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I’m done

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Ok so I pushed my luck and got too near a trigger and full on PTSD panic. So it’s not the miracle cure we all crave. I’ll see what I sleep like tonigh
I use CBD for my anxiety (not panic, panic is one step too far), tension, and sleep. I've found nothing like it personally.

I'd recommend you speak with your doc about trying a different medication than the one you already tried.

I tried venlafaxine. It made me spacey and nose dived my oxygen levels, leaving me gasping for air. It got me out of constant 30-hour panic attacks, so I was nervous to switch and try something else.

Then I tried sertraline. It really stabilized me. We got to 150mg and then something just went "NOPE" and I got worse.

We switched to Prozac and suddenly I was ready to take on the world, had this unhealthy energy, much more prone to risky behaviors. SI got more strong than I've had in a long time. But I also had the best sleep I've had since I can even remember. Never knew you could sleep and wake rested 😲

So I asked the psych if, for the sake of my sanity, we could just go back to sertraline 100mg and let me stay there for a few weeks at least so I could restabilize. He authorized it and while neither of us is satisfied with "progress", at least it's better than nothing, and I know I can always try something else.

Not sure if psychedelics are legal in your area, but I'm saving up all my $$$$ to do that next.

If you're unhappy, try something - literally anything. You're not marrying it, you can always switch it if it impacts you negatively. But not trying anything is only gonna keep you in your current state .....
 
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So it’s not the miracle cure we all crave. I’ll see what I sleep like tonight.
Here's the thing - there's no miracle cure.

There's pills that will make you sleep. They have strings attached (like side effects, addiction, withdrawals, etc).

About 1 in 3 people will suffer from sleep disturbance like insomnia in their lifetime. It's reeeeeally common.

And with ptsd on board, plus anniversaries and triggers and surfing the internet for cures at 2am? One might think it would be kinda weird if you were sleeping like a baby atm, yeah?

The good news is there's plenty of things that help, while you stabilise and wait for your sleep to improve. Almost all of those options will take several days at the bare minimum to start having any impact at all - which is not to say they don't work, but that the major upheavals going on for you that have likely caused your insomnia are not quick fix issues.
 
Hi MnM thank you for the advice. I was put on Prozac - might as well have eaten smarties, next citilapram which they thought gave me the jitters but not much else and now venlafaxine which knocked me sideways. I could barely have a conversation I was totally spaced out. My partner asked them to change them as I wasn’t functioning the answer was I’d get used to them. after six months of not getting used to them and waiting for another appointment to get off them my appointment with the psyc was cancelled and rescheduled so I stopped taking them. Big mistake! Back on them again but discovered that inside the capsule is 10 tiny tablets so over the months I reduced the dose and weaned myself off. I’m still waiting for that rescheduled appointment. I did ring to ask whether I’d been forgotten but was told to carry on taking the pills!

I don’t think the side effects of nhs pills are something I can cope with. I can’t cope with PTSD. I’m going to stick with the CBD for now. Apparently if takes four days to build up and just hope that can offer me something, anything
 
I agree Sideways. I woke up with ptsd jitters and took CBD and by mid afternoon they were back so I took some more. My counsellor says I cannot overdose so is in favour of my trying to take control. I’ll keep on keeping on. I’ve bought the stuff so I may as well try.

for anyone reading these posts and replying. Thank you. PTSD is so lonely. It’s comforting knowing someone is reading and heart warming when I receive a response. Feels kind of friendly.
 
I’m going to stick with the CBD for now. Apparently if takes four days to build up and just hope that can offer me something, anything
I make CBD oils, salves, and capsules. If you can take a low dose for 21 days straight you'll have a solid baseline to work off of.
 
MnM Oh wow! Presumably if you make them your using them to help with ptsd?
I started making them to control inflammation and pain after I broke my foot. T3s normally do nothing, and I hated feeling drugged up.

Then I started using it on my headaches, and then I started making it for the baker's tennis elbow, the neighbour's edema, someone's covid inch, a friend's daughter's chronic fungal thing doctors couldn't treat, then someone's breast cancer pain and swelling. Then I started using it for my anxiety, then my panic, then to sleep, now for a friend's migraines, and a neighbour's mom's swollen knees. The stories I hear back just amaze me...

I don't think I'd be here if it weren't for CBD.
 
MnM just wow! Then it is totally worth me carrying on taking it and see if I’m one of the lucky ones it works for……she says having not got to sleep and it’s 2.15am.
 
Absolutely no sleep at all last night. I ended up in the kitchen looking for something which oddly has disappeared then I realised other things have gone too. Nothing of significant monetary value but a couple of sentimental value and the rest the handy bits and bobs we all keep. As I’ve already been branded ‘paranoid’ by the ex I have no form of redress. Does PTSD make you and incredibly bad judge of character as well as everything else?
 
