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I am diagnosed bipolar 2, OCD, GAD, and at one point ADHD although the psychs can’t decide if it’s true or not. my cocktail: wellbutrin xl 450 mg in morning lamictal 200mg at night lexapro 10mg morning for the GAD and OCD my OCD is the obsessive thoughts type. My issue being mainly that I lack motivation and am tired all the time as well very hungry and have gained weight but can’t find the hunger control to diet and can’t find the motivation to exercise. yes it’s terrible and could be affecting all of this but for years it’s the only way I can function half a pot or a whole pot of coffee in the morning and occasionally a monster or two in the afternoon I practically live on caffeine. i sleep ok usually about 7-8 hours a night. luckily I have a job currently although I’m a serial job hopper. somehow I have a wife and daughter who put up with me. I’m on my 20’s im 6 foot tall and was originally 225 when I was exercising but after wife’s pregnancy and post partum and life of course I’m now 289. just trying to see if anyone has experienced similar cocktails because although I’ve been under treatment off and on since 15 I have honestly not tried many meds more so favoring trying different doses of the same med because I have enough of a hard time holding a job without the med game happening. i have tried seroquel which is a never again strattera which messed with blood pressure. Gabapentin which is absolutely not. Adderall which was obviously awesome but is likely bad for the bipolar. Abilify which made me feel mentally handicapped. Buspar which made me practically forget my own name. Just found this place and basically looking for any experiences, thoughts etc.

My old psych-NP gave me seroquel for sleep around the end of December last year. I haven't taken it every night as she wanted or else I wouldn't be still sitting here almost 11 months later with around 50 or 60 25mg pills left. I have used it randomly for particularly tough nights where I know I can't sleep or I just feel really amped up/anxious and don't want to take more than 1mg of Klonopin. Is this ok to do? When I do use it, it ranges from 25-75mg and I sleep like a baby.

Here is my sleep report from my FitBit: Time Sent in each stage of sleep: Awake 18% - 1 hr. 45 min REM 17% - 1 hr. 41 min Light 46% - 4 hours 29 min Deep 18% 1 hr. 47 min

And I don't mean sleeping 1-2-3 hours a night, I mean several consecutive nights of ZERO sleep... The longest time I went with absolutely no sleep was 5-6 days. I don't know why I wasn't hallucinating. I was actually driving around and going to my classes. It's almost like my brain went "Fuck it" around the third or fourth day of no sleep and flipped. I was no longer tired. Bipolar is a funny thing sometimes.

Does anyone else find that the days you take your stimulant, you sleep like baby at night and wake up refreshed? I do! I'm so happy that I am finally getting restful and conistent sleep with the help of Adderall. I take 10mg IR once in the morning and sometimes I take a second dose around lunch or dinner. I was reading good article abut it. Let me get the link. It's from Tuck.com. If it's accurate information, it seems very informative. https://www.tuck.com/stimulants-and-sleep/

I have bipolar II, and I have been hypomanic for about two weeks. I would like to come down now, because the lack of sleep is getting to me and I'm not that euphoric or even productive anymore. I'm trying to utilize the extra energy while making reasonable choices to not go higher up, but at this point I would just like to come down and get some sleep. I'm wired physically and sitting still is close to impossible, but it feels like something in my brain is tired and needs to rest. Evidence says I'm not at my best right now, at least I don't code as well as I usually do, even though I have a lot of ideas and every thought that comes through my head feels like the best idea ever. I'm not taking a mood stabilizer and I don't think I really need one most of the time. Most of them wouldn't be worth the side effects, since antidepressants actually helped somewhat with the depressive episodes while not preventing all of them and hypomania is infrequent. I rapid cycled in the beginning, but I don't since switching to Wellbutrin from Zoloft. Also I stopped doing insanely stupid things while hypomanic after I understood what it was and got some practise dealing with it, and I don't tend to crash into severe depression although it has happened. I would have considered cutting the Wellbutrin in half if my 300 mg pills were splittable, which they aren't because they are sustained-release. The only thing I have on hand that could help me sleep is Remeron, but I don't know how smart it would be to take an antidepressant just for the antihistamine side effects. It helped a great deal in the past when I was depressed, so that's why I'm unsure about taking it now. If anyone has ideas about how to get down from here safely and preferably soon, I'm all ears. I could use more than two - four hours of sleep tonight, and the time says that's probably not happening. In an ideal world I would be discussing these things with a psychiatrist, but I don't have one since moving six months ago. I have a therapist, and I have an appointment with her this Friday. I could ask her to ask a doctor to prescribe something for sleep, we talked about it last time I was there, but I don't know what and I won't just take anything. I'm never taking antipsychotics again, not even at a low dose. I have tried four, and I tend to get terrible akathisia at low doses, and then sleep most of the day at higher doses. I got them while I had depression with psychotic symptoms before I was diagnosed bipolar, and they didn't even help with that. The thing is I'm not prepared to take medications with life-altering side effects just to prevent hypomanic episodes that are far between and usually don't end in long-lasting depression. Maybe just a short-acting sleeping pill for a short period of time or something like that. I don't know if the whole antidepressant monotherapy thing is a good idea either considering I'm hearing voices from lack of sleep right now (don't worry, I've been there before), but it's been way better than atypical antipsychotics at preventing depression with none of the side effects and Lamictal literally did nothing for preventing depression or anything else. Any ideas about what I could do after this long ramling post is greatly appreciated. Medication-wise or non-medication-wise.

