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Topic: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
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karen
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need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
8 months since Pete suddenly taken, as you all know its a nightmare rollercoaster ride, but thought i was ding okish, have even started to strip our bedroom to re-decorate, i dont drink, smoke, not on anti depressants, but i do take half a sleeping tablet every night ( i then manage about 3 hrs) i have tried to do without, but don't get any sleep what so ever, i have to work, so can't manage or function with no sleep, went to the doctors today and he refused to give me anymore sleeping tablets, he asked lots of questions and then said i was depressed and anti depressants would help? of cause im depressed, i suddenly lost the love of my life, my everything of cause im depressed, he said it was worse to take half a sleeping tablet than to be on anti- depressants? i work for a mental health charity so know what anti-depressants do to a lot of people, i still have two weeks worth of sleeping tablets left, i thought i was doing really well and now have to face something else it always seems one step forward two steps back. any advice im worried now. hugs x
Posted on 09/03/2010 at 20:18 |
linda
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Well my advice Karen would be to thank the doctor but then decide what it is YOU want to do.
I dont actually agree with the doctor, I think they label us depressed too quickly - I now look back and realise I wasnt depressed - I was grieving and very very sad, but I wasnt depressed that is something completely different.
The grief manifested itself like depression so people often mistake it for the same.
I eventually realised that this was grief and was able to accept that it was okay to feel so awful, to feel like my heart had been broken and to feel unable to function.
But I am now at 4 years and those symptoms slowly went away over time.
I believe we HAVE to grieve, its normal for someone when they loose their love.
Sometimes I think society expects us to be fine after 6 months but you do what feels right for you Karen.
There are natural sleep remedies out there if you want, also I believe that lack of sleep is again normal when we are grieving, its not 'wrong' its just how it has to be for now.
Hope this helps, sorry to rant!
Love Linda x
Posted on 09/03/2010 at 20:26 |
JayneW
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Maybe you could try Nytol before you run out of sleeping tablets so there's no pressure for them to work if you know what I mean. I used to buy the 2 a night pack, but only take one when I couldn't sleep (before bereavement) and found that one worked fine.
I take very mild anti-depressants because I'm prone to depression (hormone problems), and just got fed up of the miserable black cloud feeling. They don't stop me being sad about what has happened, and they don't stop me from crying, they just help me function better. Maybe because I've taken them before I wasn't scared to ask for them this time.
Posted on 09/03/2010 at 22:17 |
Elizabeth
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Hi Karen, dont know if im any helkp but i did take sleeping tablets but they can get v addictive so stopped but do take nytol when im struggling to sleep, believe it or not im the opposite to you and cant get enough sleep at the minute, really tired and finding it hard to function. i have started taking sertraline, a anti anxiety/depressant thingy! cos i simply felt like i couldnt go on feeling so god damm sad! it kinda helped, feel better at times and at others think its doing no good at all. i do know what people mean by not taking anything cos i felt like i neede to feel the pain and needed to feel sad but after a while it just gets boring!! its totally ur decision and only u can decide whats best for you. hope some of this helps, prob not!! take care, E
Posted on 09/03/2010 at 22:29 |
Joseph
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
I am at 2 months and my doctor refused to put me on sleeping tablets. I am suffering not with depression, but a lot of anxiety and have been put on Citalopram which is an anti-depressant.
I have to say it has been very good at keeping me on an even footing, without which I would not be able to get up and go to work each day. Yes, I still have anxiety issues, but the Citalopram is letting me lead as normal life as this horrible situation will let me.
I went to the Cardiff meet up last Saturday. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my anxiety would not have let me go had I not been on the Citalopram.
Just giving you another perspective there.
Posted on 09/03/2010 at 23:00 |
Sabine
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Hi Karen
As they have told my boyfriend, there is nothing that they can do for him any longer, I felt so overwhelmed thought, I had to get myself calmer, so I went to the doctors who prescribed me Citalopram, I took the very low dosis. Took 2 to 3 weeks to kick in, but I must say or maybe I did not realise, that it did not much to me, I could not cover my pain with this. After Ray has died, I came off, I just did not take it anymore, but later as I went to the doctors I was advised to take it again. Which I did for another 2 months but I never believed in this so I just came off again. As I was at around 8 to into this journey, I thought, maybe I should take them, as I was at my lowest but as you probably read in Kates book, what she is describing there about taking Anti-Depressants makes so much sense to me. Well, I just speak for myself here, there are others for whom it is probably good to take them. But I think, this kind of pain should not been covered up. It needs to come out. And I am glad I did it this way. As I am at 12 months now and feel it is getting better. The pain is still there and I fall apart at times, but I can feel a difference now. It is not coming through so frequently and if you fall, you do not fall for such a long time, you are able to pick yourself up quicker. But as I said, I just can speak for myself here this does not apply to everyone, as everybody is different. I was always hating taking tablets in any kind of form. What I was doing a lot and still doing, taking up sports again and this helped me actually the best.
