Stop Drinking

1339 readers

19 users here now

This is a place to motivate each other to control or stop drinking. It is also a place for non drinkers to discuss and share.

We welcome anyone who wishes to join in by asking for advice, sharing our experiences and stories, or just encouraging someone who is trying to quit or cut down.

Please post only when sober; you’re welcome to read in the meanwhile.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What do I do when it hurts too much to sleep? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have struggles with PTSD. Some very terrible things have been done to me by people I loved and trusted.

I can be very distracted during the day. I have a very active mind, lots of coping mechanisms and most of the time I’m fine. But it’s trying to sleep that is impossible.

Weed can help, but there’s this pain that hits late at night. It’s crushing. Weed will quiet flashbacks, will help me get to the point that my parasympathetic nervous can kick in and I don’t feel afraid and hyper vigilant, but it can only sometimes help the pain.

Drinking helps. It’s making me sick at this point but I don’t know how else to cope with the black pit of despair. Doomscrolling and drinking all night at least stops the rumination.

And so I pay for help with this and see the therapists I can. There’s barely any options for therapy and I try to journal and do all of the things but it just doesn’t help when I feel like my heart is bleeding out and I need to sleep.

It feels almost physical, a gaping wound that needs a beer to hold it together.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sometimes medication is an important step. You may need to find a psychiatrist. Medication in combination with therapy is more affective than either alone. Talk with your therapist, and psychiatrist, trust their plan but be honest with them off the bat on how you medicine is affecting you. If the first on they prescribe doesn’t work. Don’t be afraid to try another. Don’t let them give you anything crazy though and always take you medicine as prescribed. Seek second opinions or find a new therapist if anything feels off

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Seek second opinions or find a new therapist if anything feels off

A huge trigger is psychiatric abuse. My mother “has” (?) Munchausen by proxy. What she did to my younger brother is more equivalent to Gypsy Rose. With me it was primarily psychological (although I had lots of strange and invasive testing for all kinds of things too.)

She found shitty inpatient facilities and therapists that would allow her to read WebMD and had me diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at 14. When the facility or the therapist figured out what she was doing, she moved me onto the next one. No step down or taper off on any medication - my body was a pharmaceutical playground of Seroquel and Wellbutrin and all of that other shit, and with no continuity of care, it was just “ope, we’re doing Resperdal now”

At one facility, they put me on such heavy doses of antipsychotics (which was by no means ever justified by my behavior - the only thing I ever did “wrong” at that facility was trying to escape a moving car when I was being attacked by other patients - not the best move, but considering 4 years before they tortured me, they had let a kid get killed by other patients…) that I couldn’t stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. They would then punish me for sleeping through “Group” or “school.”

The big big problem with PTSD related to mental health care is that it makes it hard to trust therapists or providers. I don’t understand why no one spoke up. I do not understand why I had to take my own braces with pliers off when I was 17 because she took away my orthodontics appointments as a kind of punishment and I went years without any form of dental care as a teenager. If professionals couldn’t see that then, what do they even know?

I just don’t know if I’d feel safe working with a psychiatrist. I don’t want to experiment with medication because my finances and living situation are tenuous. I went to an inpatient facility due to ideation last year and it cost me my job, and I got physically assaulted again.

It’s the PTSD core belief “the world is evil and no one loves me” - which was not at all helped by my marriage and divorce.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

That’s definitely a rock in a hard place.

I’ve been in a similar situation from a bad experience that I’d rather not get into here that lead me to have panic attacks related to ingestion of any “substance” or drug. Even ibuprofen or Tylenol. I thought it’d give me a heart attack or my skin would fall of all sorts of stuff. Couldn’t even drink caffeine or I’d panic so hard I’d pass out and loose feeling in my limbs.

Was a difficult time. What ended up helping me was exposure therapy. Over several years exposing myself to triggers in a safe setting. Teaching my logical mind to soothe the monkey throwing levers up there.

Don’t ever blame yourself for your trauma. It’s ok to take things slow. Mental health care in the US sucks. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I couldn’t imagine not being able to sleep

A coping mechanism I will share from dealing with my own pain is running. Long distance specifically. I find it really helps clear the mind, and exhaust the body. Helps to sleep when you can’t