Please help

I’m terrified of this insomnia. Last night I googled “can insomnia kill you” and came across a fatal form of it. I feel like that’s what I have. All of the symptoms. Please tell me this is just withdrawal and not fatal insomnia. Anyone else have muscle twitching, sweating, vivid dreams when they finally do get sleep? I’m so scared. I’m officially off K 1 month today

Hi Holly,

 

Most likely  it's all withdrawal symptoms.

Try to hang in there, try not to catastrophise and just keep taking it one day at a time.

Things do improve!

 

Stay strong!

Do you use anything as a distraction to help sleep or at least refocus on something ther than your thoughts? I listen to podcasts all night and it helps me.

 

Your insomnia is most likely a symptom.

Off K 1 month?...... totally withdrawal!

The fatal insomnia thing is SOOOOO incredibly rare, there are barely any cases of it, and even those tend to be hereditary.

Plus, it develops over time, not all of a sudden.

I think most of us have thought we had it at some point! It's pretty normal to worry about it. I had like a million tests, including an 24 hour EEG to see if I was sleeping (cuz doctors thought about the fatal thing)  Everything totally came out ok. Your brain does these micro sleeps and you don't even know it!

That being said...it is possible to go a couple days without sleep at all, but then your brain will micro sleep. It SUCKS!!!! But won't kill you

 

And yes the sweating, twitching, vivid dreams, quick REM sleep, all of it is normal for WD.

Been there!

I know it's hard not to freak out, just try and realize that if we can go through it, you can too!

Big hugs

When I was unknowingly in tolerance I had disrupted sleep and nightmares for over a year. Like waking in intense fear often within the night.

Once off of my benzo, sleep has returned. It took a little bit.

 

I sleep hard now. Maybe twice a month I get a disrupted sleep, but it is like a mild hiccup compared to what I lived with before.

Sleep will return.

 

You are still in acute my friend, acute is rough. And please don't google everything...focus your energy on positivity (everything you read, hear or see) and healing. Our poor brains want to latch onto everything negative at first bc its struggling so hard to make sense of things and cope.

 

I'm 9 months off and things are so much better than at 1 month off:)

I’m terrified of this insomnia. Last night I googled “can insomnia kill you” and came across a fatal form of it. I feel like that’s what I have. All of the symptoms. Please tell me this is just withdrawal and not fatal insomnia. Anyone else have muscle twitching, sweating, vivid dreams when they finally do get sleep? I’m so scared. I’m officially off K 1 month today

 

I thought I had fatal insomnia too...you don't!  There are two kinds...genetic and sporadic and it is extremely rare.  I think most people with sleeping issues believe they have fatal insomnia at one time or another? 

 

You are very early in the healing and recovery timeline.  Acute WD typically lasts 30-90 days for most people.  You could very well still be in acute WD?

 

All the symptoms you are describing (Anyone else have muscle twitching, sweating, vivid dreams when they finally do get sleep) are "normal."  I had all of these too.  Getting Vivid dreams is good sign at only 30 days off.  It took me a lot longer to remember any dreams.  REM rebound is pretty common as sleep begins to return.

 

This is all temporary.  You're not broken.  You'll get past this. 

 

Time is the healer.  Hang in there.  It slowly gets better!