[MikeNessMonster]

Hi all,
I'm 23 and I've been dealing with fibromyalgia for three years now. This summer I was feeling great, working out 3-4 times a week, and feeling super positive about my health and my future. But something happened in the beginning of September. I decided to get off my hormonal BCP, and about three weeks after I began having the worst insomnia. I barely slept for two straight weeks. I believe it was due to the change in hormones, as well as feeling estranged from my long term boyfriend. My doctor prescribed me ambien, and I went back on my BCP. Ever since the insomnia started, I've had awful memory issues, my fibro is acting up, I am in a constant fog, and I feel very depressed. It's been three weeks since I've been back on the pill, and I'm still having issues sleeping without ambien. I've never had insomnia before, and im terrified of its affects on my fibromyalgia. I feel almost dissociated from myself. I am very sad, discouraged, tired, and just not like myself. I decided to get off the ambien as I feel like it was contributing to my brain fog and memory loss. Im just really scared and I don't know why im feeling so emotionally lost. How do I reconnect with myself and deal with my anxiety about not feeling well?

Hi mike. I'm sorry to hear about the insomnia problems. I have fibromyalgia too and have had lots of problems with insomnia over the years (I also have other medical conditions plus depression, so there's other stuff going on with my insomnia too.)

I think it's important to get your sleep back on track. I think that's important both for fibromyalgia and for depression.

How much Ambien were you taking and was it the continuous release or the regular kind?

Do you take an antidepressant or any meds for fibro pain control?

I have had good luck with the following meds for sleep: Ambien 5 or 10 mg. Webber Super Sleep (3 mg melatonin, 30 mg 5-HTP, 200 mg L-Theanine). 7.5 mg Remeron/Mirtazapine.

Some people do well with 10 mg amitriptyline for sleep.

There is a new sleep med called Belsomra that I think is very interesting because it has a completely different mechanism of action from Ambien and that class of sleep meds. I haven't tried it, but I would have if it had been available two years ago. It works to turn off the "awake" hormones (orexin, I think?)

If you were taking more than 5 mg of Ambien, you might try 5 mg or even less to see if that is less sedating. Also, if you were taking the continuous release type, I tried that type and didn't like it because it gave me next morning hangover.

I would encourage you to try not to panic. You definitely want to correct the insomnia problem, but taking active steps to fix it is better than panicking about it. I won't say that I have never panicked about insomnia. I made up my own word "insomniaphobia" to describe my terror of not sleeping several years ago when I was having chronic insomnia.

How do I reconnect with myself and deal with my anxiety about not feeling well?

Do you do any kind of meditation or mindfulness techniques? Yoga breathing? If you do, those should be helpful.

My depression has started getting worse again with the shortening days. I e-mailed my therapist a couple of days ago. I have been feeling panicky about losing the progress I've made over the past few months and don't want to go backwards.

My therapist recommended self-compassion and patience. I am trying to follow that advice. Even though what's going on feels like something organic that's happening TO me, I realized that I am still feeling guilty about it.

She recommended that I try to spend 10 minutes per day sitting and concentrating on my breath and observing what I'm feeling. Sort of "here I am. I am breathing. Etc Etc"

Okay, this post is getting too long, plus my brain just ran out of words.

I hope that you'll post again to say how things are going. I hope that you're experiencing a blip and that it won't be long before you're back to your usual self.

[MikeNessMonster]

Originally Posted by jo_thorne

Hi mike. I'm sorry to hear about the insomnia problems. I have fibromyalgia too and have had lots of problems with insomnia over the years (I also have other medical conditions plus depression, so there's other stuff going on with my insomnia too.)

I think it's important to get your sleep back on track. I think that's important both for fibromyalgia and for depression.

How much Ambien were you taking and was it the continuous release or the regular kind?

Do you take an antidepressant or any meds for fibro pain control?

I have had good luck with the following meds for sleep: Ambien 5 or 10 mg. Webber Super Sleep (3 mg melatonin, 30 mg 5-HTP, 200 mg L-Theanine). 7.5 mg Remeron/Mirtazapine.