Ive been taking anti psychotics for ten years and throughout it Ive had horrible issues with sleep and struggled to wake up at any regular "human" time. So much so I have not been in college or work throughout those ten years. I'd take my meds around 10/11/12(PM) and wake up around 1/2/3(PM). 11 hour sleeps are probably the minimum. 14 wasnt that weird a thing. In winter time this becomes even more of a problem because I am not seeing sunlight. I've tried all sorts of things to combat this sleep problem: A deaf persons alarm A light alarm (which was definitely helpful but didn't fix the problem) Drinking copious amounts of water before bed Depriving myself of caffeine/chocolate/alcohol/(life itself) for a couple of weeks Not using TV/PC/phones in the evening And of course the classic: "why don't you just take the drug at 8PM and then you could wake up in the morning". (Yes and why don't I just kill myself while I am at it. All my friends are working adults and I will happily take shitty lifestyle over never having the ability to meet up with friends. I did try it for one summer and it just upset me leaving get-togethers and events before they barely got started. I would say it made me feel suicidal. I may as well be walking around with "lunatic" printed on my forehead. Add to that I do music in a band and often don't get home until 10PM so Id have to give up my passion too.) Recently I got a mood lamp (for Christmas), it shines all kinds of colours and varying degrees of brightness. For the last week as soon as I go to bed I turn the lights off and the lamp on to a dim orange/red and keep it on until I wake up in the morning. I have to say every day I am waking up early. No more 3PM starts. No more 1PM starts. I wake up when I set my alarm. Often even earlier. Its so weird. Its like its erased the problem absolutely. I also actually feel tired in the night and that I want to go to bed so I can sleep. Now it could definitely be complete fluke. Also I have considered the fact that I may have just reduced the quality of sleep I am getting, thus waking up to my light alarm more easily. I will definitely make sure to post an update in 2 weeks time, and perhaps another 2 weeks beyond that to see how things progress. If it does stay like this I will be writing to my mental health services and telling them that the need to be prescribing this to people who have sleep problems induced by anti psychotics At the moment has literally changed my life and I cant emphasise that enough. I wish I got one ten years ago when I first started taking anti psychotics.

