No sleep or sleep meds

Please know that there is no condemnation here at all. We just do the best we can and that includes when drugs work for our issues. I, too, do not feel like I was "addicted" in the sense of craving a drug or taking more than prescribed. I was just alerted to the dangers of taking psych drugs, particularly benzos, regularly. It is just like when pain killers became an evil, but they are not when they are needed. I have a friend who is a Stage 4 cancer survivor and I remember when she had fentanyl patches daily and oxycontin for break through pain. She has been off any pain meds for 5 yrs now. I know those were crucial in her ability to go through her cancer and treatments. All these drugs have a purpose and just because there is the potential for abuse and overuse and side effects does not mean they don't have a good therapeutic effect in the right circumstances.

But the CDC and doctors never tire of trying to get you off of them and pushing newer drugs that sometimes do one more harm than good. For years, I couldn’t get an anxiety drug that worked and didn’t even know about the benzo drugs. I took what I was prescribed; sometimes the side effects were so bad I couldn’t take them and other times I didn’t know what they were doing to me physically, only knew they weren’t effective for my anxiety. In time I found a doctor who prescribed 1 mg clonazepam for me 3 times a day which actually worked and he tried different sleeping medication on me until the ambien worked. Come to find out that a lot of these newer drugs can damage your heart and after I repeatedly flatlined first in the doctor’s office who sent me to the E.R. where I continued to flatline, each time restarting and then flatlining again which caused me to be airlifted to the nearest cardiac hospital where I was taken off all my medication and placed in cardiac intensive care for 3 days while they slowly started me on my medications again but not the psychiatric drugs. Then after I was implanted with a pacemaker and was scheduled for a watchman implantation, the cardiac hospital told me that I should never take that type of drug again and said I could take the clonazepam and opioids I was prescribed because they didn’t have that effect on the heart. I am probably one of those uncommon cases but if you read the warning labels on most of the newer psychiatric drugs, the side effects listed will usually include tachycardia (rapidly beating heart) and bradycardia (heart hardly beating) that can damage your heart if the medication causing it is continued. And that’s my story.

Lisa, which drug specifically? The Ambien or the clonazapam caused the bradycardia? I started having fainting spells 5 years ago. Had cardiac workup and no reason can be found for it. I was taking 5 mg of Ambien every night. If the Ambien causes cardiac problems, maybe it was causing the bradycardia for me and fainting was the result, especially since the fainting always began while I was sleeping in the early morning hours. I have stopped taking Ambien and though I have had two fainting spells since in the last 6 months, they are no where near as frequent as they were (every 6 weeks).

Hi, it was not ambien or clonazapam at all. Those drugs have only been beneficial for me. It was quetiapine used for anxiety also known as Seroquel. Other drugs that contributed to my heart problem were sertraline, lexapro and several other drugs for depression, all known as SSRIs. Those drugs caused tachycardia and bradycardia which in time damaged my heart and it says those are side effects for those drugs when you look it up on the manufacturer’s website. I went to cardiologists 15 years ago complaining that sometimes my heart felt like it was trying to get out of my chest with a heart rate of up to 170. The cardiologists would put a halter monitor on me for 24 hours and nothing would happen so they basically never found the problem. The problem did not occur every day; sometimes I could go for a week without it happening. I didn’t really feel bradycardia when it got too low but sometimes when I would measure it when it was going too fast, then I would remeasure every half hour even when I didn’t feel it beating hard and then it might be at 40. I also fainted as well. When I ended up in the ER, the doctor told me I wasn’t really fainting; he said that meant that my heart stopped for 15 seconds or more which caused me to pass out.

Have your cardiologists checked you for an electrical problem in your heart? Also, when you fainted, was it upon standing up after waking?

I believe it. I have a lot of problems with mine. It feels like my intestines swell up pretty bad then start spasm or cramping backing me up. I spend days in excruciating pain, especially when I'm stressed. It happens 2 or 3 times a month. Theres no way I could go to a hosp like that and when I went in they said it was something minor and nothing they can do about it. They're saying your guts are a second brain and have the same orexins as the brain. It's a deficiency of orexins believed to cause the narcolepsy I have. No doubt it causes my intestinal issues too. I just told ny Dr I'm done with taking psych meds to solve sleep issues, I want something that is specifically for sleep. He gave me lunesta. I took one last night, another one 5 hours ago, still haven't slept and have a sleep test that starts at 9pm tonite, just terrific, lol.

This only thing I hate about Ambien is that it makes it very hard to stop sleeping in the morning even when alarm sounds.

UPDATE: Finally got in to see Dr. yesterday about insomnia AGAIN. Told her I quit taking Ambien and Ativan but that I haven't slept in 3 months. She emphatically said you must sleep, even if you have to take sleep meds to do so. She was impressed with the amount of research I had done into the various med options and that I had tried as hard as I did to quit all sleep meds. I had narrowed down my list to either Lunesta or Silenor. She said lets try Lunesta first then go from there. Last night I took 2 mg of Lunesta and stayed awake all night. Saw every hour on the clock. I SO bummed, but will continue for the 30 days of supply. What's funny is my Apply Watch sleep app shows I was awake only 28 mins. I think that's bull**** cause today I feel like crap.

I think you're right to not draw conclusions because of one lousy night. My sleep night before last was reasonable, last night cr*p. I figure it's because I did less exercise yesterday but who knows. In any case I always tell myself that tonight will be better.
Could be the tablet you took was good but something else in your day disrupted your sleep. Maybe you lay awake thinking about whether the tablet would work for you. There are so many factors that can exacerbate the sleep problems. Something is going on in everybody's life. Here we're in the middle of a war so maybe my expectation of sleeping well in this time is a bit unrealistic.
Hope you sleep better tonight!

Hello...Lunesta did not work for me either...so good luck with it. Let us know when you try Silenor....I'm curios if that will work....I am taking Lorazepam now for sleep and most nights it works great...

I too take lorazepam for sleep. Works great most evening but sometimes not at all. Wondering if I am starting to develop a tolerance to this drug. 1.0 mg worked for a long while but now I am finding that I need 1.5 mg. May I ask how many mg you are taking?