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I've been through 2 psychiatrists and 4 doctors. 3 of those people wouldn't stop blaiming it on depression or anxiety and giving me meds that made me feel worse. 2 of them said they don't have any more ideas and wrote it off as delayed sleep phase syndrome. The last one doesn't know what to do next or who else to send me to but will give me whatever meds I want and at least listen to me.

I had the same issue with my knee. I know what's wrong with it and the doctor who's currently willing to give me sleep meds agreed but didn't trust her ability to read the MRI or know how to treat so sent me to several specialists who wrote it off as sprained when it's a 10year old injury. I ended up doing my own rehabilitation and therapy based on what I believed the injury was and my symptoms are nearly gone. Most doctors seem only interested in things they can easily diagnose and treat and the rest they either pawn off on someone else or make up some diagnose with a long term treatment so when you say this doesn't work they can say you haven't tried it long enough.

Supposedly serotonin cannot get too high unless you take multiple medications that increase serotonin and then show signs of serotonin syndrome. I have none of the symptoms. Just complete insomnia so noone will even consider it.

Whoever says that needs to come talk to me... I've had Serotonin Syndrome several times from taking just one medication (which I'm not taking anymore). Luckily it was never quite bad enough that I had to be hospitalized, but at the time it felt like I was dying.

I also used to be a major insomniac back in middle school/early high school (like you, couldn't sleep at all until something made me sleep), but mine actually was a product of depression and anxiety. As soon as that went away (for the most part) I could sleep on my own. I never actually feel tired though, and it always takes me at least an hour or two for me to be able to go to sleep. I'm still capable of staying awake for days at a time, which is occasionally useful.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Doctors have to be wary of listening too much to self-diagnoses... I bet the ratio of hypochodriacs and drug-seekers to people who actually know anything about physiology is pretty high...

Yes, they should pay attention to what patients are saying, but they can't base a diagnosis on it completely.

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Sham, I had a similar problem several years ago. It turned out to be an imbalance of several neurotransmitters (sertonin and a few others). After several stays in the hospital, I was diagnosed with OCD, GAD, severe depression, anorexia, and mild narcolepsy by my MD, psychiatrist, and psychologist. I was put on 20mg/day of Prozac for the GAD, OCD, and depression. The anorexia was caused by my nervous system's inability to determine my state of hunger (you don't eat because you simply know when you need to eat... you eat because you're hungry and you know that eating will make that hunger go away) because of an imbalance a medication I was on previously (Lexapro) caused--taking me off of it fixed it. We chose to simply deal with the narcolepsy for the time, on the understanding that I could get medication for it if we decided I needed it... which we never did.

As a result of the combined problems, my nervous system was very sensitive to any change in chemistry--so much that I'm no longer allowed to have any non-prescribed drug other than benedryl (if I have an allergic reaction... I'm allergic to shellfish) and drixoral (if I get a cold or stuffy nose). Other than that, I can't have any drugs at all--no aspirin, ibuprofen, Advil, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, or any other legal or illegal drugs.

As long as I stay away from anything that throws off my body's chemistry and sleep when I need to sleep, I'm usually alright. But before I was medicated and knew what was going on, I had so many problems sleeping. There were periods that I wouldn't sleep for days at a time (usually after drinking a soda or eating a chocolate bar), and periods when I'd sleep for 2-3 days straight. For about a year, after I was diagnosed and started medication, I averaged about 2-4 hours of sleep per night. I'm able to regulate my sleep somewhat, now, but I still take a 2 hour nap/siesta every day, stay up 'till 1-2am every morning, and sleep in 'till the late morning whenever I can (which is usually saturday mornings).

I tend to take a long time to wake up completely... I'll walk around like a mindless zombie for about an hour after I wake up. That's when I'm especially e to randomly falling asleep. I've been known to fall asleep standing up in the shower, while sitting in class with my head up, while talking to people, etc. I'm a waiter at a fancy breakfast-style restaurant, and I work every sunday morning--the busiest day of the week there. I usually drink about two ounces of a caffeinated soda (usually Coke) as soon as I get there to get me totally woken up and ready to work. As a result of having caffeine every sunday morning, I rarely sleep on sunday nights/monday mornings.

