[qubex]

I’d been on Ambien (Stilnox locally) uninterruptedly from 2002 until a few months ago, April 2018. My main aim was to just shut down after days of work at a family business job that I loathed and most of my side-effects were binge eating and little else (to the point that I always ensured my home was entirely devoid of food). I was capable of taking ten, 12 doses a night.

In April I quit cold turkey and sought psychiatric help. I also had major depression going. Fifteen days of rehab on Italy’s national health service served wonders. I still have trouble falling asleep, but fuck it.

It turns out I have a genetic mutation that makes me fairly immune to withdrawal effects from benzodiazepines and pseudonenzodiazepines such as zolpidem but seriously people don’t go down this route.

[tw04]

Out of curiosity, have to tried vigorous exercise? Any time I've had issues sleeping in the past, as soon as I got into a workout regiment, it got me right back to a normal sleep schedule.

[thanatropism]

The correct "out of curiosity" would be "what were you taking it for".

The rhetoric about exercise is sound and great advice for 80% of people. But it's annoying for people with mental health issues (particularly those that have (a) objectively valid ICD-10/DSM-5 diagnoses and (b) live a normal life with medications) to be told to walk it off.

It's almost like advising cancer patients to eat some fruit once in a while. (A sudden switch to eating a wide variety of fruits truly seems to have improved my immunity, but I'm not on chemo...)

[krageon]

People with mental health issues like those described don't need to hear about exercise, but not for the reasons you mention. They (should) already hear it from their doctors every visit (and they will have a professional they visit regularly to monitor their health situation, the drugs in question are very bad for you).

[gonehome]

Not OP, but for me while working out helps being unable to sleep is tightly coupled with anxiety and my mind spinning on something. For some people the anxiety is directly related to being worried about being unable to fall asleep.

One thing that helped was to recognize that it's okay if you don't fall asleep - taking the pressure off made it less stressful. Another thing was recognizing I've never failed to eventually fall asleep.

Sleep is a weird thing though - and the lack of conscious continuity, I think people would be more afraid of it if it wasn't something we were already used to.

[jfoutz]

Me personally, I used to spend a lot of sleepless nights stressing out over something or another. Now I give myself an hour. I get up and work on the problem. I’m miserable the next day. But often my brain decides it wants sleep more than laying in bed worrying.

I’d recommend it to anyone, but for sure talk to a doctor.

[sizzle]

Have you tried meditation and mindfulness? Curious if clearing your mind and relaxation techniques would allow you to combat the anxiety of being worried of not falling asleep? If not, why haven't you tried it?

[gonehome]

I found CBT to be most helpful for me, I did try the mindfulness meditation but think I didn't do it consistently enough to get a lot of value out of it.

[rexpop]

What are you worried about?

[atdt]

I do 45 minutes of intense cardio at the gym four or five days a week. It doesn't work for me. Which is to say, it does all sorts of wonderful things to my general sense of well-being, but does not cure my insomnia.

[sizzle]

Have you tried meditation and mindfulness? Curious if clearing your mind and relaxation techniques would allow you to combat the anxiety of being worried of not falling asleep? If not, why haven't you tried it?

[MisterOctober]

Yeah, the stuff is not fun -- I was prescribed it about a decade ago to deal with neuralgia-related sleep disturbance -- took it once, felt like I was being dragged under water by some unseen hand and couldn't come up -- the fear set in -- discarded remainder + never took again.

[gnulinux]

When I had a bad experience with Ambien (check my comment above) I thought what a fitting great name Ambien is. It totally recks your understanding of surrounding. I can't forget that when I went under my bed sheets it felt like I was in a different house. A very subtle but scary feeling. Like sleep paralysis except it's much more visual and confusing.

[MrEldritch]

I've heard the slightly terrifying proposal that Ambien actually doesn't help you sleep at all, it just gives you sleep paralysis and fucks you up enough that you're unable to remember having spent the entire night awake and delirious.

[gnulinux]

As crazy as it sounds, I believe this; but seems like a very hard-to-prove hypothesis.

[bxtt]

This is true. Ambien doesn't help you sleep.

I'm ambien right now. I was clean for 1 1/2 month but i cant anymore.

[sp3000]

Do you happen to know the genetic mutation? I've gotten a 23andMe and Promethease report so wondering if I could check.