I didn't upread the thread so I apologize if you said you tried this already but have you tried Seriquel XR (extended release)? It took a lot for me to get used to and had to have some cheerleaders on here to keep me from ditching them (a bad habit of stopping psych meds that didn't seem to help or had bad side effects. Ive literally been on every single SSRI and SSNI and none of them did anything for me or had bad side effects. I have to work. Can't be a zombie and that's why I advise very clearly the extended release, not the immediate release as the immediate release, though I'm sure is good for sleep, drugged me up so bad that you'd think I just shot up heroin. I wasn't after just good sleep. Was after some help with the anxiety and panic in the daytime).

Anyway, as we were slowly going up in mg, had some cheerleaders here helping me not ditch it and keep trying to let it help. And so glad I did and the amazing people here helped me keep with it. It did take some time to get used to. Would have to look back but I'm sure it was a few months. At least. And we stopped at 200mg. Anything higher was too high and anything lower didn't help as well. Just to be clear, BPD is no longer on my mental health records and though CPTSD can't be on there since it's not in the DSM yet, we assume it's CPTSD and the complex part or that answers the emotional instability. But, it's all trauma based and my therapist and I agree that I fit way better in the CPTSD diagnosis criteria and don't fit very well in the BPD criteria. I say that because many with BPD take seriquel xr for emotional stability or a mood stabilizer. I'm not. I take it for anxiety and panic and though there is no magic pill, this is as close as it gets to that. It picks up most of the anxiety and lessens the panic. To be clear, I still have anxiety and panic, it's not near as much or as bad and I can usually talk myself down. Its deadens it a bit. Or makes it a lot less severe. If you do have some emotional instability either with CPTSD or BPD, it will help that too. It lessens the severity of strong emotions, basically.

I still am prescribed Xanax but we were able to reduce that from 1 mg twice a day to .5 mg twice a day and I do take now a half of one at night as night is the worst for me and sleep is so hard. Been thinking of trying CBD just for night time. But, thats only .25 mg at night and you take the serquel xr at night about 4 hrs before you go to bed and it starts to work by the morning and has really helped with lessening the severity of anxiety, panic, fear and even some flashbacks. It basically just makes all the emotions not as severe so they are easier manageable when they do come.

Something I'd say talk over with your psych to see if they think it's something worth a try. Or they may not agree and may want you to try another SSRI or SSNI and that's ok. It's just for me, I had already tried all of them and we had to think outside the box a bit. But, is no magic pill or treatment other then hard work. And even that isn't a magic anything. But PTSD is manageable and knowing that helps. For me anyway. Some have managed it to the point of no longer fitting into the diagnostic criteria and that makes me hopeful. That one day, I maybe able to manage that much! Makes me work even harder.

Some other things that might help. CBT and DBT. I found CBT is great for the irrational thoughts created by anxiety, managing those helps to reduce the anxiety and then DBT is great for emotional instability created by anxiety. If I can stabilize the emotions then anxiety reduces or I can use CBT to help the irrational thoughts and then anxiety reduces on its own. If my emotions are unstable, that seems to over ride everything so I can't use CBT for the thoughts as my emotions are over riding it so its not even possible. But if I can stabilize my emotions then I can use CBT for the thoughts. DBT was made for those that have BPD but I found it super helpful for PTSD/CPTSD.

Hope some of this helps!
 
Lost forgotten soul - thank you. I’m speechless. There is so much information in your message I’ve printed it out so I can go the old fashioned route and get my highlighter pen out and mark out the bits that I need to research and take onboard. Getting an appointment with the psych is near impossible but I’m going to try and get an email address and flipping we’ll write to him!

im intrigued that someone worked with you to find the dose of any medication that worked for you. I’m sure the team I’m under have a chart and every patient is given the same tablet, same dose. It didn’t seem to matter that we all sat there drugged up to the eyeballs u able to function. Seemed to be they were extremely pleased we were ‘under control’. Not the life I want for me.

I am inspired.

I took my CBD again last night and slept until 2am waking momentarily before drifting back to sleep until 7am. If it means sleeping every other night it’s an improvement. The CBD I’m taking does not have a carrier oil it’s neat if you will do I’m only taking a tiny amount which I think is probably easier. I’m not even aware it is havimg any effect until I realise I’ve coped or managed or enjoyed some small thing which to me feels enormous.

why oh why with this unbelievably rich source of information is there not a medic listening to the collective of tried and failed medications rather than putting lost souls through the same merry go round.
 
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