PLEASE help

I am on day 16 of withdrawal. Insomnia is very bad due to "restless legs syndrome", sudden muscle jerks (myoclonus).

Benadryl worked on Saturday but nothing last night.

 

Can you please suggest something ? Will this ever get better ...

I surrendered. In the other words if I could not sleep I watched TV or went to internet. Then slept the time I could. i woke up maybe 3-5 times a night. Jerks lessens over time and in my case they vanished between 4-12 months. i do not have them anymore. Also muscle pain, joint paint etc goes away but it takes time.

Day 16 is very early in the recovery/healing process.  Acute WD usually lasts 30-90 days for most?  It's a period of intense symptoms and little sleep for most.

 

As Thomas66 said, accept your insomnia.  It's very difficult to do, but once you realize you are NOT in control of it short of taking something OTC or Rx, you'll be in a better position.

 

Aloha taught me that the best thing to do was to go to bed without expecting to sleep.  I'll admit it was super difficult to do at first, but after some time it worked pretty well.  I would go to bed with the idea I wasn't going to get any sleep and I was going to rest my body.  My brain would get all the sleep it needed via micro sleeps and the minutes or hour I might get here and there, but my body still needed to rest.

 

Then if I nodded off, I was happy because I wasn't expecting to sleep.

 

The same thing happened to me, an OTC, herbal, or natural sleep remedy would work for a night or two then it stopped working.

 

I decided to "tough it out" and let sleep return on it's own.  It sucked, but eventually I started sleeping more and more.

 

Today I sleep 6-8 hours pretty much every night.  I went from 5-10 hours per week to 40-50 hours per now.

 

You'll get there too.  Just expect it to be very UP and down for some time until it finally evens out.

 

Read this post I made some time ago...It should answer most, if not all of your questions?  http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=235100.0

I'd like to second what ThEwAy2 said about acceptance, I used this too and it really helps because I didn't get angry or frustrated because I couldn't sleep, which you know are two emotions that will pretty much guarantee you won't get to sleep. 

 

Trusting your brain will get the sleep it needs through those 'micro-sleeps' is important too, you may not be aware they've even happened but sometimes you are.  When they happened for me I could tell right away that something was different, it was less like sleep and more like a loss of time.  Maybe just a few seconds or minutes but I knew something was different.  This is what your brain will do to survive and this is what will keep you safe and functioning although not optimally until your body can get more.

 

Try to learn all you can about this process, the more we know, the less we fear. 

So, I am to expect major withdrawal symptoms in days 30-90? What you are saying16 days means nothing, and worst is yet to come?  Am I correct?

 

THANK YOU ALL. Much appreciated ....this support is worth gold ! Love you all.

Doesn't mean the worst is yet to come! Just means that you do need to expect that it will probably be a while. And in the big picture 16 days is very early. I know it completely and totally sucks!

But here is the thing...one way I made it through the insomnia was reading on here that other people had survived it, so it helped me to know that if they could do...so could I. There were MANY times I thought it was not possible to go that long without sleep . But somehow we do!  Many of us have survived incomprehensible insomnia.

Some people use things like benadryl, or melatonin, herbal teas, etc. I couldn't use any of them and still made it.

So, I am to expect major withdrawal symptoms in days 30-90? What you are saying16 days means nothing, and worst is yet to come?  Am I correct?

 

THANK YOU ALL. Much appreciated ....this support is worth gold ! Love you all.

 

Not necessarily, but if you are going to have major WD, most people experience the worst of it between 30-90 days off.

 

Just be prepared that things tend to get worse before they get better.  That's why healing from Benzos is nonlinear....meaning you can do well for awhile only to go back into symptoms and little or no sleep.  It's a real roller coaster ride for most.

 

The good news is, it's temporary, it doesn't last forever. 

 

It will all even out over time.