Anyway... sham, it may be an imbalance of several neurotransmitters... you should probably get it checked out.

I agree that doctors don't know everything... there are so many undiagnosed disorders/diseases/syndromes out there. My mom's friend was diagnosed with MS because it's the closest thing that describes her symptoms. Her entire nervous system has basically been decomposing/falling apart since she was 30 years old (she's almost 50 now). She's progressively lost her coordination, balance, motor skills, speech, brain function, etc. She's now confined to a hospital bed and has to be spoon fed liquefied foods. And the doctors have no idea what's really wrong with her and have no idea how to treat her. It's horrible...

Has she been checked for spinal osteoporosis? I appreciate its basic, but thats often why things get overlooked, after that its getting into the realms of stem cell research, and I get a bit lost... Besides you know the ladies, they cram in several hundred thousand cups of tea and coffee in a lifetime, all loaded with tannins that turn calcium into inabsorbable calcium oxylate, and all get nerve core damge from surrounding spine deformation. Its always worth checking.

Might as well throw in my experiences. I'm currently on about my 30th hour with no sleep, and probably won't sleep for another 12 or so (hopefully, that is). I took enough drugs last night to put a Cape Buffalo into a coma, and I got bupkis. In fact, I'm so wired right now I'm twitching.

I guess I should put all my cards out onto the table. After all, we're all friends here; or, at least we're all internet friends. Anyway, earlier this year, I went into a manic episode. Now, that was an interesting experience. Luckily, we brought it under control quick enough that I didn't need to be hospitalized. In any event, several very stressful events during the summer have kicked me both way up and way down at different points, and I was finally starting to stablize, and then BOOM! My mother has to take a nose dive off the crazy tree too. So, yeah, life is pretty stressful for me right now, and I am afraid that I may be gearing up again. So, if I seem to do anything strange or act differently (or be in chat 24 hours a day), that may be why.

But, hey, it's stuff like this that keeps life interesting, y'know?

Edit: 42 hours and counting! Go Joe go! /:'

The past 3 days I've woken up at 5am, 6am, and 3am without getting any further sleep. I have an appointment with a new doctor on wednesday but I'm betting I just get told to take more seroquel, probably some mention about sleep hygiene, and how the current level of lunesta I'm taking is not approved for longterm use.

At least I managed to avoid having an appointment with the doctor that takes complete offense to me having an opinion about anything medical. It took me 30mins to convince her to do a basic blood test on iron, folate, and b12 when I had a test from 2 years ago saying all were low. She claimed the test I had at their clinic 5years ago was fine so it was unnecessary. Don't know why it was so difficult to order a nurse to draw blood and send it off. She's also the one I got into it over my knee injury with and instead of doing the MRI that I requested and my insurance paid for completely I got sent to physical therapy and they told me based on the report given to them by the doctor the muscles in my leg are too weak. Guys I ride horses, I can do your prescribed excercises with 5lb ankle weights 3 times over before I feel tired, now explain to me how my problem is due to my leg being weak? Blank looks led to me not showing up at my return appointment.

Dontcha just love the medical profession, I got told to exercise more after theyd tried everything else.Seriously , if I want to I can pick up the front end of a small car and wrstle an alligator. Thats with a body wrecked by car accidents, bike accidents, an old bullet wound, a stabwound, numerous bites, torn muscles and a bad back, lesions in might left lung from a tuberculosis infection when I was two and a degree of nerve damage from aforesaid spinal injury.

Go for a run and the world gets better apparently. Bottom line , if youre intelligent, its a condition that is connected to mentality, biological rythms, or subtle neuron problems, motor issues or hormone levels, they dont have cures for you.

Might as well put a leech in your underpants and shout out " im cured im cured."

