Posted by ksc on July 11, 2001, at 8:34:36
In reply to I did it--finally!, posted by dshort on July 10, 2001, at 20:37:40
OK… here it is… For all of you who are having those crazy dreams and can’t sleep through the night…..BENEDRYLL… yup that’s right the over the counter allergy medication also works as a sleep aid with no side affects. For 9 months while on the Effexor, I have gone without a real night’s sleep. I teetered between awake and REM (dream state) all night long, never reaching the deep NREM stage of sleep that the body needs to rejuvenate itself. My sleep was so restless, that I often couldn’t tell if I were awake or asleep. My racing mind would take me into a dream and go non-stop until I woke out of it, remembering the entire thing. One night I actually counted how many times I woke up throughout the night…I counted 11 times in an 8-hour stretch, that’s more than once per hour, and that was a common night for me.
You can only imagine what a toll this lack of sleep takes on a person’s body. For me it produced symptoms of Fibromyalgia (extreme fatigue, muscle pain and weakness). It also caused lack of memory and concentration, dizziness, nausea and inability to focus.
My doctor recommended the Benedryll because I didn’t want any more heavy drugs or side affects (sick and tired of them… literally). I tried the Benedyrll for the first time last night and low and behold I got my first real night of sleep in almost a year. My legs were a little bit jumpy at first, but it soon went away and I slept like a baby.
I’ve been off the Effexor XR for a week and a half now (112.5mg), with side affects going strong. I think the side affects would probably last for months if I couldn’t find some way to rest my body. Although it’s probably going to take a few weeks of restful sleep for my body to catch up and rejuvenate, I finally feel like there is an end in sight to my misery.
poster:ksc
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010708/msgs/69709.html