[Paracelsus]

Lexapro 20 mg 1x daily PM
guanfacine 1 mg 4x daily
clonazapam 0.5 mg 1x daily PM
dextroamphetamine 5 mg 2x daily

ambien works okay
lunesta does not put me to sleep
clonazapam does not work as sleep aid
benedryl does not put me to sleep
melatonin does not put me to sleep

while seeking help in hospital for suicidal thoughts they gave me a shot of haldol and 2mg ativan muscles still ache from that haldol, couldn't sit still for days

i feel apathy, boredom, loss of interest in things, insomnia

i got a 4.0 last semester, but somethings needs to change. not sure what to talk to my doctor about. ambien might hold me over for 2 months max. concerned about taking trazadone or antipsychotic due to intolerable side effects. i feel like i seriously just need a different class of medication all together. do they still prescribe barbiturates on an individual basis?

[Guiness187055]

I have tried everything under the sun for sleep my last option is barbiturates. They are only prescribed after everything else has been tried. I even tried thorazine. You would need to have a very understanding pdoc and no history of addiction. Even then you may not get them or only a month's supply. Benzo's have become the safer alternative to barbituates.

[Paracelsus]

yeah, barbiturates do seem to be the last option after all alternatives are exhausted to death. i feel that is a bit unrealistic though. i'm not about to waste hundreds of dollars looking for a psychiatrist willing to look at my medical history.

realistically it's short acting benzos and ambien that work the best. still might even have to end up getting a second opinion just for that sort of med change.

mirtazapine caused this odd muscular skeletal side effect, but worked ok
hydroxyzine didn't work
i can't remember which other ones exist or are out there.

switching ssri's is risky and i doubt it'll be worth it in the long haul. why can't the state's influence just let me play a more influential role in what goes into my own body?

i'd pay 10 bucks a night for 8 hours. literally, 300 dollars is my budget a month. pay the doctor big bucks to prescribe a 15 cent pill.

[Paracelsus]

half of them have incentives just to prescribe name brand spin offs of the same classes of drugs.

[still_crazy]

when ambien stopped working for me, 30mgs/temazepam (restoril) did the trick. I think that's the big capsule...there's a couple smaller sizes available.

xanax, ativan are somewhat popular for sleep. halcion...still prescribed now and then, but id personally try Restoril first, if possible.

gabapentin (neurontin, etc.) helps, sometimes.

barbiturates must be at least somewhat popular...it seems that Seconal is back on the US market, at a huge cost.

Dalmane is an older, benzodiazepine sleeping pill...I've never taken it, never knew anyone who took it, but its still produced.

sorry about this.

[Guiness187055]

I took Restoril for a bit but it pooped out pretty quickly. Ambien only puts me out for about two hours. Thorazine at a high dosage worked but left me a mess the next day. Seroquel, zyprexa, and risperdone no luck. None of the tricyclics work either. I would like to try halcion but the half life is so short and I already take xanax as it is. I would love to try nembutal or seconal.

[TicTacGo]

Hi.
Sorry to hear you are struggling.

From my experiences, Ambien did only work for a short time. I tried some atypical antipsychotics at the cost of feeling tired the next day; Seroquel and Zyprexa really knocked me.
What seemed to work were older/more potent benzodiazepines. Within the benzos, there are still options such as Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) that are potent. They are, like barbiturates, not commonly prescribed.

Typical antipsychotics such as Haldol, Thorazine and so forth may cause extrapyramidal symptoms like what you have described.

[splitimage]

low dose seroquel worked for me.

splitimage

[Guiness187055]

Originally Posted by TicTacGo

Hi.
Sorry to hear you are struggling.

From my experiences, Ambien did only work for a short time. I tried some atypical antipsychotics at the cost of feeling tired the next day; Seroquel and Zyprexa really knocked me.
What seemed to work were older/more potent benzodiazepines. Within the benzos, there are still options such as Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) that are potent. They are, like barbiturates, not commonly prescribed.

Typical antipsychotics such as Haldol, Thorazine and so forth may cause extrapyramidal symptoms like what you have described.

I don't believe they prescribe Rohypnol in the United States.

[tree7car]

Ask about Trazadone. It's an SSRI that isn't really good at being an SSRI, but it often works great as a sleep med. I've been on it for a while and it's pretty helpful for helping me fall asleep.

[Guiness187055]

Trazadone and it's relatives were a no go for me.

[Rive1976]

Have you tried going and getting a sleep study?

[Guiness187055]

Originally Posted by Dnester

Have you tried going and getting a sleep study?

No but I plan on getting a referral to a sleep doctor soon.

[AspiringAuthor]

Try the lowest dose Zyprexa or Seroquel with a medium dose Gabapentin.

[Paracelsus]

aspirinauthor: interesting suggestion. that's one worth putting on the clip board.

dnester: i have not gone on a sleep study. my impression is the medical cost does not justify the potential benefit. if there was a device i could wear than yeah, maybe i would consider it just to show my pdoc the legitimacy of my insomnia with solid evidence.

tree7car: i'm not going to ask about trazodone. it's too heavy and doesn't put me to sleep.

i want to put seroquel on the clipboard, but i'd rather be depressed with insomnia and not function in life than suffer with restless limbs. eps side effects are a killer. i was looking into antiparkinsons drugs to add with the seroquel possibly for the clipboard of ideas.

[-jimi-]

Halcion. Which I miss a lot.

[AspiringAuthor]

I know - akathisia is torture-like.