Haven’t been able to sleep for over three months due to stress, dr wants me to try antidepressants but side effects of them say can cause insomnia …

[GingerKittenTail]

Tried zopiclone with mixed reviews
worked a couple of times and other times still haven’t slept while taking a zopiclone
then felt worse

not sure I’m depressed
I know I’m sleep deprived and struggling to function with it now

Surely it's worth a shot? And if it doesn't work you can stop taking them.

Yeah but they are apparently often to make you feel worse before they help you feel better and I’m so scared to take anything that will make me even worse

You could ask for one that has drowsiness as an initial side effect?

Why are you stressed?

What's your alternative op? At this stage I would say you've got nothing to lose by trying them. I've been on sertraline for a long time and it sorts me out fine. Yes there will be some side effects to begin with and you will probably find them annoying or unpleasant but you've got to look at the bigger picture here, you aren't coping and need to help.

Yea it’s sertaline the dr wants me to try

Think I’m going try some melatonin first

Can you do anything about the root cause of your stress? If you are able to take control even in a small way, you might find it helps a lot.

I think a lot of people on anti depressants aren't actually mentally ill, they are suffering from perfectly normal responses to shit situations. Does medication actually help with that? No.

Yeah another for addressing root cause. Do you want to tell us about the stress? (If you can & want to).

I’m on sertraline, it gives me insomnia for the first 2-3 days. I only take it half the month for PMDD and never have issues stopping and starting. I’d give a low dose a try.

Stress has been building work
where a fair few thjngs have gone wrong

I just need sleep

so so badly

Have you tried Phenergan? Zopiclone did v little for me but I found Phenergan to be more effective although it does leave you feeling dopey the next day.

But you do need to tackle the root causes and learn ways to manage stress - antidepressants can help to reduce the symptoms enough to give you headspace to make the therapeutic and lifestyle changes needed. It’s hard work, not going to pretend otherwise, but worth it.

It’s worth thinking about being signed off for a while if your circumstances allow. No job is worth ruining your mental health for. I know that’s very hard to do if you fear for your job as a result or if you don’t get decent sick pay, though.

OP stress hormones will always win against sleep hormones. That’s just how we are physiologically, it’s how our species have survived. Antidepressants are not going to solve the problem.

The best way to get sleep is to address the stress. You might not be able to deal with the stressors but you can deal with the stress.

There are a million ways to close the stress cycle. Anything that moves you physically till you’re out of breath does the job nicely. For me that’s sticking in some music and dancing and singing in my kitchen.

tried nytol and sominex which I think might be the same ingredient as phergan

but I’ll check

'The number of prescriptions for antidepressants in England has almost doubled in the past decade, new figures have shown.
Data from NHS Digital1 show that 70.9 million prescriptions for antidepressants were given out in 2018, compared with 36 million in 2008.'

This is from a BMJ website. I think humans have always taken drugs/ alcohol/ tobacco/ magic mushrooms/ other 'natural' things to affect your mood.
It's just changed over the years. Life is stressful. The population of the UK is approaching 70 million so that prescription figure shows an awful lot of people are on medication. I take from that that it works for a lot of people.

Sounds brutal OP and I’m sorry you’re feeling this way. I used to have a very stressful job (law) and I remember the lying awake at night well. I never took medication for it. I knew it was down to stress so I tried to manage it myself. One of the things I found really helped was exercise. I’m not talking about anything gentle either, you need to find something to physically exhaust your body and eventually your brain will accept it needs to sleep. I used to sprint 5k and basically sob at the end because it felt like I’d died or go sea swimming in November. It was brutal to start but it helped enormously. After you’ve got some sleep though you need to look at your work situation as it’s not a healthy way to live. Whether it’s a career change or just speaking to your boss about your work load there must be something that can be done to ease the stress you are feeling. Good luck, I hope you manage to get some sleep soon.

Sertraline does disrupt your sleep - it doesn’t seem like a great choice but then I’m not a doctor!

Phernagan and sominax are the same ingredients
and I’ve tired sominax

I’ve got got really dry sore eyes too
And sertaline is also know to cause dry eye

I'm on mirtazapine mainly because it's side effect is sleep. It's magic - anti anxiety and I sleep through.

My sleep had got so bad, regularly only a few hours and I was so exhausted and that in turn making my anxiety worse. I was a nervous wreak. I wasn't sure which came first - sleeplessness or anxiety (probably work related anxiety) but having often been quite anti drugs where I can (and often avoided antidepressants) this has been like magic. Since taking it I sleep through every night. No going to the loo at 2 and then not being able to sleep.

And my anxiety is much reduced so I can function better. Ideally work/finance would be sorted but that's a tricky hole I'm in.

It’s probably to do with dosage - I had the Phenergan prescribed and I found it more effective than Sominex or Nytol. But with any of these medications, they’re only short term solutions as they become less effective if used regularly.

I second mirtazapine. I'm not on it anymore but it was a godsend for a long time and I definitely slept well while I was on it.

Have you been offered or tried amitriptyline? I was given that when suffering from joint pain and fatigue and it absolutely knocked me out, to the point I had to stop taking it, but I know it works for a lot of people. Not sure you'd meet the criteria for it but the main motivating factor for my doctor in prescribing it to me was that she wanted to improve the quality of my sleep to see if it helped.