Posted by Elizabeth on December 23, 1999, at 10:54:38
In reply to Re: INSOMNIA, posted by Phillip Marx on December 23, 1999, at 2:22:01
> Are any of you diagnosed as severe (bizarre) insomniacs?
What would "bizarre" insomnia constitute? I have primary insomnia, circadian rhythma disorder - irregular sleep-wake pattern type, and REM sleep behavior disorder. (The latter is under control.)
> I haven't been to sleep for over five years without medication.
At all? Even after being sleep-deprived for a long time?
> They tried lithium for about three years and gave up since it only gave me lithium withdrawals and zero improvement, even after an instance of severe dehydration from running a half marathon which exacerbated toxicity way past the toxic threshold maintenance they attempted to guarantee with time-released lithium and frequent blood tests.
What did the lithium withdrawals consist of? Lithium isn't suppose to cause withdrawal symptoms so I'm curious.
> I found that exercising all the muscles just enough to trigger glycogen (et. al.) retention forced the blood brain barrier permeability to open up to sedatives (et.al.) enough better to benefit sleep even though exercise normally delays sleep. Muscles actually develop really well when subjected to immediate sleep for regeneration. The lithium also lowered my thyroid numbers to 20% my norms. UCI’s world famous Sleep Disorders Center failed to find relief without using long half-life medicines that kept me from ever waking up thoroughly since I had become immune to all the short half-life varieties, probably should have rotated and used higher doses early on.
Exactly which medicines have you tried besides lithium, Halcion, and Serzone?
> There should be lots of people like me. Does this ring any bells?
> Atypical Bipolar Disorder Insomnia (NOS)??I've been diagnosed with bipolar NOS (it turned out to be a mixed episode from serotonin syndrome due to Effexor). Do you know what it refers to in your case? You do come across as quite manic. Which antimanic drugs have you tried?
poster:Elizabeth
thread:16735
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/17380.html