Insomnia and Paradoxical Insomnia

Hi,

 

I’m looking for ways to deal with insomnia. I had an adverse reaction to Zoloft which I was then put on Ativan and amitriptyline for, for 2 months, but when I came off I completely lost my sleep. My sleep is extremely light to the point that I often think I am awake. I can’t perceive the little sleep I do get and wake every 30-60 minutes. I have many many dreams, but I am not getting deep sleep at all it seems. I’ve been off for a 14 months and concerned this won’t get better. Would love to hear anyone with similar issues or from those who did recover their sleep. Sending lots of healing prayers to all. Thanks!

Congrats on getting off Ativan. Your central nervous system is still healing, so be patient and accept it's part of the process. It can take a while, this is not unusual.

 

It will get better.

 

Whatever is going on, it is HEALING that your CNS needs to go through to recover. And, your no longer putting the benzo into your body which causes the injury to begin with. That will help your brain heal. Think of it like stopping arsenic. You took it, it poisoned you, you did all the incredibly hard work getting off of it, now your brain can heal without the ongoing influx of the arsenic (benzo) damaging it further.

 

Here is the section on post taper recovery, you will find camaraderie and support, as well as infoformation in here:

 

Post-withdrawal Recovery Support

 

Here is the board on other medications:

Other Medications

 

-Welcome from the BB team, we are glad to have you.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for having me here and thanks for providing some hope. I’m guessing you’ve seen members with insomnia that persists for this long? Glad to hear it’s not completely abnormal

Hi Acceptance1234 and welcome to BB. Prior to the adverse Zoloft reaction, was your sleep ok? What medical DX were you initially put on the zoloft for?

Hi AntiBenzo,

 

Yes my sleep was great. I went on for some mild postpartum anxiety. Mostly I went on because I had POst Ventricular contractions which the ER doc said are benign but can be caused due to stress so I thought zoloft might help.