- the majority of your confusion is from being drugged to the gills.  You are on FOUR major drugs.  There is absolutely no way for you to be on any path except one of self-destruction as long as you're taking these.  Get rid of the drugs and your thinking will clear.

  You said:

<<  It is a little scary to admit I am responsible for my life when for so many years I honestly believed I had no control over what I may do in life and at any time I could wind up in the hospital.  It really is crazy the things we tell ourselves so we can stay in our own mind's prison.  I have for many years only been on Carbamezapine, 800 mg per day but I added back in Seroquel, 100 mg, Trazodone, 50 mg, and Lorazepam .5 mg, PRN (Trazodone and Lorazepmam are new this year) when I started not being able to sleep. >>

  **  Have you considered you weren't able to sleep because of the drugs?  Consider this  -- perhaps you didn't begin reducing a drug and instead, added three because you were scared (as you said above) and this was your way of avoiding facing it.  You got to do the " talk " without doing the " walk " .  It was safer in your eyes.  Just let this sit in your mind for a while and examine it thoroughly but slowly.

  You said:

<< Every day I had this feeling I would be going to the hospital or something worse but I look at this now as that I am just not going 100 miles another and working on another project to save the world and prove my worth. >>

    ** If you weren't so drugged you would see that it is the drugs that are making you feel out of control.  That's the nature of these drugs.  They provide you with a chemical straitjacket.   Breggin, MD calls it " medication spellbinding " . Essentially, it means that people are spellbound by the drugs and attribute all mental " side effects " from the drugs to other things in their lives.  

  Each of the drugs that you take has an entire host of " side effects " and adverse effects.  

      Antidepressants (Trazadone) cause emotional anesthesia and numbing or sometimes euphoria, providing a fleeting, artificial relief from emotional suffering. 

    Neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs  (Seroquel) disrupt frontal lobe function, causing a chemical lobotomy with apathy and indifference, making emotionally distressed people more submissive and less able to feel. 

    Mood stabilizers (Carbamezapine) slow down overall brain function, dampening emotions and vitality.

    Benzodiazepines (Lorazepam) suppress overall brain function, sedating the individual, with temporary relief of tension or anxiety at the cost of reduced mental function.  

    You said:

  << Staying in this calm place feels good and I will start following the advice as far as supplements and eating changes in preparation for reducing other meds.  Thank you for all of the information - this is great.>>

   ** There's really not much you will successfully do until you address this issue of the drugs.  The sleep issue has now been made worse by adding all the drugs you've  added.  The sleep difficulties are part and parcel with the drugs.  What I can tell you is that it is temporary.  I suggest you stop  looking for a cure in pill form for every discomfort.  One of the hallmarks I've found about people who haven't yet fully embraced getting off psychotropic drugs is that they believe that we are never supposed to experience discomfort and if we are uncomfortable, we need to fix it with a pill.  

  When people are on more than three drugs they can often come off one or two of these drugs more rapidly than usual and not experience any drawbacks to doing this.  The key is to choose the right drugs to discontinue first.  I suggest making a decision about when you'd like to begin decreasing the drugs. When you've done that, you'll then need a plan.  But for now, this is enough for you to mull over.

Regards,