BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Mental Health Meds journal for mental health

I decided to start a thread on when i take meds and for what. I've been really good on taking my daily meds the last few months, and for that I am grateful.

Today I took an As Needed Ativan. There are just too many people in the house for too many days in a row, and I feel like I can't breathe. They are having fun, laughing and watching TV, bt they are always there, occupying the living room. I have to pass through them to get to the bathroom. It's got me very anxious.

Being around people too much is one of my triggers. My wellness plan says I can do several things to try to alleviate this: taking an ativan is one of them. I can also try taking a shower, going for a walk aroud the block, holding a stuffed toy, or do yoga. I think I will do a combination of these things.

Jilly,
I think it is great you have a wellness plan with a list of things you can do when feeling anxious/stifled.

Dear Dr .Hearshey,

When you studied in the university you went through,did you ever encounter,
Terror nightmares?
I have those for few years now,every nite.What I could find on them through research
Adults rarely have those.

Do you know of a treatment for this disorder?
Also have Klein syndrome,and lucid dreaming.Quite a nut job.
Important you should know even with these,I live a fantastic life,filled with happiness as soon as I wake up unless I have klein attack,then have to stay in bed and sleep.

But the most important are those terror nitemares.

Thank you.

Loong

Hi Loong,
Yes, I did. Night terrors are seen mostly in children and most children grow out of them by adolescence. You are right, it is extremely rare for an adult to have them.

Night terrors may be associated with an underlying medical condition. You said you have Klein syndrome....Is that Klein-Levin syndrome?

Stress or anxiety can also contribute to sleep terrors. The treatments include medication, cognitive behavior therapy, hypnosis, biofeedback and/or relaxation therapy.

Dear Dr,

It is Klein Levin syndrome,as far as cognitive behavior I was diagnosed 6 years ago with atheriosclerosis of the brain.
due to past abuse of alcool and valiums for 8 years.I had all the scans available ,Dammage to part of my brain,black neurons grey ones.My biggest problem is cognitive memory.
All my past I have almost forgotten.So I am living with a damaged brain.Oh I must not forget ,Open heart surgery 16 years ago one chance of survival.After that ,4 more interventions on my arteries.The last one was to unblock my main bypass that was 16 years old.This is a genetic problem in my family,
regular heart but the arteries are to small and are blocked ,my system doing 3 times ,you see i can't find the word right now,
.
Sorry the word does not want to appear.Got it it's back Triglicerides.

Quite a case.

However Buddhism keeps me in a very happy state ,even with a
body and mental scrapyard.By the way clean and sober 36 years.

Thank you .
loong

Yesterday I ended up taking an ativan unexpectedly. It had to do with traffic, which is one of my triggers. I just wanted to cut off the trigger before it got me to the point of being unpleasant and irritable, since I was on my way to a lovely beach with Dan, and didn't want my issues to ruin the day.

it worked fine, and I ended up having a great day, being very calm, and even happy when it started raining on s at the beach, several miles from the car.

Anyway, I've noticed that if i can keep an eye out for my triggers, I can often fix things before they turn into meltdowns.

Last night i ended up taking an Ambien for sleep. I try to not take those, but my brain wouldn't stop racing.

I took Ativan for sleeping this morning, which I don't usually, but i could not make my mind stop racing, and I wanted a break from the ambien.

Today i took TWO ativans to stop my mind from stressing about all the things i had to do today, and to get thinking about ready for leaving FL. I don't want to leave, and I have four days left to get everything else done that I want to do.

Oh, and i wanted to also add that i am discussing my overdreaming here. In this thread in the dreams area, i am talking about how I think my Busparone/Buspar is giving me a dream disorder.

Anyone with similar issues, please chime in.

Dear Jilly,

I overdream too.It has been like that for 15 years,due to meds for my heart,and others.
Never forget that all that chemical substance mixes a brain pretty fast.
As far as Ativan is concerned.it is highly addictive.I know.

Take care of yourself my dear little friend.

Your friend
loong

God Love you and keep you.

I do not like the flurry of activity in preparing to go anywhere!

I had my step-daughter and grandchildren here for 10 days.

And the day leading up to departure was not fun.

I pray to all the forces that are good to keep you healthy and balanced while you prepare.

Florida is pretty and maybe somehow the universe will grant you to come back and stay.

But, not right now.

