Sleep Disorders :: Xanax Alternatives
Oct 25, 2013
Long story short- I wake up after two hours of sleep and CANNOT get back; the feeling is awful and I'm like a zombie all day, not really alive, if you know what I mean.
About three years ago my doctor gave me Xanax, 2mg. They made me sleep through the night. Those pills saved my life. A friend of mine uses them as well, for over ten years for sleep.
At first I was scared to take more than one every few days. When I told my doctor he asked why I didn't just take them every night? I was afraid of becoming an addict. He said, "You gotta sleep, just take them whenever you need." So I take them every night. Life is great, they're only $4.00 a month from express Scripts.
Now they stopped working. Just like that. I'm told that happens, you build up an immunity or whatever. I have a program I set up myself to wean myself off of them- taking a .25 piece off every four weeks.
My doctor gave me something called Trazodone (50mg), that I'm supposed to take along with the Xanax until I'm completely free. It's uncomfortable as hell, but nothing like 'monkey's crawling on my back' or anything.
OK- to the question: What alternatives are there to Xanax? This Trazodone is NOT doing anything.
Is there anything that anyone's tried that I can take to sleep without it killing me by taking it with Xanax?
If I wean myself off of Xanax can the process be started over with Xanax, and maybe last another three years? I'm in complete zombie mode coming off Xanax from lack of sleep.
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I'm 14 years old and yesterday school started after two weeks of holidays. I went to bed at 11 PM and woke up at 4 AM. I tried to go back to sleep but I just couldn't. At 6 AM I got up and got ready for school. After school I was really tired and took an hour long nap, but I was still extremely tired. I went to bed at 9 PM and fell asleep in a second. I woke up at 2:30 AM and tried my best to fall asleep, but it didn't work. Its 6 AM right now and Ive done some homework, as I couldnt do them yesterday because I was so tired. The thing is, this didn't happen in my holiday, and I get really cranky when I don't get enough sleep. Do I have insomnia?
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I am an insomniac, but want to sleep till afternoon. I've taken xanax for 20+ years and it helps with my anxiety, but it seems I'm needing more for sleep. I am overweight and wonder if it takes more to get any results.
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I'm diagnosed sleep apnea and since it's onset, have been unable to wake myself up. This includes alarm clocks, opening windows, setting a sleep schedule, etc. The ONLY way I can wake up is by somebody physically waking me up and that only works after the first couple of tries. First issue is when I hear an alarm clock, I move from whatever dream I'm in to a separate dream where I think I've woken myself up, but I keep trying to turn off the alarm clock and it won't turn off. Sometimes I realize I'm dreaming still and "wake up" into a 3rd or 4th dream that seems more real and have the same issues. Secondly, my body seems to require 13-16 hours of sleep in order to feel well rested and wake up naturally. I am using a cpap machine, however, I sort of sleep walk and remove the machine in my sleep. Any ideas on how I can become independent and wake up on my own?
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I’ve been suffering from insomnia ever since I stopped taking Effexor and all natural ways to help me to get asleep didn’t really help much. I tried taking melatonin supplement, running and exercising and even herbal tea as a sleep remedy, but none of them really helped since I’m still managing to sleep only few hours before dawn.
Now i’m thinking to see my doctor to prescribe me some sleep aid and I was wondering what are your experiences with Valium and Xanax - which one works better as a sleep aid?
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I had my first panic attack 6 years ago, shortly after graduation from college, at 23 years old , in May 2008 and they became more and more frequent in the subsequent weeks. I did not have health insurance and opted to not go to the hospital. Eventually I became a hermit in my room, waking up in terror all night, not being able to breathe. My girlfriend at the time was seeing a psychiatrist and I finally went. She diagnosed me with panic disorder and depression, based on a dysfunctional childhood. She put me on Xanax .25 to .5 mg as needed. This drug was a miracle for me and I was quite ignorant six years ago in relation to health and meds. I was finally able to breathe again and live, until I woke up with constant urinary urgency that did not stop for several years, throughout this period I had 0 panic attacks, as I was in constant pain. Medication only made it worse, the only thing that helped me survive was Xanax. I never abused it. I was on and off every ssri and bladder pill on the market and tried everything from silver water to bee pollen. Nothing ever worked for the ic or prostatitis and doctors gave up on my chance for recovery. Through the years on my own, I found relief, but the anxiety increased as did the Xanax slowly. I moved to sc three years ago and quit smoking lost 50 lbs once I started to run 15 to 20 miles a week, and began to take classes in nutrition in my leisure time, getting rid of the fast food and substituting it with organic produce and juicing, after many years in constant pain I have become obsessed with learning the error of my ways. I started on my own tapering my Xanax and bladder pills, at the time I was on a combine 15 prescriptions, and now I am on two, Xanax and elmiron for the bladder, and I am reducing them. I started to have brain for, or derealization about two years ago in the midst of my health search. I can barely feel emotion, kind of like I am not alive, I can barely remember getting to work once I am there, I put on this smile and have been faking it for a long time. Life has lost all feeling. If I take a Xanax it gets a little better, as in I just do not care. I feel like a machine and sometimes I feel like I cannot take it. I am down to .125 mg to .25mg of Xanax a day and have started some herbs like st johns wort and kava, but am so fatigued and brain fogged Is the Xanax causing this? Or the withdrawal due to my tapering? Or is it the Anxiety? I cannot get any real answers from the doc, as he just wants to give me more chemicals, the only thing U S doctors do these days. Any experience this would my very helpful. How can I awake from this fog and feel alive again? How long will it take?
