[ComfortablyNumb5]

I was on seroquel mostly for the fact that it put me to sleep. I've had extreme insomnia since I was a teen. But after needing 300mgs, it totally messed my head up. I was moody and just straight up rude. So I went back to my beloved risperdal. Despite others experience, risperdal does not put me to sleep. I have an insanely high tolerance when it comes to psych meds so even if two Ativan put me to bed one night, it won't the next so in screwed there. Same effect with OTC sleep meds. Works one night and not the next and I have to double the dose. I was thinking of something along the lines of ambien? I have tried ambien once and stayed up tripping my ***** off seeing lines dance across my walls. I am up to trying it again though. More so something along those lines. Need suggestions! Thanks in advance

Dx: BP2, PTSD, bulimia/anorexia
Risperdal 4mg
Trileptal 300mgs
Buspar 45mgs
Ativan 1mg PRN
Vyvance 70mgs PRN

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Have you been on trazodone? The last time I was IP I was there with a lot of people who were depressed and not sleeping and a bunch of them were thrilled with trazodone. I took it many years ago before I was diagnosed and it did help me sleep. I had trouble finding a dose that didn't sedate me too much but honestly I had a pdoc who wasn't balancing my meds very well at the time and I think that was the real issue.

Remeron is also good. It is less sedating the higher the dose and it has some weight gain but that is more at lower doses too. I found 60 mg was really good for me; I slept well (for me) and wasn't hungover and didn't gain weight.

Ambien, lunesta, sonata, etc have all never worked for me for more than a short period of time. I am very weird in how I process meds so that's not true for everyone but I don't like sleeping pills. At this point if I am not sleeping I get valium but that was after everything else doesn't work or can't be taken with my MAOI.

[ComfortablyNumb5]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

Have you been on trazodone? The last time I was IP I was there with a lot of people who were depressed and not sleeping and a bunch of them were thrilled with trazodone. I took it many years ago before I was diagnosed and it did help me sleep. I had trouble finding a dose that didn't sedate me too much but honestly I had a pdoc who wasn't balancing my meds very well at the time and I think that was the real issue.

Remeron is also good. It is less sedating the higher the dose and it has some weight gain but that is more at lower doses too. I found 60 mg was really good for me; I slept well (for me) and wasn't hungover and didn't gain weight.

Ambien, lunesta, sonata, etc have all never worked for me for more than a short period of time. I am very weird in how I process meds so that's not true for everyone but I don't like sleeping pills. At this point if I am not sleeping I get valium but that was after everything else doesn't work or can't be taken with my MAOI.

I have tried trazadone in the past with no luck. I'm willing to give it another try though. But isn't it a AD? Most ADs make me manic

Dx: BP2, PTSD, bulimia/anorexia
Risperdal 4mg
Trileptal 300mgs
Buspar 45mgs
Ativan 1mg PRN
Vyvance 70mgs PRN

[*Laurie*]

A lot of people are helped by Trazodone. It has a really bad effect on me and doesn't help me sleep.

Seroquel is extremely physically addictive. You can find threads on PC about those of us who have tried to come off Seroquel only to find we could not sleep.

You might need to take a low dose of Seroquel and come off it very gradually.

Good luck...I feel for you, RXQueen.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

It is an AD technically but it is a very weak one. It's never used as an AD (ok, rarely since someone probably has used it that way) because to get the AD effect the dose has to be so high that you are completely knocked out. (This according to my pdoc 17 years ago who was completely befuddled by my lack of sleep (he missed the bipolar completely although I could still hide it back then) so possibly take with a grain of salt although I've heard it elsewhere too. I think there are other tricyclics like that. I can't be on other ADs because of interactions with my MAOI but IP they once put me on a tiny dose of Sinequan for sleep. It didn't help and my own pdoc came in for weekend call and immediately got rid of it because ADs destabilize me so easily but the hospital dr. was pretty positive that at a low dose it would just help me sleep. I think he was covering for my real hospital dr and just wanted to give me something that might help before my real dr started me on a treatment plan.

I'm trying to think what else I've used since my sleep issues are pretty serious and I've tried everything we've come up with. The valium is the best but has issues like being a benzo (the 2nd I take) and it doesn't work unless I'm tired so it often means taking a half dose of it, waiting a while until I start to settle a bit and taking the rest, which is a pain. Then it tends to make me sleepy the next day although not terribly badly compared to other things.

You were on Rispderdal and had to quit right? Could you maybe try a low dose of it just for sleep to see if the side effects weren't there at that dose? I can't remember how sedating it was. I'm thinking not very since I liked it when I was working but couldn't take it b/c it makes my blood pressure shoot up to 200/100 and a stroke seems like a bad idea.

Seroquel helped for several years but not much the last several despite being on a boatload of it. Depakote was pretty sedating and allegedly isn't bad for weight at low doses (I was always on high doses and did gain weight but like Seroquel I was on seriously high doses). The XR form is best for not gaining weight.

Like I said I only get a few days out of sleeping pills. I am allergic to rozeram and didn't get to try it long enough to know if it was different. Trileptal kicked my butt with fatigue; I had to cut the tablet into 32nds to be able to get up for work and never was able to go up from that dose so was only on it a couple weeks. If trileptal is sedating tegretol probably is too. I thought of another one and lost it; I hate my brain sometimes. Um.......oh, gabapentin. I only take 400 mg because more than that and I turn into a zombie, literally sending emails that say "asdjlkasdjfo" and sending an email ABOUT my pdoc to my pdoc instead of to my friend (oops). But normally the dose for it is much higher than my baby dose.

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I am very difficult to sedate so I tend to remember what has worked in the past even though it seems like most of it I can't take either b/c of the MAOI or because of bad reactions.

Another option would be a low dose of an old AP. Haldol puts people to sleep nicely and so does most of the drugs in that class. I don't know a lot about those b/c I can't take them but I know many are sedating and at low doses allegedly don't have terrible side effects.