For the past 4 1/2 months I have been experiencing the worse insomnia I have ever experienced and it seemed to have come on suddenly. It started around the end of November in 2015. I was sleeping at my sister's house during the holiday when all of a sudden my mind was bombarded with random thoughts as I was in stage 2 sleep. It did this each time as I was falling asleep. I didn't think much of it that morning, that is, until my sleep ability took a turn for the worse. After that, I started having severe anxiety and then I started sleeping only every other night. I slept OK one night then I would not sleep the next. I am talking not a wink. I was awake from sunset to sunrise and it is a horrible feeling. Thinking it was the anxiety, I asked the doctor for Xanax. This helped the anxiety, but it didn't help the sleep at all. I suffered this on-off sleeping pattern for three months. I went to go see a psychiatrist at the beginning of March and he prescribed me Trazadone. This seemed to have worked temporarily for a month and even thought I felt better, I could tell something was off. I was unable to take a nap during the day, even when I was really tired.
At the beginning of April is when the insomnia came back with a vengeance. I went a full 3 days without sleeping a wink, so my dad took me to the emergency room. They gave me a really high dose of Ativan, but it only relaxed my body and didn't put me to sleep. The doctor told me to take Zoloft. I took a Zoloft early in that morning and then crashed for about 4 hours.
The sleep one night and not sleep the next pattern continues to this day. I feel that my insomnia may be getting worse. Sometimes, when I do sleep, I wake up and my body is drenched in sweat. What has me really upset is that even when I'm extremely tired during the day, I cannot even take a nap and make up for it. It is as if my brain has lost the ability to sleep. I have never had this problem before and it is scaring me. I've always been able to sleep during the day to make up for a bad night.
One thing I want to mention is that I have been taking a low dose of Zoloft for 18 years and stopped taking it cold turkey about a year before I started having this problem. I'm just wondering if my brain is freeking out due to the loss of the drug that I have been taking for a long time. The psychiatrist and doctor tell that is is not withdrawal. I do not think that this is an anxiety or depression issue causing this horrible insomnia. I only feel anxiety and depression on those days I do not sleep.
One thing this I am considering, and is really frightening me, is that this could be Sporatic Fatal Insomnia. Although I have not had paranoia, phobia, or dementia so far, it seems that the insomnia symptoms line up. I am willing to pay for a PET scan out of my own pocket just to rule anything out. It is really an empty feeling knowing you could have a serious neurological disorder like SFI. There are so many physicians who are unaware of this disease and who aren't willing to prescribe a PET scan just because you think you have a rare brain disease.
I have been crying almost every day since the end of March and my family is really concerned. Any help would be appreciated.
At the beginning of April is when the insomnia came back with a vengeance. I went a full 3 days without sleeping a wink, so my dad took me to the emergency room. They gave me a really high dose of Ativan, but it only relaxed my body and didn't put me to sleep. The doctor told me to take Zoloft. I took a Zoloft early in that morning and then crashed for about 4 hours.
The sleep one night and not sleep the next pattern continues to this day. I feel that my insomnia may be getting worse. Sometimes, when I do sleep, I wake up and my body is drenched in sweat. What has me really upset is that even when I'm extremely tired during the day, I cannot even take a nap and make up for it. It is as if my brain has lost the ability to sleep. I have never had this problem before and it is scaring me. I've always been able to sleep during the day to make up for a bad night.
One thing I want to mention is that I have been taking a low dose of Zoloft for 18 years and stopped taking it cold turkey about a year before I started having this problem. I'm just wondering if my brain is freeking out due to the loss of the drug that I have been taking for a long time. The psychiatrist and doctor tell that is is not withdrawal. I do not think that this is an anxiety or depression issue causing this horrible insomnia. I only feel anxiety and depression on those days I do not sleep.
One thing this I am considering, and is really frightening me, is that this could be Sporatic Fatal Insomnia. Although I have not had paranoia, phobia, or dementia so far, it seems that the insomnia symptoms line up. I am willing to pay for a PET scan out of my own pocket just to rule anything out. It is really an empty feeling knowing you could have a serious neurological disorder like SFI. There are so many physicians who are unaware of this disease and who aren't willing to prescribe a PET scan just because you think you have a rare brain disease.
I have been crying almost every day since the end of March and my family is really concerned. Any help would be appreciated.
Comment