Insomnia extreme anxiety

Hello Everyone,

I have been active before on the Lyme Disease board but I have struggled all my life with Anxiety on and off, and I am in a really bad bout of it right now.

I always was anxious about my health even as a very young child and that is when my anxious tendencies began. However, summer of 2012, I just graduated college, was in a very minor car accident and out of NOWHERE I just couldn't sleep, and that triggered extreme anxiety for me. I began to worry that I would never be able to sleep again and I would die. I've struggled with so much health anxiety in-between these years as well. I've been on and off Citalopram, stopping sometimes for a year when I was pregnant, and other times because I would go back to feeling good again thinking I'm cured.

Well here I am again, it started 4/5 nights ago, I was going to sleep and felt a pain in my lung, now I haven't been able to hardly sleep since. I would toss and turn until 1am/2am and go take a half off a Zoplicone. Last night I decided no more pills and I didn't want to look at the clock but I am sure I didn't sleep until 3am.

I've tried everything, in terms of sleep hygiene and natural remedies. It is a vicious circle of extreme anxiety and It is also like I have ZERO control over the thoughts racing through my head. Some nights I don't even have physical anxiety symptoms its just my brain keeping me awake.

I am so scared. I have a Doctor's appointment on Thursday and I anticipate me going back on citalopram, I feel like a huge failure, I also feel so sick from lack of sleep.

Can anyone else relate to this about sleep?

Thanks.

evianangel:

I've had trouble sleeping for many years.

I did not want to get hooked on doctor sleeping pills, so I looked around in a book about other ways to get to sleep.

It mentioned one health food store suggestion, tryptophan, and I took that and it worked, but they took if off the market.

So, I went back to the health food store, and have tried another kind, Power to Sleep, but my psychiatrist didn't like it for she said it had not been tested enough (whereas doctor sleeping pills have, that's why they like to prescribe doctor medicines).

Well, I took Power to Sleep for some time more, and then about a month or two ago, my kidneys started to hurt. I thought of my doctor not liking Power to Sleep from the health food store, I thought about my kidneys hurting, and wondered if it could be caused by the Power to Sleep from the health food store.

So, I quit taking it, and my kidneys immediately stopped hurting. So my psychiatrist was right.

So, I switched to Melatonin "for occasional sleeplessness" it says on the bottle. I take 1 mg. at bedtime and it puts me to sleep. My psychiatrist has never objected to Melatonin.

I have heard of people on this forum and others saying, they take a sleep aid at say 12 midnight, and it puts them to sleep. Then at 3 a.m. or so, they keep waking back up and can't get back to sleep.

In such a case, if you decide, you might consider taking another one at 3 or 4 a.m., to see if that works.

You can look at other "I have trouble sleeping" entries on this forum, on this page perhaps and on previous pages, and read what they have to say.

Plus, you can go to the net and in the search engine type in "health food supplements for sleeping" and see what they have to say. Or, look up "Melatonin" on the search engine.

And/or ask your doctor.

These are all my opinions and experiences up to this point.

I forgot to mention something.

I said in my previous post on insomnia that I took 1 Melatonin a night for sleep.

I realize now, there are 2 things I forgot to mention:

1. I forgot to mention the milligram of the melatonin that I take. I take the 1 mg. size. There is a 3mg. size of Melatonin from the health food store, or over the net.

I would buy the 1 mg, because if the 3 mg. pill is too much, you have too much Melatonin.

2. I forgot to mention, I'm also taking two doctor pills for my bi-polar, and those pills help me to get to sleep, also. (I take Lithium, and an anti-depressant, Mirtazapine.)

So, if I only took one 1 mg. pill of Melatonin from the health food store, no way I'm going to sleep. I would have to take more.

We figure we can take 3, 1 mg. tablets of Melatonin, for they sell a 3 mg. size pill. But we don't know how much more, you can check on the net, and assume they know what they're talking about.

You can also check on the net to see what they say about taking Melatonin. Yu can also check with your doctor and druggist to see what they say about taking that with the pills you might be taking.

My psychiatrist doesn't mind me taking Melatonin.

Thanks for the info on the Melatonin mgs.

As for what was bothering me with taking the Power to Sleep for insomnia, my two kidneys started to hurt one day, and maybe continued for second and possibly a third day.

I rem. what my psy. said about not liking Power to Sleep, for she said it hadn't been tested enough.

Well, I quickly connected those two things, and I quit taking Power to Sleep immediately, and went back to Melatonin (health food store), 1 mg. at night (along with my Lithium and my anti-depressant, Mirtazapine, both of which also help me go to sleep.)

And the next day, my kidneys quit hurting and haven't hurt since, and it's now been two weeks since I've quit taking Power to Sleep.

So I connect the kidneys hurting, and my taking Power to Sleep, this time for 6 months I'll guess. And I've taken it for over a year prior to this time taking it, and I never had any trouble with it before this time a month ago.

However, tonight I'm leaning over getting something off the bottom rack of the fridge, and my right kidney only, is so sore I can barely lift the object.

So now I'm wondering if that is caused by the Melatonin.

Oh, my. It could be just a sore muscle. But I do pay attention to those things.