Lots of hugs.
Sabine
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 05:58 |
Sabine
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Hi Karen
As they have told my boyfriend, there is nothing that they can do for him any longer, I felt so overwhelmed thought, I had to get myself calmer, so I went to the doctors who prescribed me Citalopram, I took the very low dosis. Took 2 to 3 weeks to kick in, but I must say or maybe I did not realise, that it did not much to me, I could not cover my pain with this. After Ray has died, I came off, I just did not take it anymore, but later as I went to the doctors I was advised to take it again. Which I did for another 2 months but I never believed in this so I just came off again. As I was at around 8 to into this journey, I thought, maybe I should take them, as I was at my lowest but as you probably read in Kates book, what she is describing there about taking Anti-Depressants makes so much sense to me. Well, I just speak for myself here, there are others for whom it is probably good to take them. But I think, this kind of pain should not been covered up. It needs to come out. And I am glad I did it this way. As I am at 12 months now and feel it is getting better. The pain is still there and I fall apart at times, but I can feel a difference now. It is not coming through so frequently and if you fall, you do not fall for such a long time, you are able to pick yourself up quicker. But as I said, I just can speak for myself here this does not apply to everyone, as everybody is different. I was always hating taking tablets in any kind of form. What I was doing a lot and still doing, taking up sports again and this helped me actually the best.
Lots of hugs.
Sabine
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 05:58 |
sabine
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
.... sorry meant to write 8 to 10 months into this journey.
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 06:00 |
karen
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Thank you all so much for your lovely helpfull replies, we are all different, but it does help to get other m/w views,before this i never would take tablets for anything, iv got a really tough week coming up end of March, daughters b'day, little grandson b'day, close uncles b'day and the big one Petes 50th, (surprise party everything all gone), i will try natural sleep remedies first and see how i go, thank yu hugs x
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 09:08 |
Marcia
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Hi Karen,
I had exactly the same problem (am coming up to one year). I was eventually prescribed lorazepam which is an anti anxiety drug, rather than a sleeping drug, and that did really help keep me asleep for up to 6-7 hours, without feeling rubbish in the morning.
However, I was worried about taking them long term - plus I was feeling rubbish physically in so many other ways. So on the advice of a friend of mine, who is a personal trainer, I decided to look into alternative treatments. I contacted the Hale Clinic in London and told them my problems (anxiety, digestive problems, neck pain and, would you believe, tooth problems which the dentist couldn't explain). They recommended that I should have cranio-sacral therapy (a form of cranial osteopathy).
The therapist was brilliant - she took time to understand not just my physical problems but also my underlying emotional ones.
After just one treatment, I was able to chuck the lorazepam away and have not used them since. Plus the other physical problems were vastly improved. As an added bonus after each treatment (I have only been 4 times in 4 months), I felt really positive and energised - and that feeling lasted a good few days after each treatment.
It wasn't cheap - £50 per session (but that may be with a London mark up), but if you can manage it, I can't recommend it highly enough. I guess that the therapist needs to be a good one. The lady is saw, who has lots of testimonials is called Mika Simmonds (check out www.mikasimmonds.com) and she practises out of the Hale Clinic (by Regent's Park) or at a place called triyoga in Primrose Hill, NW London.
I am sending you thoughts and hugs xxx
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 10:14 |
Anon for this
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Re: need advice please sleeping tablets/anti depressants
Couple more ideas
There is a bach flower remedy for sleep that I have tried and that worked
There is also another herbal remedy called I think Quiet Time - passionflower and you get it in boots very reasonable 3.79 for 100 you can take them daytime and extra at night but I just take them occasionally and they do help
Try to get a good routine for sleep as this might be an issue - I try to have a bath with a magazine and switch off
My problem wasn't going to sleep it was waking up and it is said that this can be depression but I think any brain activity like we have will do this
Make sure bedroom nice as this helps, try some spray on your pillow perhaps - I like rose and lavender smells
Do a relax exercise starting with your toes and working all way over your body - have a book about for if and when you wake
I now get by on horlicks too - warm milky drink and a hot water bottle and a warm cat ...
I did have citalopram - its the big choice of drs - it helped when I had a rock bottom patch last year and I read up and took it for just about 8-10 weeks - I felt it worked fairly quickly within a few days only 10mg so once I had got back into a good sleep routine I cut tabs in half and took myself off it over I think 3 weeks but I do know folk who are stuck on it - one friend for the past ten years but her hurt is huge and has not yet been addressed and another who suffers from all sorts of anxieties and some paranoia I think possible due to previous drug dabbling as a youngster
Hope this helps
Posted on 10/03/2010 at 10:18 |