It's 11 and I woke up at 2 or 3. I don't remember. I went to bed around midnight. I have a disappointed cat and a cold apartment. An appointment with one therapist tomorrow and another on Thursday. Tomorrow is going to be with a therapist that has a focus on youth. I'm 29 so I'm only 'several months away from our last meeting. She's been with me for over 6 years. Oversaw my homelessness, my transition, my going into and out of hospitals. I want to keep seeing her weekly for years to come but I guess it's only reasonable. And the right time. If it wasn't I'd know. I just kind of.. I'unno. Her and I talk about nightmares a lot. They really fucking suck. I don't know if it's because I forgot to take my med last night but I had a lot of them. Walked in on a play my friends were putting on. Accidentally wandered on stage and I didn't have a part in it. So I ran off stage and into a field that kept changing. I got a call from a friend and I couldn't describe what I was seeing. I realized that no one could understand and I was going crazy. I then "woke up" in a dark room and someone was pounding on a door it was a rapist and I was in trouble. Lately I've been having those pop up in my dreams a lot. I won't share anymore. But I woke up for real and saw mealworms covering my body. And then the dream imagery stuff kind of faded away. So. that's cool. Usually I write a bit of what I dream to my therapist when it's awful. It must not be weird to have a connection with a therapist you've been seeing. I mean.. C'mon it's their job. But. Still. I'm an adult and in a way I feel like I'm going to be stepping out into the big wide world alone. In some ways I've been alone for most of my life. It's just.. in some ways it feels more so now that we're dissolving the relationship. Her practice is growing in leaps and bounds. She's going on a sabbatical and I... the great 29 year old kid is going to be looking for new caregivers. I guess. In a couple of months. Then why does it feel like it's already happened? Then why am I still scared to go to sleep like a child? Then why am I 29 years old still unable to go grocery shopping, step out of her apartment, still unable to shop for clothes and haven't done laundry in months? then why am I? I don't know... Why do I feel like I've already missed out on most of life? Unable to bring myself to play with my cat and spend a substantial amount of my time crying alone? I guess I don't know. fuck life. right?

Hi, my new doc told me I should give olanzapine a try because of lack of sleep. Has anyone else tried this med? I don't really dig the idea of taking something that is tagged as "sedative" and "anti-psychotic". Why would I need an "anti-psychotic" for sleeping? What kind of "sedative" effects does this pill create? I don't want to go around all numb'd down. The meds they give me usually don't work, anti-depressants have all been useless. Only lamotrigine has made me feel better. I really don't trust this olanzapine thing, I don't even like it's name, sounds trashy. Also, has anyone felt psychotherapy does help or have any kind of benefit beyond "venting out"? I could get it for free because of the mental health program in my country (just as the meds). I have tried it before and it was really a waste of time and it is frustating to hear someone just turn thoughts upside down and pretend it is some kind of insightful and constructive feedback, life if that wasn't something someone neurotic (as me and I guess some of you are since we share some kind of mental trait*) does all the time. At least that was my experience. To the ones here with good experiences with psychotherapy, how do think it helped you? My old doc once told me psychotherapy made a difference between people with mental problems getting a career and stuff like that. The difference was that the ones who did psychotherapy were 80% more likely to develop some kind of stable career. I think the thing is that 80% of every group of people will most likely be able to develop a career, regardless of psychotherapy or MI, so the stadistics just putted the "psychotherapy made this possible!" watermark to it. idk. *: That made me question if people with bipolar or other mental illness share some traits beyond the diagnosis? Have you guys noticed some kind of pattern? this is not really important, just thought it was interesting Thanks for reading (:

Yesterday, I self injured in my sleep. This happened once before, and I am scared of this happening again. I'm taking my meds as prescribed, but I'm wondering if this is a sort of sleep walking, and if there is anything I can take to prevent it. I suffer from anxiety and post traumatic stress and past physical abuse issues. Any advice is appreciated.

Hi, I have what I like to consider pretty bad GAD and it is most prevalent when I am faced with time pressure and especially with assignments at school. I always start telling myself "I can't do it" and all i want to do is run away and avoid the stress and do anything to avoid having to deal with it. this usually takes the form of extensions and excuses and skipping classes and emailing profs, etc. I've been doing really well this week but for some reason I can't let myself feel that or think to myself that maybe I can do it, because I keep saying to myself, just because I succeeded in the past how do I know I will this time. I've also failed a lot in the past, so that could happen too. I even feel like writing this post is avoidance even though its really just me reaching out, but I feel pathetic that I can't just deal with my shit on my own. Right now I have a 1000 word paper due in 3 hours and I tried reading the articles that I need to read but I just got overwhelmed and started writing down all the thoughts that were going through my head. That helped a little because I got the thoughts out, and I guess that's what this is doing too. I still am majorly fighting the urge to email my prof for an extension, which I prob will be able to get, and get on a bus to go home and hide in bed for as long as possible. I just don't want to face this fear. I freeze up any time I say to myself that I can't do it, and I will do anything to run away. I guess what I want to know is does anyone else feel this, and if so, how do you cope without running and hiding. Thanks

