jo thorne, How wonderful that Remeron enabled you to change your sleep pattern so dramatically. I have been on Remeron, myself. It did promote sleep for me, but not any more so than did the amitriptyline. I went back to the amitriptyline because the Remeron caused me to have very vivid dreams. They weren't nightmares, but it felt like too much mental activity in my sleep.

Rohag, I've been thinking myself that the sleep issue might be appropriate to approach my doctors with. But I keep concluding that it would be futile. In the past, I was on Restoril for awhile. My primary care doctor said that he woukd not order hydrocodone (Vicodin) for me, if I was getting any controled substances from my psychiatrist. So I stopped getting scripts for Restoril and Ritalin. The pain med seemed far more important at the time. That worked out okay for quite a while. But now I'm falling apart. My doctors are all part of the same system, but they do not work together at all. My psychiatrist objected to stopping my Restoril suddenly, so my PCP suddenly stopped my pain med. Many months later, an orthopedic surgeon advised me to keep taking Indocin, which is a great pain med and reduced my need for Vicodin. My PCP refused to prescribe that for me. I now feel intimidated from discussing any problems with my PCP, and I have no idea how I could get transfered to another PCP, or if that would be wise to request. My doctor has a good reputation and I would be branded a problem patient. I'm afraid now of him yanking my script for Vicodin, if I mentioned any worsening of depression. As others in this sub-forum will understand, Vicodin helps me on more than pne front.

I'm about to be discharged from the pdoc's care because I am only on one psychotropic. It's a teaching facility, so I've been through 5 different pdocs in less than 5 years. The one I have now doesn't know me at all. Both my pdoc and my PCP are instructors in the medical college and keep very limited hours to see patients. It can take me over a week to get a message to either one of them. I got to where I didn't care because my depression doesn't seem to benefit much from medical treatment.

I know that sleep problems are probably what respond best to medication, but it just seems so thorny to try and get that addressed. I feel like I have nowhere to go to receive any understanding.

Today has been awful.