Insomnia is ruining my life

[tuffgingernut]

Sick of the battle to get through each day because I feel utterly exhausted.

Never been a great sleeper, even as a child but this came to a head after the birth of Dc3. Completely stopped sleeping had a huge breakdown and diagnosed with pnd.

3 years on I'm still struggling. I've just gone up to 20mg of citalopram from 10 as feel flat and anxious. I have had Zopiclone on prescription for 3 years. I'm only meant to take it once a week but always take it much more frequently.

I want to ditch the drugs and function normally but it feels like an impossible battle. Life overwhelms me.

Not sure what advice I'm after, any thing really. Plus I really needed to vent as I have no one in real life that I want to burden with this.

I was listening to this programme the other day and the new advice is now to ditch sleeping tablets and receive CBT instead.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b92wyn

Thanks. I'll watch that.

Ask go for antihistamine (not the non drowsy ones)
Don’t know if prescription ones are better
They worked for me, better than zopoclone

I feel your pain. This has been a regular issue for me for years and years. Its not been uncommon for me to go 2 nights without sleeping, or to only sleep every other night, and I just cant function. Its impossible to plan things if you dont know how you will be. Its disabling. Totally. I cant nap either. Ive used weed to help me sleep with some success but thats not something I want long term, and tbh, its not completely reliable either.
Recently i tried some of my childrens melatonin and it has worked quite well. Have you looked into it? If you cant get it prescribed, you can buy it online. I find 2 or 3mg an hour before bed makes me feel naturally tired and I sleep. Not brilliantly, but I do sleep. Its the best thing ive found so far.
If you go on ebay and look up melatonine with an e on the end then you come up with spanish and polish sellers, which is cheaper than if you put melatonin, which comes up with american sellers.
You can also buy it in chemists in all of mainland europe, although its prescription only in the UK but only licensed for children, so tbh, hardly worth even asking for

im also struggling at the moment
with me it seems to be seasonal, im taking diazepam and zopiclone and still only sleeping a total of 3.5 hours - i feel physically ill with it.

I’m on mirtazapine, an anti depressant, and that’s good for sleep. It kind of does the same thing as Zopliclone but without leaving a metallic taste in your mouth. SSRIs make my abysmal sleep even worse. Mirtazapine does lead to some people gaining weight though. I think it’s worth it for sleep anyway- I couldn’t drive without nodding off at the wheel before I was put on it.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look into these. I've tried Mirtazapine and I just couldn't function at all the next day, although it did help me sleep. As usual, it's 03.50 and I'm wide awake. Hope you're having more success than I am!

m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m4084.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xmelatonina.TRS0&_nkw=melatonina

Have you tried the over the counter antihistamine Promethizine? That worked for me when I struggled.

Thing is, some of these sleeping pills have a hangover too so are great for short term insomnia, but if your sleeping issues are long term, you need something that is gone by the morning

There are other sedating AD’s as well as mirtazapine. Dosulipin has worked excellently for me with no side effects (except amazing sleep) and it’s easy to taper down. I was on 100mg a night at one point and now only 25mg.