The Forums › Forums › What is it? › Co-morbidities/Secondary Disorders › Getting to sleep
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March 16, 2011 at 7:41 pm #89315
AnonymousInactiveMarch 16, 2011 at 7:41 pmPost count: 14413Hello, I’ve only been to the phychiatrist once…4 months ago and keep forgetting to make an appt to go back..of course. but i’m pretty certain i have add and i just have a question that i’m not sure if it has been addressed on here before or not but i can’t read through every post.
Going to sleep for me is really hard, sometimes it doesn’t take very long if i’m by myself but it usually takes a couple hours every night, i can’t shut my mind off and my thoughts keep me awake, but if there’s a TV on i CANNOT go to sleep, i will stay up the whole night if there’s a TV on because i can’t stop thinking about what’s going on, it’s the same way with any music playing. I’ve never met anyone else with the same issues so i don’t know how common it is.. I also can’t sleep if there’s someone else in the bed, if i stay the night with someone(i’m a 20-year-old female,i’ve been to a lot of sleep overs, and it’s never gotten any better) or if someone’s touching me/up against me while i’m trying to sleep,or i’m at someone else’s house, i can’t do it. I don’t know if it’s an anxiety thing or what but i just can’t fall asleep. I have to move a lot before i can get to sleep and if someone’s touching me i just think about having to move 10x’s more and i’m worried i’m going to disturb them. Any input would be nice
REPORT ABUSEMarch 18, 2011 at 10:23 pm #102159
AnonymousInactiveMarch 18, 2011 at 10:23 pmPost count: 14413Your symptoms are much broader then mine. First I would suggest that you find a good psychiatrist or psychologist, I am being treated by both. The psychologist provides talk therapy, my psychiatrist handles the treatment and drug interaction as well. I live in an area where it is almost impossible to find a psychiatrist taking new patients, and some that do will not accept insurance…cash only. But keep trying until you find one and you will find treatment much more effective.
My sleeplessness continues but I have more than ADHD going on. Everything started with narcolepsy at age 52, than came stress related heart attack at 60. The first diagnosis I got for my sleep problems was Chronic Leg Syndrome, to get to sleep I had to have my feet on the floor with pressure on them. I initially was prescribed a mild sleeping pill and later switched to Benadryl (2 tablets) before trying to sleep (mild sedative). I always remember that I was told that as a child I was a crib rocker and my crib would move around the room. I seems that the exercise helped tire my body and mine, you might want to try some exercise before trying to sleep.
I am also trying to increase my vitamin A with a supplement, your psychiatrist could have you take a blood draw to test for any vitamin deficiency. Do you dose off during the day to make up for not sleeping at night. If so you may want to have your ADD/ADHD treated to prevent that and you should be more tired at bed time. Another recommendation is to try meditation, I have friends that this works well for them.
One thing you should know and pay attention to. If you do not learn to control your ADD/ADHD you are very likely to end up a real victim of its bad effects. At age 63, after a very successful technical career and raising a family, it all came to an end when my wife decided after 49 years together that she could no longer accept my behavior decided to divorce me, another remodeling project was delayed by a year because of my procrastination, housing market collapse, sell the house for 150,000 less than I thought it would sell for, then came bankruptcy, the actual divorce, moving to an apartment 75 miles away and making sure I remain lonely, no joke, no excuses.
REPORT ABUSEMarch 30, 2011 at 4:26 am #102160I used to have problems with sharing my bed too; it seems to have gotten better with practice.
In terms of getting to sleep, that is also a big problem for me. I have a tendency to spend hour and hours on the internet or watching TV and movies instead of putting myself to bed.
I don’t know if this would be helpful to you, but what’s helping me right now is the radio. I got this radio alarm and I can program it to turn off after an hour or half-an-hour. I set it to a talk station or some other low-key station at a low volume and go to bed with it on; it relieves some anxiety about the actual act of going to bed somehow. like maybe it’s a transition between computer time and bedtime; definitely makes it easier for me to turn off the computer at night. I find a relaxed position and pay attention for a bit to the information but eventually – usually – I will drift off.
good luck.
REPORT ABUSEFebruary 21, 2013 at 11:52 pm #119156Ok so I’m a little late to this party, but i found that complete mental exhaustion works really well. I found listing to a movie I have listened to a million times (Shrek) gives me something to pull my focus to and it doesn’t keep me awake because there are no surprises any more so I can just follow along word for word in my head until i drift off (usually not much longer than through the first half of the movie). But above all a diagnosis and meds have made the biggest difference. If i take my meds early in the day and put an honest effort to focus my energy to the proper parts of my day, I have found that for the first time in my life I sleep at night. And not just fall as sleep, stay a sleep and not wake up about every hour and a half. I find that my partners breathing, the draft of cool air into my blankets, light of any sort, the dog rolling over, my partners blanket touching me (HA! ya we did NOT share blankets, like there is any chance at all we could SHARE blankets without me going to prison), a slight change in the earths rotation or atmospheric pressure doesn’t bother me any longer. I know mostly just love my partner and no longer want to strangle him on a regular basis because for the first time i have energy and patients to deal with life. I can’t stress how much of a difference I’ve experience by getting my ‘energy cycles’ figured out so my brain works during the day and doesn’t want to solve the mysteries of the universe at night. I still have the occasional bad night, but for the most part they are restful nights.
REPORT ABUSEFebruary 22, 2013 at 10:53 am #119158@Cayjam, I just want to second everything said here. Your first and most critical step is to get back to the psychiatrist and, if at all possible, seek ongoing therapy. Good cognitive therapy for ADHD has been shown to be especially helpful for issues such as yours–sleep, sensitivity, etc.
You are young–please don’t wait to get help. You’ve heard from us more experienced folks. Having ADHD will never be super fun, but your life will be immeasurably better if you begin treatment now.
February 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm #119167@Cayjam: I know what you’re talking about. Had similar problems long before I’ve got even diagnosed with ADD.
I think your are experiencing also some anxiety and compulsory disorder problems. Don’t forget ADD/ADHD never comes alone.
First advice, I second what everybody else already said. Go, see your psychiatrist!!!!!
Secondly, this will help you with those anxiety/compulsory problems.
There’s something very common about people with ADD/ADHD and all the other crap that comes with it (you are not alone, we all have similar problems!).
We always worry more about other people than ourselves. Whether we fear we are disturbing them or whatever else, we are always more concerned about the wellbeing of others around us.
Yet, we are the one’s who suffer from insomnia and what not.
Do yourself a favour and realize that first and foremost you’ve got to take care of yourself. – This has nothing to do with being selfish. It has to do with changing your thinking and hence controlling your anxiety. Don’t be afraid you might wake up the other person. Guess what, s/he is already asleep while you are not. Even if s/he wakes up briefly they will go back to sleep as quickly.
Or if you’re afraid the person beside you might touch up against you, instead of worrying about it and it’s consequences for you (the compulsory part feeds of your anxiety) reverse the role and be the one who does the touching/brushing up. Again, the person beside you is at sleep. By reversing the role you are in fact eliminating your anxiety completely.When I was your age I had this compulsive habit of checking my alarm clock gazillion times before I could even relax enough to fall asleep. I got completely fed up with having to reach out to the darn alarm clock hundreds of times to check whether it’s set or not, it wasn’t funny anymore. One day I had the glorious idea to get a second alarm clock and put it across the room, way out of my reach. Knowing I had a back-up I cannot turn off accidentally solved the problem instantly and put an end to my compulsive behaviour for good.
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