i haven't slept in 3 days

and i still can't sleep.

i don't really know what to do. i can't get in to see the psych doc until thursday.

sleeping pills don't work. nothing works.

Dear Veggy, I know how frustrating it can be; I've also had nights and days when i simply could not sleep.
For me it was a severe case of hypothyroidism. No sleep meds, no nothing. Nothing helped.
What is it for you? anxious thoughts? Would writing out your thoughts here help? would talking to your therapist help?

i've had chronic insomnia for years, but i've had so much going on with my now ex and trying to get him to calm down with his issues so maybe we can be together again that i've just stopped sleeping. the only time i ever slept through the night was when i was with him. i have an appointment thursday to get new sleeping pills, but so far of the ones i've tried, i don't feel anything at all with them.

seems like no matter what i do, nothing helps.

Hope you can get help soon. Not sleeping affects your health big time. Perhaps you need something for anxiety rather than sleeping pills. Take care.

i slept last night after a shot of ativan. it took a few hours to fall asleep, and i still woke up a lot, but bad sleep is better than zero sleep.

I am glad you got some sleep even if it was bad sleep. Could you ring your T and ask for him to call something into the drug store so that you don't have to wait another night.

i don't think she would. i've only seen her once. i don't much like her, but my insurance is going out or ..probably already is out, so i can't switch. but like.. her way of finding out if i'm depressed is saying "are you depressed?" and then i told her that i didn't know because i was so unhappy/miserable over trying to fix things with my ex, but that i SHOULD feel awful over a break up..it's normal. she'd just go "well, are you depressed?" and seem kinda irritated if i didn't just diagnose myself.

Veggy,
It's understandable that you are not sleeping well, especially with the stuff going on with your ex. I'm sorry that you are not getting the right questions asked in your T.
Perhaps you can take an internet questionairre to see if you have any other symptoms of depression, that's how I came to be in the place I'm at. I did it over the internet and then realized I was depressed. Relationship troubles and concerns can sure beat a person down, I hope that you can work things out with your ex.

that's a great idea, amante! i'll have to do that tonight. i wish they'd just let me stay on ativan, but i guess if it's terribly addictive i understand why not...

I guess I never knew that I would become totally dependent on Ambien CR to sleep, if I don't take it - the night is horrendous with little sleep and very blood gory violent nightmares. how did u make out doing the quiz, did you get to do it?
hope you got some sleep last night.

yeah i took it and i scored moderately high. i got a little sleep.. now they have me on lexapro, buspirone and clonazepam

I have absolutely no answers or solutions for you re: sleep. I haven't sleep well since I got off pristiq in mid Dec 2009. My work is stressful and now that I don't have the SNRI to help. I am right back to where I started in Oct 2008 when I first started taking them after beginning a new job on a busy med/surg nursing unit. I figured I had developed good coping skills, which were helping me to control the anxiety.

I got off the drug b/c I wanted to and with the support of the meds mngt psychiatrist, who had been prescribing them. Before I restarted taking SNRIs, I had been off antidepressants since Oct 2007 as a result of successful psychodynamic therapy for a 15 months. I have had GAD since I was 11 yr. old. Every time I think about my job when I am at home, I get this automatic fight or flight response. All I have to do is think "work". Nothing makes me more anxious than thoughts of work. Did I do the best that I could despite the challenges against doing just that? Nursing mess up all the time there b/c of the intensity of the unit, patients and over all team leader responsibilities. There is simply too much stuff that I am responsible for, yet most of it is out of the nurse's control b/c other parties have to do there part. I am supposed to have a grip on everything from the moment a patient arrives to the unit to the moment the leave our unit. It is the nurses' job to see that all the physician orders are carried out, even if through a third party entity like radiology, pharmacy or laboratory depts. If a ball gets dropped the RN TAKEs most of the heat. The RN is responsible for ensuring that the unit clerks put all the orders in correctly even though that should be a job requirement for them. If we tell a nurse assistant to do something and they don't do it. The RN is partially responsible b/c we didn't motivate or communicate our instructions well enough. Doctors want us to know what ever consulting physician has done for their patient even though we often don't speak or see the consultants. We are expected at some point to have read the patient's chart, in our spare time on the unit I guess and note discrepancies. If a doctor fails to see his patient, we are expected to call them and find out why. If a doctor fails to chart on a certain mandated form, the nurse is held accountable for not getting the doctor to do it.

I think my stress is justified giving my job requirements. I must deal directly with the patients, who are oftentimes needy and demanding including their families as well as very sick. I am expected to do the impossible in a very limited time frame. Also I am expected to chart everything that I've done or that the pt needed done in one of 5 different places for just that. Crap, this job is a failure waiting to happen. Heaven forbid if your patient has an emergent or urgent situatiion, which they almost always do that takes up an abudance of your time and energy. And no other patient cares that you were busy; they are upset that you weren't with them when they needed you. I usually have 4-7 patients per 8 hr shift. Did I mention that I have no choice in which patient's I get assigned or how many I will be responsible on a given day. We are usually not staffed adequately, yet the admission and transfers to our unit still occur. I am just expected to gladly take on the new patient even if I am drowning in the responsibilities of the current patient load.

I need a career change or a work environment that recognizes that a nurse simply cannot do it all during a single 8 hr shift. It's too much responsibility. You can maybe a few things okay but not everything will be high quality. It's mostly patchy or scetchy at best. Where is the job satisfaction in that?

Thanks for letting me vent.

oh geez that is way too much stress if you already have an anxiety disorder.

Veggy, I hope you are doing better on the new meds you were given.
ChiGirl, Thanks for enlightening people the incredible task that nurses are faced with. Just the fact that you are so concerned about doing it all shows how caring and conscientious you must be.

thank you. i am doing somewhat better.

Hi Veggy, Oh wow, I have trouble sleeping at times too, I let my probs keep me up, How are you feeling now? Do you take anything to try and let you sleep?

i have trazadone right now. if i take 200mg, the last two nights it has let me have almost 5 hours of sleep, which is really good for me, but i was also exhausted from panic attacks so idk how much of it was the meds. i'm going to try 300mg tonight and if i don't sleep well, i'll call my doc. it's the 6th try to get me to sleep :-/

Aww, I hope it works veggy, let us know, no sleep sucks, im hoping you can get a good nights sleep.

i'll take the 300mg and i'll still be up for a few hours :-/ just sucks. i want to feel sleepy and crawl into bed and just crash, but i never can.