PTSD and Trauma recovery

[Apocalipstic]

Originally Posted by atomiczombie

LOL The fire happened on December 1st 2007. That is kind of a while ago now. Different scents, things like that have never worked for me. The best thing I have is reading a book. Since I have lived with the bipolar diagnosis all my life, I have had sleep issues that long too. As a teenager I once went for 3 weeks without more than an hour or so each night and at the end of that I crashed into one of the worst depression episodes of my life. I am no stranger to sleep problems. What I have learned over the years is not to stress myself out over it. If I can't sleep then I can't sleep and worrying about it doesn't help. I just relax when I am in bed and read. I know that even if I am not sleeping, my body is resting and I will eventually fall asleep. Right now I am not working so it is easier to deal with, but I do feel like I miss a lot when I sleep through half the day. Oh well. I am kind of wondering if the T I started on in the beginning of May might be exacerbating my sleep problems. Thanks for your kind words apoc, and everyone else.

A lot of my trauma happened over 40 years ago, so 2007 seems pretty recent in PTSD terms.

I have to work a shift where I have to get up and be to work at a certain time or I sleep all day too. It keeps me regular...My sleep I mean, that sounded funny!

Originally Posted by softness

I finally fell asleep at a decent hour and was up at 9 AM! Now lets see if I can do this two days in a row.

Melatonin...I have a friend who tried using it but it gave her hallucinations. She saw things move in the patterns of the wallpaper. Has anyone else experienced this or something like it on melatonin?

Never, but I have on some medicines. Spiders sliding down their web lines onto my bed and crawling up my covers, I could even feel them and was frozen. But not on Melatonin.

Originally Posted by Liam

Yes, when I took 7 mg I had nightmares. When I took 5mg, sometimes I had nightmares. It seems that 3mg is a good dose for me, I sleep well, have detailed vivid dreams and life is good.

I have always gone with 3mg too. Works great.