Any help would be much appreciated! I am a 29 year old male, 145lbs. I exercise regularly and have a very healthy diet.
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Has anyone used melatonin to help them fall asleep to any great effect. It has yet to work for me
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So this is the second time that happens to mh I was taking a nap and I dreamed about : I was in a room with a friend and we were talking and then appears something scary and all I could see is big legs full of hair and a scary voice and I couldn't understand what he saying I felt like he is a devil so I tried to wake up I couldn't move my head start vibrating I opened my eyes I see clearly and I start to scream it's just whispers so I start saying something related to my religion and then it's gone
the first time happened like that except not the same dream and the head vibration last longer.
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Should I consult a Doctor about involuntary stretching? I am 67 year old woman in fairly good health- very sctive. This has been going on for several months and supplements have not helped.
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Hey everyone,
I've had a weird type of parasomnia for as long as I can remember, and I am unable to find a name for it.
It usually happens when I had an emotional day, and usually after 3 or 4 hours of sleep (in the middle of the night, so to speak). To be as clear as possible, I am going to give you last night's example: I work as a camera operator, and yesterday we had quite a difficult shoot, where I made a few mistakes. Nevertheless, I didn't feel too worried, as I know these things can happen. But then, when I wen't to sleep, I "woke up" at about 2:30 am with this feeling that I was right in the middle of a shoot. I was aware that there was nobody in my room, but I had this feeling that people could see me and hear me, like they were just behind my door. I wasn't scared - the main feeling really was embarrassment. When I woke up, I was dressed up (I felt like my coworkers could see me in my pijamas, and so I got dressed!), and some items around my bed had moved, like I had tried to make the place look more tidy.
Although I can't say that I was awake, I have very clear memories of what I was going through. I remember thinking at some point "no way, they can't be in my room, it makes no sense", but then the sensation took over again. That being said, I have no idea of how long it lasted, and I can't remember dressing up, although I can recall moving stuff around. I must also say that there were no actual hallucinations: I couldn't see no hear anybody. The best way I can describe it is this: it's like being in a room and knowing that behind the close door there are people, even though you can't hear them. Once again, it's not a scary feeling, it's just really stressful.
So... does anyone have experienced something similar? Does it have a name?
I must say I can easily live with this parasomnia, because it's not really giving me a hard time, but most of all I am quite curious, cause I've never met someone who has something similar.
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i am having difficulty in sleeping for several days already. the doctor prescribed me with seroxat 25mg, had taken only one but causes me jerky movements and confusions. i am afraid to take another. had slept for only 6 hours the most. the drug that helped me sleep were hydroxyzine and benadryl but no pharmacy sell these products in Ar-Ar city, KSA. it cause me anxiety. i can still focused on my job but the thought of not able to sleep results in sleepless nights.
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I am not pregnant and I am still single. I am going to be 22 years old this year. I have some nightmare dreams. I am going to tell you one. In this dream I was climbing on a building at first. Then a guy pushed me from behind and I started to fall. I can feel myself falling even though I am on my own bed. Most of the time I am dreaming of me singing on the stage. Other times I become one of the characters in my dream and at the end I get killed. Or I dream nothing at all. What does this mean? Am I seeing the future or Is it just my dreams have gone wild?
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I have been experiencing hallucination when waking up suddenly in the night. The hallucination is usually a huge spider in the room and I always wake up people in the house screaming "look!" or "Oh my God". And in a matter of a minute or so the image disappears. I have ignored these hallucinations for sometime, but recently I hallucinated that their was someone in the room. I panicked but I could not move my entire right side. I some how managed to wake my partner and I could still not move. When I finally hard arm and leg movement back, it was difficult to move my muscles and felt I could not control them. I gets bouts of tiredness during the day and nap a lot. Is this a sign of narcolepsy? My grandmother had it. Should I worry?
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I have suffered from depression insomnia anxiety and I have tree herniated disk on my cervical and 3 on my lumber I don't want to take any medication and i am in lots of pain and don't sleep .What should I do.?
