Severe Insomnia due to Anixety my whole life - coming off only thing that works

[Amber98]

I have had severe, (worst case my psychiatrist has ever seen), insomnia since I was 7/8 years old. I am now 27. I have tried many medications for anxiety/depression, over 40, nothing has worked. My psychiatrist and I have decided to only focus on sleep/insomnia. Well, I have tried zopiclone, clonazapam, which make me calm but still wont put me to sleep.

The ONLY thing that has helped for the past two years is Amitriptlyne. It has been a life saver to finally be able to get a good night sleep for the first time in 25 years!

However, I have been severely constipated for the last two years of taking it, and at only 27, I am afraid my bowels are destroyed from all the laxatives i have had to take. I have added fibre, tried so many things, but I have not had a normal bowl moment for 4 years. (Before that I was on seroquel, which also caused constipation)

It's gotten so bad, I was in the hospital due to not having a bowel moment in 2 weeks and having an obstruction. I have to come off the amitriptylne, my psych tried me on the various other Tricyclic antidepressants, none of which helped.

Trazadone and remeron also have not helped. I need something long term, possibly life long, and my psychaitrist just shrugs his shoulders and asks me what I want to try next because he doesnt know what to do.

Any suggestions on something else i can try? Please!

[Amber98]

Hi, I sent you an inbox msg in response, hope that is okay. Thanks

[Paxiled]

Taking laxatives just made it worse, but I'm guessing you know that.  You say you've tried many antidepressants, but the ones you mention don't include the ssris.  Taking drugs for sleep is self-defeating in the long run -- they create rebound insomnia, which is worse than what you started with.  You've been taking drugs meant for other things to help you sleep because a side effect of the drug is sedation.  It doesn't sound like you've gone after the cause of this.  You mention psychiatrist, but not psychologist and therapy.  You don't mention if you exercise, what your diet is like, if you've tried meditation or something like progressive relaxation, or less intense remedies that actually might go to the cause of your problem, such as melatonin (and which dose -- most people take too high a dose) or homeopathic remedies.  If no drug has worked, it might be no drug will work, but there's a lot out there that isn't drugs and that's where you should have started.  Who knows what happened when you were 7 or 8 that might have triggered this and just became a way of thinking over time because it was never addressed.  I have no idea what you've been through over the years of trying, so none of this might be new to you -- you very well have done all this stuff already.  It does seem you need new light on the subject.  Having been on tricyclics, I also suffered some constipation, but diet, added fiber, digestive enzymes pretty much kept the problem in check.  Again, I have no idea how you eat and how you live.  Something that can help break things up in there, for example, and is pretty simple are abs -- it's amazing how some good hard ab work hits right in the area of the digestive system and loosens it up.  So again, a lot of things to look into.  Keep searching,  but don't confine yourself to medication -- your solution might lie elsewhere.

[AnxiousNoMore]

Some people get insomnia without a reason that can be fixed. Older people for instance develop nerve issues that cause insomnia, which seems likely to be my case since I didn't have it when younger. Fortunately I am retired and can catch up in the daytime once in a while when i have missed a lot of sleep.

Work would be terrible to face after a sleepless night, so I hope you are able to find something that works. I took pills for years and kept quitting for a month or 2 at a time but always went back after losing too much sleep, Finally I just quit one then a few years later quit the other, but to this day I wonder if I should go back since there are times when I have short nights too many times in a row. Keep looking around as paxiled said and let us know about your diet.
Psyllium is commonly used by people who need fiber because it is the best one, so what did the doctors say about your constipation and diet?