Hi all, So I just got put on Lunesta the other day and took it for sleep that night. I managed to sleep with only waking up once. Yay. But it tasted horrible. I thought Lithium was bad, but this stuff stuck in my mouth all night long and I only was able to quell it a bit with some tea in the morning. Has anyone experienced this with this particular sleep aid? I am really hoping this will work out for my because my Pdoc said I have tried everything else. And I believe them. I should also note that I am on a generic, if that makes a difference. Thanks, Poem

My 25 year old son, diagnosed with autism, severe anxiety, intellectual/developmental disability, has had a severe sleep disorder his entire life. He averages about 3.5 hours of sleep per night. Often, that's not all at the same time but aggregate between 10pm - 6am. Over the years, we've tried dozens (and dozens...) of both alternative and conventional treatments. Specific to prescription medications to help induce sleep, we've tried over 15. Almost all medications have had a paradoxical effect on him (activating vs. sedating). None have helped with sleep. He's been on risperidone for about 3 years. No other meds. We have not tried Trazadone (and probably many others). ANY ideas are welcome!

All of this has been going on for almost 2 years: Symptoms: Severe Generalized / Social Anxiety Disorder Major Depressive Disorder OCD – Usually Appears in “Health Worries” Sleep Apnea, verified by at home test and hospital c-pap study. A lot of Hypopneas and some Central Apneas, O2 Sat. drops in 80% level without c-pap. I have been using a C-Pap machine for over 150 days, 100% compliance. Sleep Phase Disorder – 4.5 hours of sleep at night, HAVE to nap during day, everyday for approx.. 3-4 hours Excessive Daytime Sleepiness General Fatigue Apathy Calcification on Left Distal Achilles Tendon (Going to PT for this) Right Achilles is painful also Knee Pain, difficult upon standing Back Pain, lower back, burning pain when standing too long Right Hip Pain, notice upon standing Severe TMJ (on going for many years) Joint Pain is worse in morning and after getting out of recliner Stiffness is severe, difficulty getting socks and underwear on 50lb weight gain over the past 1-1/2 year Increased Appetite, can eat all the time Increased Thirstiness Stomach feels like I’m hungry all the time Tongue Lesions (burning) and Geographic Tongue on a regular basis Blurry Vision at times, caused by Dry Eyes Thick abnormal Toe Nails Thumb Nails have dip in them Dry Skin on Knees and Scalp (always digging skin away near ears) Memory Issues, both short and long term Brain Fog Shakiness in hands Shortness of Breath High blood pressure and headache upon waking – 138/100 Facts: Diagnosed with General and Social Anxiety Disorder, OCD, and Major Depressive Disorder approx. 16 years ago. Have been on many different Antidepressants, Benzos, etc. for approx. 16 years Have been on Klonopin for 10 years straight. Current cocktail: 6-8mg of Klonopin per day, 200mg Luvox, 1200mg Trileptal, Vitamin D-5000. Cocktail has been a life saver for my mental illness. See a Therapist Weekly, P-Doc Monthly, Primary every 2-3 months. Have tried most newer SSRI’s and Benzo’s in the past. Either not effective or side effects too severe. In 2012 went through 6 weeks of transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment (not effective for me) Tested positive for Epstein-Barr virus approx. 1-1/2 year ago (showed a past infection) Confirmed “tongue issues,” by ENT Doctor Confirmed “sleep disorders” by Sleep Doctor … He is not a Neurologist, but rather works in General Medicine, and in the Sleep Lab. Confirmed “achilles” problem by X-ray and Orthopedic Doctor Tested Negative for ANA test (specifically looking at systematic lupus) Tested Negative for Thyroid Conditions, tested 1-1/1 year ago Adrenal Function normal, tested 2 years ago Liver, Kidney, EKG, Heart Ultrasound, Blood Sodium, and all other tests normal, except Vitamin D level very low. I now take Vitamin D-5000 everyday (been over a year). Visit with Rheumatologist indicated that likelihood of Fibromyalgia is low. C-pap therapy has not helped. Concerns: No doctor has yet to determine why I am so tired (daytime sleepiness), Fatigued all the time. Current sleep doctor wanted to prescribe Provigil, but now wants me to use light therapy for phase disorder and then use c-pap when I nap. Have no idea why I have such severe joint pain/aches in ankles, knees, hip and back. I THINK that there is an underlying cause to some of these issues, but do not know what. I do know that I have mental illness, and setting that aside for the moment, current treatment is going well. Is there anyone else like this out there?? I have hit that point in my life that I honestly don’t know what to do next. My quality of life is severely affecting my marriage and family relationships. There are days that I do not want to get out of bed, wishing this was a bad dream. Any thoughts?

