[underoath]

Hey I,m new here. a little bit of background. Name is Kyle. Diagnosed in the past with OCD, some sort of panic disorder, GAD, depression, and ADD/ADHD. Honestly the most prevalent issues are ocd and panic, which seem to cause more depressive symptoms and also can attribute to the lack in concentration. I should also mention that i see a psychiatrist 3 times a week to monitor the medications i am on that currently consist of 60 mg Lexapro, 1mg Ativan 3X a day, 105mg Adderal, broken up into 75 mg morning (when I'm awake) and 30mg in the afternoon. I have also recently added .5mg Kolonapin 2X a day in an attempt to cross taper off of the Ativan over time (been taking Ativan for about 6 months.) I would also like to reiterate that because I see a psych so frequently i am under supervision for all of these doses and and very closely monitored, just in case anyone had any concerns about these med (just looking for other experiences and opinions.)

Lately my sleep has been all kinds of out of whack. I have absolutely no interest to sleep at nighttime; should mention its not lack of effort either. Typically i lay in bed for a while multiple times at night tossing and turning with no hope for sleeping. I typically have a good awareness to when i am able to sleep, so i do not waste much time laying around and typically get up and attempt to participate in an activity that is not very stimulating to the mind in order to try to make myself tired. The problem with this is that it makes my sleep schedule all over the place. Sometimes i will be up all day and night - other times and sometimes after episodes of prolonged not sleeping or sleeping very little, I will sleep for a ridiculous amount of time (days like today). Generally well over 12 hours but today hit my highest of recent which was 18 hours (6am to 2 am).

Now my first thought is that my body is catching up on sleep, but this does not always happen after sleepless nights, sometimes it happens when I'm actually caught up on sleep. I just have been working so hard to try to get myself onto a normal sleep schedule, so it can stop affecting my social and productive life. Even if i can manage to get myself to sleep around a somewhat reasonable time and wake up in less than 8 hours, it seems to have no effect on my next nights sleep whatsoever and its very frustrating.

I do deal with a great amount of anxiety and will say that my anxiety has historically been worse at nighttime, but with the medications i have my anxiety somewhat under control(still a bit of a work in process with med and lifestyle adjustments).

I just wanted to see if anyone else had any thoughts or opinions on how to keep things more routine and force myself into a functional sleep schedule.

Final notes - I was previously on trazadone 150 mg for sleep on top of everything else... Okay at first but felt way too tranquilized, or almost inebriated from taking it. I also have a more current script for a low dose of doxepin, however after my experience with the trazadone (i know different categories and different meds) , im very hesitant to give it or any other drug related to sleep a try. Other final note, I quite drinking entirely about three months ago (as i didn't want it to have any interaction with my medications and i was somewhat self medicating/forcing sleep with it) - not one drop since... unless you count non alcoholic beer haha. Still smoke cigarettes, 0 drug use.

Again any help, suggestions, experiences, take are all greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kyle.

[Thunder Bow]

Sounds like to me, those medications are causing you to to sleep to much, thus ruining any normal sleeping schedule. Talk to your doctors about this please. Copy your post here, and E. Mail it to them.

[underoath]

Originally Posted by Thunder Bow

Sounds like to me, those medications are causing you to to sleep to much, thus ruining any normal sleeping schedule. Talk to your doctors about this please. Copy your post here, and E. Mail it to them.

I see my doc today, and three times a week for medication management and therapy. I just already have sleep issues so its like I'm constantly bouncing from no sleep to too much and i can never get on an appropriate schedule. I have been addressing with doc and will address today, seeing as i slept through my first two appointments this week. lol. Just a tad bit frustrating and curious to any insight and experiences others may have had also. Thanks for your input.

[texvet]

What did your doc end up saying?

I'm struggling so much with sleep issues myself right now. I try all night, to no avail, only to be so tired during the day that I could easily sleep from 6am-6pm. I only say could because I have a toddler. I nap as much as she lets me, but the hour-at-a-time increments aren't doing much for me. By the time the late evening rolls around though, I find myself becoming more and more awake until there's no hope of me getting a good night's rest. This is a long-term problem, but very off and on.

Do you have a regular daytime routine? I have not been working for a few months and I am finding that I cannot go to bed before 1 and I wake around 10:30. My theory is that it is my normal cycle. Unfortunately that doesn't work in the popular world. I think I "trained" myself to accept the regular work week schedule but I have always had trouble getting up early. Regardless I could deal with it because I did have a schedule. I have heard that since it is much easier to control when you get up make sure you get up at the same time every day and go to bed when you are tired. So if you get up at 6am and didn't get to bed until 5am you only get an hour sleep. Then you suck it up and hopefully your body will tell you to go to bed earlier.

I am not a fan of rx sleep meds. I think knocking yourself out on a regular basis is a bad practice (had a boyfriend that accepted death in a fire over less sleep). I try to drink chamomile tea and heat some lavender oil nightly and that actually works. It's more that I sleep more soundly. If you are used to being knocked out I don't know if it will work so well. It doesn't hurt though.

Have you tried melatonin to help regulate your sleeping pattern? It worked wonders for me. Its not a medication so shouldnt interact but ask your pdocs. Make sure you are not sleeping too much on your oversleeps as that can mess up your mental health for a few days after that. Any more than 10 hours and the symptoms start for me. I know its hard to wake up, especially medicated. What is your sleep hygine like?

Im glad to hear they are monitoring you closely on those meds. Are you certain your symptoms are not being caused by this combination? Just something to think about.