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For the first time in my life, it happened to me last night to go to sleep and to almost not fall asleep AT ALL during the night , and without any real reason to me . I didn't feel tired at all last night, but now I feel absolutely horrible. I tried to take a nap now, but no use, I didn't sleep a single wink.
I was watching TV last night and a movie before bed , which wasn't very intense , but I could have broken my "drowsiness" with it, as my brain was active and I wasn't sleepy at all when I went to bed and didn't feel the need to sleep at all. So after tossing and turning for a couple of hours without falling asleep, I went to the bathroom , to change the air a bit and after returning to bed, after some time, I seem to have felt asleep but only for a couple of minutes (I didn't even remember when I felt asleep), but after that ended I felt totally refreshed, as if I slept the whole day. Later, I had a similar episode, I was asleep for about 25 minutes, and also felt totally refreshed when I "woke up". Now I am dizzy, but not sleepy.
I just googled the symptoms a bit and I found something called sporadic fatal insomnia . I know it is rare and all.........but my symptoms fit that. Nobody in my family, as far as I am aware, has died of anything similar to FFI, but sporadic variant can strike anyone.
Am I going to die from this? I saw a case study of the first case, where a man, at one point couldn't even get 1 hour of sleep and lost it completely. I am so totally freaked out as I also didn't get even 1 hour of sleep last night.
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I'm curious if anyone else experiences this. Just as I cross the line from being awake to falling asleep, it seems like my body just forgets to breathe. I jolt myself awake and just get right back to sleeping. I don't notice it every night but sometimes it happens a few times before I'm fully asleep.
I'm otherwise a healthy 32 year old male. I go to the gym multiple times a week and don't have any other major health issues other than occasional teeth-grinding at night. I don't snore heavily and I typically wake up rested when I do get to sleep early enough.
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I have looked on many websites for discussions on this, then stopped because it didn't cause much worry, but only recently am I trying to find help, which is hard to find. I post and post and it seems that nobody has any answers or even cares to answer. It is a very big concern of mine. I have many anxiety issues, I developed borderline personality disorder, and also suffer from general anxiety, all stemming from childhood. I have also rocked myself to sleep since I could remember. (Which I don't remember much below age 12). I am currently 18, and never had a problem coping with my RMD as it was harmless and all around soothing. Even in public or talking about something I was uncomfortable with I would subtly rock(Didn't even know till bf pointed it out) But I am now currently 17 weeks pregnant. I had no trouble sleeping during the first trimester as I was tired all the time, but now I'm having troubles sleeping and I'm afraid my RMD will cause harm to the baby, as I am aggressively rocking my whole body from head to toe back and forth for literally hours. I'd wake up with knots in my hair from it. My boyfriend would be able to wake me up too and stop me as I do it subconsciously, but he now sleeps through it. But I have woken up twice from it, and it really worries me that it will harm my little angel. It generally when I have nightmares(Which I do almost every night or I just don't dream)..or when I am stressed I believe. I really don't know much about it but I will be talking to my doctor about it (but I'm sure she will just tell me to find coping methods), but I was wondering if anyone has had to deal with this and what their first hand experiences were & how they coped with it because counseling and meds are something that haven't helped and I really can't or want to take any medication now as I want my baby to be as healthy as possible.
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Symptoms came on 3 weeks ago. Had blood test though I'm not sure what GP was checking for apart from thyroid. Had no problems up to now was cycling & swimming. Quit smoking 4 months ago & vape
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This is driving me crazy for the last year! Most nights I don't get a lot of sleep so I am often overtired. When I am about to fall asleep I will have lots of sudden episodes of rapid nonsensical utterances. My husband calls them AbbaDabbaDoo episodes, lol. The sounds are always different and often very loud. Sometimes I will even yell out. This all happens before I start to fall asleep or even feel I am drifting off. Often I am awake reading, on the computer or watching TV. Even when absorbed in a fast hockey game I can emit these sounds. There is no denying I am awake but, I am still tired. I was tested for Myoclonic Epilepsy but, it was negative. I do have Sleep Apnea and use C-Pap. I also have Myoclonus mostly with leg jerking but sometimes worse. The sudden blurting out episodes often co-inside with the leg jerks. Has anyone ever had this or even heard of it. I can get no answers from my ENT or Neurologist. I don't know where to go next in trying to get an answer. Is this just merely another version of sleep starts?
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Few day ago till now I feel very tired and difficult breathing. I feel short breath and chest congestion. I also feel numbness all over my body and dizzy. I also feel very dry mouth and dry throat. I cannot sleep every night for full night. I had lung x-Ray last months but result was fine. I had severe stress due to some mental health last month but now I feel relieve but I don't know why I had all symptoms I mentioned above.
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can you help me, when I sleep in the afternoon I get cold and wake up shivering but when I sleep at night I get to hot and have to sleep on top of the blankets
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