On vacation and wow! I feel like I’m back on benzos!

I have been in limbo in my 9 months since discontinuing a Valium taper. I’ve had Windows of decent sleep, but mostly 3-5 hours of unsatisfying, wakeful, dream laden sleep. I work a full time, fairly stressful job, which does not help things. Well, I took a much needed vacation this week to Hawaii and without the constant stress of my job my body has gone into a full blown GABA-PALOOZA! I feel like I could lay down and sleep anytime, anywhere. In fact, I just woke up from a 2 hour nap!  That is absolutely unheard of!  I can only deduce that my constant stress has held my recovery back in some way. My sleep here hasn’t been perfect, pre-benzo sleep, but it’s pretty darn close. I’m just worried the other shoe will drop next week when I get back and it’ll be back to sleepless hell.

I'm glad that your visit to Hawaii relaxed you so much. Unfortunately, those of us who live here face a daily grind with stress just like everyone else so sleep is not always easy to come by. I would imagine that the folks living near the volcano eruption get no sleep at all.

Alohafromhawaii, I realize it’s ordinary for you since you live here, but I gotta say I’m incredibly envious of anyone who gets to live on these islands. Truly a magical place.

Being able to sleep like this now can give you a lot of hope. It shows you how much your brain has healed and it has clarified that you might need to address your anxiety differently. Anxiety is such a bugger on this journey! Enjoy your sleep for however long it visits you and remind the sleep fairy that you will welcome him/her back at home too!

I have been in limbo in my 9 months since discontinuing a Valium taper. I’ve had Windows of decent sleep, but mostly 3-5 hours of unsatisfying, wakeful, dream laden sleep. I work a full time, fairly stressful job, which does not help things. Well, I took a much needed vacation this week to Hawaii and without the constant stress of my job my body has gone into a full blown GABA-PALOOZA! I feel like I could lay down and sleep anytime, anywhere. In fact, I just woke up from a 2 hour nap!  That is absolutely unheard of!  I can only deduce that my constant stress has held my recovery back in some way. My sleep here hasn’t been perfect, pre-benzo sleep, but it’s pretty darn close. I’m just worried the other shoe will drop next week when I get back and it’ll be back to sleepless hell.

 

I feel the same way when it comes to work and the daily grind. I have a stressful job too. I recently had a work injury and have been off for five months. I haven't slept this well for years. Now that I'm realised from workers comp and getting ready to go back to work I can't sleep. In fact I've been crying and sleep deprived because I don't want to go back into that stress induced sleepless, tired life that I have constantly lived for years. I've even considered getting out of my profession and working elsewhere. I am now convinced after being away from work that 99.9% of my issues with stress related problems are due to my current job.  It's very frustrating and I feel for you. 

I've read that more people die at 9am on Monday morning than any other time of the week.

 

Humans are the only creature in the animal kingdom that have managed to successfully use time to cause sickness and death.

 

Stress causes so much illness.

 

I hope we can all find better ways to cope with our stress.

Those islands are truly magical medicine for the soul and spirit.  I experienced that myself once and came back to the grind a new person...for a while.  People were saying "whoa, man, what happened to you?"

 

Thanks for the reminder.  More doctors should pull out their prescription pad and just write one word on it.  Maui.