Posted by 4WD on June 28, 2005, at 23:44:40
In reply to Starting to feel strong dread before sleep, posted by jerrympls on June 27, 2005, at 23:21:23
> I've had tough insomnia for a long time - but in this past year, it's been getting worse and worse. Now it's to the point where I start to feel very strong feelings of dread and loneliness in anticipation of going to bed. It's so strong that it's unbearable to sleep in my bedroom - so I've been sleeping on the couch. The TV kinda keeps me company. Many times I even keep my self up - even if I am sleepy until it's light outside - then I somehow go to sleep.
>
> I've been exploring this with my therapist for many months and I can't figure it out - except that I'm VERY lonely. I don't have any friends outside of work and I recently lost my job so I'll be MORE isolated as of next week.
>
> But this feeling of dread before bed is really eating away at me and I don't know how to calm it. I've tried many things - many non-med things and nothing works.
>
> Can anyone relate? Anyone found solace?
>
> Thanks
> Jerry
Jerry,I can relate so much to your post. I suffered from terrible insomnia for many, many years. I would spend hours waiting to fall asleep. I understand about dreading bedtime.
I can't offer any concrete suggestions. I know that my insomnia started young. I got addicted to Ativan trying to treat it myself. When I got off ATivan the insomnia was intolerable. It gradually got slightly better but when I went on Prozac the improvement stopped and gradually it got worse again. When I switched to Effexor it got much better. When I was on Cymbalta it went away completely. Now I'm on Celexa and I can still fall asleep fine but wake up too early.
The only thing non prescription that helped me fall asleep was to take a couple of benadry and drink a couple of beers. I'm not suggesting that as a remedy - it didn't work that well and caused problems of its own.
I just wanted you to know I sympathize and empathize. Do you take sleep meds at all?
marsha
poster:4WD
thread:520293
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050627/msgs/520897.html