Hi, everyone. Haven't been on here for awhile b/c I was doing so much better. Insomnia was my main issue & I took Zoloft, which cured the problem, and Remeron to help me sleep until Zoloft kicked in. After 6 months on my therapeutic dose of Zoloft (late June to early Jan.), my pdoc and I agreed that I could wean. My reason was the sexual side effects. As far as sleep goes, I had only taken Remeron a few times since October, all on nights with a clearly identifiable trigger, so overall I was doing really, really well.
I tapered off Zoloft for 3 weeks and have been off completely for 4 weeks. During these 7 weeks I didn't take Remeron even once. I slept great pretty much every night, even when my daughter (15 mos.) woke multiple times. I felt like I was completely back to normal.
This week my daughter's sleep has been disrupted. She was waking often--sometimes 5-6 times a night. I was usually able to fall right back asleep after nursing her for 5-10 min., so it was annoying but not that big of a deal as far as losing sleep goes. Well, Wednesday night she was up off and on from about 2 am to 3:45 and I don't think I slept at all after 2am. I could feel my anxiety rising b/c I was so frustrated that I didn't know what to do to help her--she didn't want to nurse, didn't want to be put down or held, she would fall asleep only to awaken 10-15 min. later, just as I was beginning to doze, you get the picture.
So I figured this was just a one-night blip. Despite not feeling anxious, I could not fall asleep last night. Didn't do anything differently as far as routines go; I just couldn't fall asleep. I ended up having to take TWICE the usual Remeron dosage to fall asleep and even then it took me 2 hours! Even during the worst of the insomnia I think I only took more than the typical dosage (7.5 mg) maybe 2 or 3 times. So it's an indicator to me of how keyed up I was.
I have a call in to my pdoc to see what he recommends. He just called me back and recommended that I go ahead and take Remeron from the outset tonight and maybe the next few nights so that I'll get some sleep and rebuild my confidence in my ability to sleep. So I guess I'm just looking for some encouragement, more than anything. I know now that I CAN sleep normally, both with and without Zoloft. But it frightened me that my trusty sleep med--the med that got me through hell when I couldn't sleep and when Ambien didn't work--barely worked for me last night.
And it bothers me that something as little as my daughter keeping us up for a couple hours was enough to raise my anxiety to the point that I couldn't sleep. My husband just seems to roll with the punches and doesn't get stressed out about such things, whereas I got so frustrated and upset that I couldn't sleep. I just feel silly for letting a temporary problem (dd's disrupted sleep) send me off into a spiral. Last night she slept from 7:30 to 6:15, so her previous problems were obviously fleeting.
Part of me feels like if I were just a more relaxed person and didn't have such a strong (over?)reaction to temporary problems I wouldn't be in this situation. I never had this problem b/f dd was born; as high-strung as I was, stress rarely affected my sleep. At one level I know I'm being too harsh on myself, but on another level I feel like I should have a better handle on how I respond to stressful situations.
Anyway, just wanted to update you on my situation and ask for any advice or encouragement you may have.
I tapered off Zoloft for 3 weeks and have been off completely for 4 weeks. During these 7 weeks I didn't take Remeron even once. I slept great pretty much every night, even when my daughter (15 mos.) woke multiple times. I felt like I was completely back to normal.
This week my daughter's sleep has been disrupted. She was waking often--sometimes 5-6 times a night. I was usually able to fall right back asleep after nursing her for 5-10 min., so it was annoying but not that big of a deal as far as losing sleep goes. Well, Wednesday night she was up off and on from about 2 am to 3:45 and I don't think I slept at all after 2am. I could feel my anxiety rising b/c I was so frustrated that I didn't know what to do to help her--she didn't want to nurse, didn't want to be put down or held, she would fall asleep only to awaken 10-15 min. later, just as I was beginning to doze, you get the picture.
So I figured this was just a one-night blip. Despite not feeling anxious, I could not fall asleep last night. Didn't do anything differently as far as routines go; I just couldn't fall asleep. I ended up having to take TWICE the usual Remeron dosage to fall asleep and even then it took me 2 hours! Even during the worst of the insomnia I think I only took more than the typical dosage (7.5 mg) maybe 2 or 3 times. So it's an indicator to me of how keyed up I was.
I have a call in to my pdoc to see what he recommends. He just called me back and recommended that I go ahead and take Remeron from the outset tonight and maybe the next few nights so that I'll get some sleep and rebuild my confidence in my ability to sleep. So I guess I'm just looking for some encouragement, more than anything. I know now that I CAN sleep normally, both with and without Zoloft. But it frightened me that my trusty sleep med--the med that got me through hell when I couldn't sleep and when Ambien didn't work--barely worked for me last night.
And it bothers me that something as little as my daughter keeping us up for a couple hours was enough to raise my anxiety to the point that I couldn't sleep. My husband just seems to roll with the punches and doesn't get stressed out about such things, whereas I got so frustrated and upset that I couldn't sleep. I just feel silly for letting a temporary problem (dd's disrupted sleep) send me off into a spiral. Last night she slept from 7:30 to 6:15, so her previous problems were obviously fleeting.
Part of me feels like if I were just a more relaxed person and didn't have such a strong (over?)reaction to temporary problems I wouldn't be in this situation. I never had this problem b/f dd was born; as high-strung as I was, stress rarely affected my sleep. At one level I know I'm being too harsh on myself, but on another level I feel like I should have a better handle on how I respond to stressful situations.
Anyway, just wanted to update you on my situation and ask for any advice or encouragement you may have.