Insomnia

Hi,

4 weeks having taken no diazepam CT. As you can read below the use was not typical and was not very regular. However since day 1 of stopping (baring in mind I often went 1-2 weeks without taking any anyway!) I have had insomnia. No other withdrawal symptoms what so ever. I fall asleep pretty well only to jolt awake in the night. Feeling anxious and worrying terribly over lack of sleep. It’s almost like a ‘phobia of not sleeping!’

I’m told this is probably not withdrawal more of a situation where I’ve given myself anxiety about withdrawal leading to this symptoms. GP now recommending anti depressants. Never been depressed before. Have suffered mild insomnia and bit of anxiety in the past. Any advice anyone?!?!?!

Thanks

Lucib,

I can so relate to this!  I had dreadful insomnia my first year off benzos and some of it was physical as I took benzos nightly to sleep but some of is was the phobia I had about not sleeping.  You doc could be recommending antidepressants for reasons other than depression - they tend to help with anxiety and phobias fall into the anxiety category plus some antidepressants can be sedating and help with sleep.  I'm not recommending another drug - just explaining things.  This link was so helpful to me when I was where you are and I read it regularly:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=235100.0

Sleep for me returned but it did take time.  I finally learned that while not sleeping was very miserable, it didn't kill me.  Life went on and I functioned fairly well on very little sleep.  I am sorry you are in this spot though - it sucks.