I'm experiencing what I think is a "nervous breakdown" of sorts. An extreme stress response my body can't get out of. My worst symptoms are caused by sleeping and/or only at night, early morning. I'm low on quality sleep because of this. I can feel myself holding my breath as I'm sleeping. Usually around 2am. I'll sleep through it but can feel myself doing it. I'll awake with start sometimes holding my breath still or gasping for air around 4am (when the insane adrenaline type surges start). I also have episodes of Catathrenia but this seems different (no sounds come from the exhale). I'm med free, btw. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you!

As the title says, how much benadryl do you take for sleep? I have occasional restless nights and was wondering how much benadryl can I take?

I don't remember exactly when this has started up but I've become pretty bad at getting any sleep at night and if i do it's 1-2 hours max. It's interfering with my life because not only do i stay up all night, but I'm usually up during the day because of events or me trying to get this pattern back on track. But when night time comes around I find that I'm wide awake and have a hard time sleeping. And then I get anxious because i know I should be sleeping because it's going to be hard to carry through the day with any activities. (I do get a bit tired in the afternoon) For example, right now, its 3:54 AM and my family planned a fun day trip tomorrow, we'd be leaving the house around 7:30 AM and be gone all day. I'm feeling quite anxious because i got 2 hours of sleep the night before this, and today I've only napped for 30 minutes. I don't know what is up with me. My family doesn't know, they've mentioned my eyes being darker than usual but i shrugged it off. And I haven't taken any meds, I'm not a fan of them but if I have to I just might.

Would another antihistamine such as Hydroxyzine be something worth trying instead of Remeron for sleep, appetite, and anxiety? I ask this because every time I have been on remeron it has been amazing the first few weeks. I sleep great, wake up refreshed, and eat well and put on much needed weight, which I'm guessing from it's powerful antihistamine effect. But each time after about a month while I continue to sleep and eat better my anxiety actually gets worse, and I get agitated and edgy a lot, which I'm guessing is from the norepinephrine part kicking in? Would a drug like Hydroxyzine or something similar maybe still give me that feeling like I have the first few weeks on remeron without the negative stuff several weeks later? I just with remeron would keep working forever like it always does those first few weeks.

Hi all, Which antipsychotic or antihistamine/anticholinergic before bed will make you sleep & will make you feel the MOST REFRESHED in the morning? Also, maybe not many will, but is there any anticholinergic,antihistamine or antipsychotic that you could take a high dose around 7pm and fall asleep straight away?. no benzo's. Thanks.

Hi, Which antipsychotic gives your the best?. So you take it to go to bed and you wake up feeling refreshed. Olanzapine is said to increase slow wave sleep. risperidone is also said to do this but many say they wake up feeling bad. Which is the best antipsychotic out of them all that gives you the best sleep? .

Hello Everyone, I'm new here, but thought I'd get some opinions. I get bouts of insomnia where I can't sleep until 4-5am and sleep maybe 5-6 hours a night. These seem to last roughly 5-7 days although I have had them longer. I am currently charting to see if there is a pattern. However, I also have the problem of oversleeping when I am not in a state of insomnia! I am getting a sleep study done soon, but won't have results for a while since the Doctor is away. Why do I have both insomnia and hypersomnia? Any thoughts? It seems like I can never get any restorative sleep. I guess I should also mention that I am bipolar and have anxiety/panic attack issues as well. Thanks, Poem

