How to manage/control stimulating situations

i'm bp2, 71 yr. old female and have my mental illness well figured out and know what my triggers are; my biggest issue is sleep but have found that 5mg melatonin plus either 12 or 25 mg. seroquel work well...but i'm wanting to know if there is any way to control a stimulating situation/circumstance which i know will lead to a bad night of insomnia and needing extra meds to finally sleep: fri. night a birthday party was given for a close friend at a resaurant; it was byob and the restaurant was very small, very loud, and very bright; i knew immediately this was a set-up for insomnia and mania so before the salad arrived i took a small piece of klonopin; of course we got home much later than my usual bedtime (which i have figured out and manage quite well with great sleep hygiene) and i took a hot bath hoping maybe i might sleep...nothing worked for hours til i over-medicated to finally sleep and missed one of my favorite spin classes that morning because i needed to catch up on lost sleep and get over the med. hangover; are there any tips or suggestions you might have as a means to ward off a potential nite of insomnia and becoming destabilized or do i just bite the bullet and deal with it????

Great question!
I am looking forward to the responses.

I have the same problem.


WC

If you don’t mind taking one more med, I would suggest a 50mg start on trazadone. I’ve been on 150mg per night for... let me think... close to 20 years?

For 17 of those years I was also on Ambien. But I began to have the Ambien ‘night-walking’ and then the Ambien-induced hypotension and I dropped that stuff like it was Kyroptonite. I was afraid, though, that I would not be able to sleep.

But the trazadone worked. I had been taking it and the Ambien all those years but noticed no difference in taking trazadone alone.

I would, at the least, ask your PDOC or other doc about it.

Same problem here, unfortunately. If I am going to go to a place where there's too much stimulation, I feel that the one thing I can try to control, is who I go with. Being around people that don't put me at ease combined with too much stimulation induces so much stress. If it's really bad though, there's nothing wrong with not staying the whole time in certain situations (I know that is hard to do at a restaurant, but at a party or event, it can be done). Staying out to late in a place with too much stimulation can be very stressful.

Don't feel bad, if you can't stay the whole time when it comes to places like that. Every now and then, if the anxiety is that bad, nothing wrong with staying home. I'm not saying to avoid everything in life, but there is a limit to what we can do. Being overly stressed affects sleep. I also take Klonopin when I have to, and I'm on a cocktail of sedating meds.

Therapy can sometimes be helpful with these things and a level of acceptance that this is a trigger. I try to do meditation at night sometimes to help me sleep better, but insomnia is a problem for me too. Light exercise can also help. I'm on 400 mg Seroquel now and have been on higher. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand that this could be very difficult, but hang in there and try not to be hard on yourself.

I just drank water at the company evening Christmas party. Alcohol and caffeine make it worse. I carry gabapentin with me and take it on my way home if I need to.

It’s OK to leave early if you need to. I find it easier not to say goodbye on the way out. People don’t notice, and if they do, you can say you aren’t feeling well or that you have something in the morning you need to do.

I also struggle with insomnia sometimes. I’ve found that even on nights when I felt I didn’t sleep I still slept some. I haven’t become destabilized yet from it knock on wood because I think my medicines keep me under control. Do you notice a change in your mood after a single night of poor sleep? Or is it more anxiety that something bad will happen? I’ve noticed that I get easily overstimulated by dating. I’ve never had a real boyfriend so the idea of having one makes me a little uneasy.

I carry emergency Klonopin in my purse. Also when I get home I try to do some basic yoga stretches and then put on some "meditation music" on youtube and meditate on top of my bed.

I use the app "Breathe2Relax", it has you do some deep breathing with soothing scenery and usually by the time the session is over I can barely keep my eyes open.

My issue has always been quieting my mind, and for me that seems to help.

I just wanted to say it is great you take a spin class at 71.

i appreciate everyone's reply to this delimma. just to add: i exercise 5-6x a week; at 71 i no longer hide the fact that i have bipolar hypomania and just about everyone at the health club whom i associate with and everyone we socialize with know about my mental illness; i know all my triggers and vegas, for example, destabilizes me even when we go only for 2 nites and i try to keep my bedtime the same there as here...traveling and time zone changes affect me as well and i require alot of quiet time and hubby and i have an excellent 32-yr. marriage as he does get it (and plays golf about 3x a week); i was just posting to see if there's a preventative way of coping with the unknown...didn't know how small this restaurant was, how loud it was and we were having to scream across the table to be heard; i limit how much stimulation i can control, but i guess all of you are saying there's really no way to prevent/avoid some triggers unless i stay home in my own world!! and yes, if i don't get those 8-9 hrs. solid medicated sleep, i have to spend almost the entire next day catching up and thankfully have the luxury to do so at 71 and being retired and having our health club right across the street!