But in addition to this its about making an effort to be mindful at all times where the mind is fully applied to whichever activity that we do. Making meditation a part of one's daily activities can help. If you want info on how I treated my insomnia, send me a note.Insomnia by and large arises from a restless mind. I will never take sleep for granted again. I can't wait for it to rain, so I can pull my easy chair to the window and cover myself That is a torture I can not easily describe. I once had the experience of not sleeping for 52 days. I have not had insomnia issues since undergoing ECT in 2014. But, there wasn't much I could do about it. While I was consumed with batteling my mental illness for 40 years, I knew I was being distracted from other health issues. If he hadn't done it, it probably had never been done. I don't think there was a doctor on the east coast of the USA that had done more thoracic surgery than my doctor.
Four weeks after my surgery, I was back to plyaing full court basketball And he said "Gee, I've always wanted to try five on a beating heart!" So, that's what we did. So I asked my surgeon if he could do it that way. Basically, they chill your heart and work quickly without the need for connecting you to a machine thatīypasses your heart. So, an alternative was this process called "beating heart" procedure. I investigated the issue on line and saw that individuals who were placed on the "bypass machine" frequently dropped an IQ point, or two. The surgeon offered to do me the next day, but I needed a day or two to think about it. Mine had 5 blockages which required open heart surgery for repair. That's where they putĪ catheter in your femoral artery in your leg, and move it to your heart where they inject dye and examine the function of your three coronary arteries. An appointment was made for a heart catheterization. I said no thanks, as this is just what I had been dealing with for a year or more. Based on those results, he wanted to hospitalize me immediately. By chance, I had my annual EKG at the doctors office, following my basketball An echocardiogram failed to show any heart issues. I complained to my doctor about reaching a point of exhaustion from which I could not recover. I was very athletic, playing basketball for several hours at a time, several days per week. I believe my history of insomnia contributed to my heart disease. X5 is the number of bypasses that were done on my heart in 2003. Depression with insomnia and anxiety is a death sentence. Insomnia multiplies your risk of suicide by 5. Seroquel also helped with anxiety, but it did make me feel foggy. Amazingly, I was able to fall back to sleep almost immediately and stayed asleep for a full 8 hours. I woke up 2 hours later, needing to use the rest room. I didn't think I could fall asleep like that, but I did. My whole body felt like it had gone to sleep, but my mind was alert. My legs up, when I decided I would try to lay down to see if I could sleep. I had been sleepless for a couple of weeks when I first took the Seroquel. The Seroquel acted in an interesting way. I think 100mg worked for me.Īnother severe episode ended after taking Seroquel at 100mg. It has a hypnotic effect that opens the sleep window. I read about it being effective for insomnia in a library book. I ended one long stretch of insomnia (52 days) by taking Amitriptyline (Elavil). Every 3 or 4 days, I would fall unconscious for a few hours, but it wasn't really sleep. I basically went into an altered mental state where sleep did not exist. I suffered severe insomnia with depression that was all part of an epileptic syndrome.