OK, i'm reaching out to see what some of you think about my memory issues and what may have caused it and will it get better... I will explain what is going on first. I used to be quick with words, but a few years ago I noticed i am having difficulty trying to remember/learn anything new. But if i am hands-on and spend a lot it sinks in. Example: If i have been around a product long enough, i learn all about it by explaining it to customers and hearing others talk. But if i try reading on it or take any training, it just doesn't stick very well at first. I can't say when it actually started, but i noticed it a few years ago when i switched jobs and had to learn some new product. THIS WAS / IS EMBARRASSING to say the least when i get a question. Also, i notice i can't find certain words when trying to explain some things in general...i know that i know what i mean to say, but some words just won't come to the surface...causing a quick stammer to find the word for what i am trying to say...Then a while later, it pops into my head, needless to say, after i don't need it anymore. If i had to explain it, I would say that i feel like when i am trying to write/think that all the words and phrases rush by and don't stick so i can't recall them. My thoughts seem flash by, racing through my brain...kinda like confusion, or thinking too fast. Its like the thoughts are there, but i can't grab them fast enough. If i try to read up on something, its like my eyes dart all over and i don't retain much, if anything, because i seem to be thinking about something else at the same time. HISTORY. I have a long history of anxiety. Probably a little OCD too. Type A personality. I experienced severe Panic Attacks in 1992 that lasted about 6 months. I was put on anti-depressants at the time to help manage. In 1995 i switched to Paxil and a few years ago I tried to taper off to stop, but have come to believe that i am much better off staying on as i feel much better in most every way. I also started on Ativan and Ambien. I have been on Paxil 10MG, Ativan 2MG and Ambein 10MG ever since - 20 years. So now that my memory/cognitive issues are affecting my daily efforts, and i have tapered down and off Ativan and Ambien completely. I am in a very good place in life and things are going really well, so its been easy and for the first time i feel good without ativan help. Also, have slept without any help...been about 2 weeks now. I am NOT experiencing any anxiety and i am sleeping pretty good. Trying to read up on all this is even more confusing, so i am asking for feedback, hopefully from experience. REMEMBER, all these issue were present BEFORE i stopped the meds, and I am hoping these issues will go away over time. So, any feedback would be welcome. And sorry if this is not written well, but its what i am dealing with. Thanks in advance!!

so I underwent a sleep study a while and was diagnosed with the following: minor sleep apnea, severe restless leg syndrome, and severe hyperactive REM disorder. I believe the third is what's causing my current issue. I get "suck" in dreams. I know I'm sleeping, but I can't get out. I do all the tricks (looking for colour (but I already dream in colour), turning on and off lights, drinking water, etc.), yet I can never get out of the dream. okay, so FINALLY I do. but then I end up in another fucking dream. and this will happen repeatedly until I travel through five to seven dreams. and when I finally wake up for real, I'm covered in sweat, panicking, short of breath, and (my partner says) sometimes even yelling. does anyone else have these "Inception"-like dreams? and if so, how do you manage?

I have been known to fall asleep while trying to study , failed every test and have been told that I wasn't going to graduate on time with my classmates\ A friend of mine introduced me to this supplement called Nootropics (Adrafinil) it is known to stimulate your mind and increase the feeling of wakefulness and helps increase overall motivation possibly due to the positive effect. I started taking these supplements and it has helped a lot in my school work and studies and i was able to pass all my exams, and able to graduate on time with my fellow classmates.

So this is my first post here as I just sort of need to feel as though I'm not the only one... So I haven't always had a bad memory but it has started to worsen in the last few years from a-level onwards. It never worried me, I suppose it was a slow progress and there were just some 'off-days' where I couldn't remember things but it was always a joke. But its gotten worse, I forget my boyfriends name (we've been going out for 2years now), I forget what my brother looks like, conversations that apparently happened a week ago I have no recollection of. And now, and the main reason Im posting, is because I can tell if something happened or if it was just a dream - and I don't mean from childhood, I understand about fake memories. But these are different I wake up and I'm so unsure as to what happened the previous day and whether I have actually dreamt it, and after asking my friends /family/boyfriend it would seem as though most of my memories that I have from the previous day are incorrect... I hate it, I try to focus on my memories to decipher what's going on but everything is so fuzzy, its like I'm trying to watch tv without my glasses, and it always leaves me with a massive headache... I've also been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and its worsening my symptoms, all I want to do is curl up in bed and ignore the world. Anyway sorry for the long post just needed to explain myself... I'm just so confused and I've tried looking into it but nothing relates, it makes me feel so alone. Anyway just let me know your experiences and thoughts.