Know that you have my prayers and positive thoughts while you go through the process of preparing for your journey.

May you arrive safely and mentally and physically intact.

I already see the journey as a success and you back home.

-- Burt B.

High anxiety right now and in a swamp of low self esteem. Taking two ativan and a buspar, since I don't remember if i took one earlier today.

Annnd, I just dropped my meds now all over the floor....

The two ativan last night helped tremendously. I was able to finally calm down and feel stable again.

I took an ambien at 4am, when I woke up and couldn't stop ruminating. I was able to sleep very comfortably after that.

I haven't had to take any As Needed meds today (yet), but i am back on my daily meds and that helps a great deal. I need to update this week's progress, but suffice to say right now that two nights ago I had a meltdown.

It was pitiful. I was in a ball on the cold tile kitchen floor, clutching a towel and crying. Nothing important actually instigated this. I was just overstimulated.

But then yesterday and today were nice and peaceful.

Been a bit off my game since I got to CA - just too much going on and not enough personal space. Last night i took an ambien to get to calm my brain enough to sleep, and the night before I took two ativan.

I took an ativan saturday day and sunday day - and the one i took on sunday really didn't do anything for me. I had a bad day. And then Monday I was just anxious and irritated over nothing the entire day. I feel anxious today too, but not as irritable.

I think I've been taking more meds here in So CA than I ever have at once.

I should think about that.

Last night I was able to get to sleep without taking anything for it. It was hard to calm my mind down. I did dream, but it didn't feel like crazy dreams, so I am satisfied.

Today I didn't even need any as-needed meds for anxiety. I was anxious at several points, but was able to relax after and not have a melt-down. While i spent the day in bed mostly, i did enjoy the sunshine and palm trees through my window, and did get a few small things done in the evening.

I tossed and turned for a few hours, but was finally able to get to sleep last night - without ambien. And I woke up feeling rested. No disturbing dreams.

Feels great,doesn't it?
keep on girl

your friend
loong/norm

Thanks, Loong. :-)

I ended up with disturbing dreams this morning, strangely enough. I might be seeing a pattern with sleeping in? I will start noting how late I sleep in on the days when I have disturbing dreams.

Hi Jilly, I wanted to also commend you on your wellness plan. I have one for when I'm beginning to have an episode. My husband and psychiatrist have copies if I can't remember it. It starts with taking Alprazolam, then acknowledging/accepting the situation/day's events, whatever, without judging the event or people (including myself);just observing. Then comes distraction, for which I have several fun activities listed. Then comes self soothing. I have: put on ipod; or take a bath; or buy some flowers, etc. If none of those have helped and I'm still spiraling down, I need to call my psychiatrist and just go sit in his office until he can fit me in. While I'm waiting I continue to the safe-place visualizations and my safe word que. I've been trained to relax my body when I hear, read or speak this word. My safe word is Peace. I have this detailed plan written out so I can utilize it quickly instead of firing up my computer. It has really helped a number of times.

Ruby Jane, that is fantastic. I need to do something like this. What are your 'fun' activities for distraction purposes?

Do you mind sharing your safe places? Are they private?

I am really big on the self soothing. I actually have a small stuffed animal in my bag for holding and squeezing if things start to break down.

I also have a little bottle of rescue remedy, when I remember to use it.

Hi Jilly, My fun activities are get a manicure or pedicure at the walk in nail place, or taking a hike in nature to distract myself, and relly focus on the little animals, the view, etc., go to my favorite health food/cafe store and people watch while I tap tap away at my computer, think about and research fun places I want to go camping this summer (looking forward to fun),learning a new song on my banjo, etc. My safe places are my couch on my front porch where I love to curl up under some down blankets, hide from everyone and take a nice nap; or the comfortable chair in my shrink's office.I also have a very good memory of floating down a slow-moving river in an inner tube when I was a littl girl.

Those sound wonderful! I see you live in Spokane, which is beautiful. Lots of great nature.

I love the image of the down blankets on the couch on the porch. Maybe i can do that too. What kind of couch?

Sorry for the delay in my response. My cat was trying to force it's way between me and my laptop and my laptop went askew, lost its power and I just got all signed back in. My couch is green and it's a full on living room couch. My porch is rather big and room like, but still I can lay there watching the sky, whether cloudy or sunny, both are beautiful.