Some people do well with 10 mg amitriptyline for sleep.

There is a new sleep med called Belsomra that I think is very interesting because it has a completely different mechanism of action from Ambien and that class of sleep meds. I haven't tried it, but I would have if it had been available two years ago. It works to turn off the "awake" hormones (orexin, I think?)

If you were taking more than 5 mg of Ambien, you might try 5 mg or even less to see if that is less sedating. Also, if you were taking the continuous release type, I tried that type and didn't like it because it gave me next morning hangover.

I would encourage you to try not to panic. You definitely want to correct the insomnia problem, but taking active steps to fix it is better than panicking about it. I won't say that I have never panicked about insomnia. I made up my own word "insomniaphobia" to describe my terror of not sleeping several years ago when I was having chronic insomnia.


Do you do any kind of meditation or mindfulness techniques? Yoga breathing? If you do, those should be helpful.

My depression has started getting worse again with the shortening days. I e-mailed my therapist a couple of days ago. I have been feeling panicky about losing the progress I've made over the past few months and don't want to go backwards.

My therapist recommended self-compassion and patience. I am trying to follow that advice. Even though what's going on feels like something organic that's happening TO me, I realized that I am still feeling guilty about it.

She recommended that I try to spend 10 minutes per day sitting and concentrating on my breath and observing what I'm feeling. Sort of "here I am. I am breathing. Etc Etc"

Okay, this post is getting too long, plus my brain just ran out of words.

I hope that you'll post again to say how things are going. I hope that you're experiencing a blip and that it won't be long before you're back to your usual self.

Thanks for the awesome reply!
I was taking 10mg of the non extended release ambien, then down to half a tab when i could manage it. I tried unisom last night and it didn't work without adding valerian root too. I'm not a big fan of medication, as I am always hyper sensitive to them.

I guess I just wonder if I'm going through a bit of a quarter life crisis. I dropped out of college and left my job in 2012 when I first got hit with fibro. I haven't had a full time job since then. I started cosmetology school, and then wasn't able to finish it because it was causing too many physical symptoms. I just started a different much shorter program at the same school for esthetics, which I am really excited about but I am deathly afraid of "failing" at that. My parents have been supporting me since 2012, and I have lots of guilt about it. But at the same time they only give me 150 dollars a week, and I live in an expensive area to live in. Just buying healthy food to keep me going leaves me completely broke, and I constantly think about money. My boyfriend is paying for all of the utilities right now while I'm in school which I also feel guilty about. I know that i have a sickness that prevents me from working long hours, but i will always feel like I'm not my own person until i can pay for myself. I'm about to turn 24.... this isn't where I thought I'd be. I'm proud of myself in many ways. I've suffered from depression and anxiety from a young age, and then came back into my self in my late teens... then fibro hit. It's not easy.

I'm an artist, but I haven't done art for myself in over a year. I feel uninspired. I was looking through old photos of myself from a couple Yeats back, and even though I was sick I had a twinkle in my eyes that i haven't had in a few months. I actually cried because I was wondering when I became unhappy. I think i can pinpoint it back to last winter.

I have also been having issues with my boyfriend... I often wonder if he is who I will spend my life with or not. We have both been sort of distant from each other, and I feel that it is because weve both become estranged from ourselves.

I just went outside and stuck my bare feet in the grass, and I feel a whole lot better. You should try it

[specialneedsmom]

My doctor told me long term use of ambien can lead to problems with addiction (not being able to sleep without it).

Ambien never helped me sleep much, though, nor did Tylenol with codeine. Melatonin helped slightly. I've had lifelong problems with insomnia. My only explanation is that I am possibly one of those people who doesn't need a lot of sleep to get by. I've heard all kinds of recommendations that are basically totally ineffective, such as yoga, meditation, breathing, counting sheep, etc. - none of these things work in my case. My brain just doesn't "go there" into sleep mode.

Things that keep me awake the longest at night are wine and any kind of alcohol.

Otherwise, I get by on about 3 hours of sleep. Is it possible you just don't need much sleep?