After 4-5 years of chronic depression im no better than in the first day, but at least I have the sense to cut the annoying things out of my life. Consequently I might have a chance of getting better in the long run without medical help. Its a bit like being a polar bear in a crate. That bear doesnt recover from stereotypical behaviour unless someone lets it out of the crate, no matter what drugs you give it.


You are never the same after a bout of depression, never. The trick is not minding that your different, and finding a way to live with it. Society sometimes expects people to be something theyre not, and that influence is all pervasive, totally saturating, and angry minds and sad lives are to be expected. If like me you happen to be rather inflexible and rather happen to believe there is something in who you are and how you think thats worth keeping and not changing... well. Thats the battle isnt it. Everything else is symptoms.

My personal view is that spontanious depression is incredibly rare. Most people are made miserable by their environment, and only having the courage to fight against what makes you worry, makes you sad, does anything to combat mental and physical symptoms.

Ive been on drugs most people cant take at all, and my immune system negates them. Im not easily convinced by rubbish psychobabble or foolish medical professionals. Under those circumstances all docs can do is shut up, pretend theyre listening and sign you off sick. Thats life.

I think the short answer to depression is change your life, and fight against anything or anyone that prevents that. Anything else either kinda leads to the "pit" or the "black dog" as they call it, and well, been there a few times, and trust me, you dont want it. In my experience coping with the symptoms of depression actually does nothing to solve the cause, except for the very few people for whom a brief rest is all they need. Sometimes in life you have to just kinda change or drop out and take a chill period, even for years sometimes. It can save your life.

just a quick update.

its been about two weeks and i have fell into a regular sleep pattern.

im guessing it was stress related.

just wanted to send a thanks for all of the answers and concerns out there.

I'm betting I just get told to take more seroquel

Yeah, that's one of the ones I'm on too. I take 1000 mg before I go to bed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I remember when I first started taking it, 25 mg would knock me out for half a day.

If your being knocked out by seroquel then definitely do not mix it with lunesta. The results are interesting. The first day I took my usual 25mg plus 3mg of lunesta and woke up the following afternoon partially on the bed with the lights still on and a bruise on my forehead from an impact I don't remember. Decided I should probably cut those pills up into much smaller amounts until I had a better idea what would happen when mixing different dosages of each. Seroquel is the only antidepressant or anxiety med I can take without more negative side effects than good. It does cause breathing issues if I take too much (somewhere around 100mg) but otherwise I just feel drugged during the day if I take more than usual.

Nah, it doesn't always knock me out anymore. I've tried taking it with Ambien XR when Seroquel doesn't work for me, but that also has inconsistent results.

I'm totally with you on the breathing issues. One time I was getting really frustrated because it wasn't working, so a took 1500 mg plus 5 Ambien. Yeah, that wasn't terribly smart. It basically paralyzed me, and my heart rate and breathing rate were sky high (to the point where I felt like I was going to pass out and my chest physically hurt from the exertion) for a few hours. I mean, I couldn't even get up to tell someone to call 911. All in all, that was one of the scariest experiences of my life. I don't recommend it.

Ambien gives me headaches. I use it temporarily when I run out of lunesta but within a few days I can't stand up without half a bottle of tylenol. It does not interact with anything I've taken. However the non cr version can make you rather hyper right before making you crash and pass out. It breaks down and releases odd amounts of medication at a time. Reason alot of doctors pretty much refuse to give out plain ambien instead of the cr version now but most cr pills can't be cut. They seperate and split into little pieces when you attempt to slice them with a pill cutter.

Yeah, Ambien doesn't make me feel that great the next day, but sometimes I still need to take it. Not so much a headache as just a really foggy feeling. Bah.

Luckily I have an appointment on Tuesday. I think I'm going to ask for something else.

LHG - exercise ? phooey.

When first moved to the USA and went to see a doctor - everything she told me was diet.

Sore back? Diet. Sore ankle? Diet Depression? Diet.

Yes, live on 1000 calories a day (which, my PT threw a FIT about when she found out that someone put me on that) while burning double that and see how you feel.

Turns out - the ankle and back issues were related. Herniated disks