Moving Overseas Where They Do Not Have Your Usual Meds.

[Cadiche]

I used to take Prothiaden when I lived in Australia. I would take it at night so it not only would help me sleep but it alleviated my anxiety problems and symptoms the following day. I was taking 150mg per day. I would also take Xanax for the OCD and Agoraphobia.

When I moved to Finland, I discovered that they do not have this here and it was a real problem since I had been on Prothiaden for many many years. They tried a lot of different medications, all of which gave me bad reactions (including sweating profusely) until eventually I told them it is time that they maybe went back to basics. My first medication was Zoloft. Basic SSRI. No bad side effects. They also do not have this in Finland but they found SERTRALINE (Sertraliini in Finnish) at my request and I have been on this ever since (almost five years). The side effects are almost zero, although they had to adjust my dosage until they got it right. I now take one every morning (100mg). They also replaced my Xanax with Valium since they don't have that either.

This brought all my sleep problems back. Now I have the crazy nightmares again every night or I suffer from severe insomnia which leads me to taking a Valium just so I don't go insane. I also have Tramadol for the pain in my spine. This leaves me waking up feeling like a zombie on weed.

My biggest problem with regards to the sleeping disorder is I not only relive my elevator accident over and over, but I now rock a lot when I am awake and disassociate with what I am doing. Last night I dreamed that I told my mum it is time to kill myself. I am horrified with myself right now.

 

[cherryblossom]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you are struggling. If I'm correct in reading your post, you moved and have been on these different meds for 5 years. Is it just recently that the sleep problems have returned, or has it been a long time?

I was just wondering what other approaches you have used to try to sort out the problems you are having. Personally, I don't think that medications are a long term solution to the anxiety and sleep problems you are having due to anxiety and re-living your trauma. Have you or do you have any therapy? I know therapy is a broad term because there are so my types of therapy, but you might benefit from seeing someone who specialises in trauma.

Maybe these symptoms could have occurred, if you were still on your previous meds. Perhaps, these symptoms are your brains way of telling you that it's time to deal with your trauma, and all the negative emotions surrounding it.

 

[Cadiche]

The insomnia has returned about a month ago and has gotten worse and worse. I suffered it this badly just prior to my first nervous breakdown.

A lot of things happened in a short amount of time. Early 1996 I had my elevator accident. My already violent fiancee threatened to kill a lot of people because of it. He then lost his job because he hurt his boss at work. Then he got worse at home. I was afraid for our son so me and baby left. He would come to the new address every day drunk for about 2 weeks.

I hated it. Was not on any meds back then but was seeing a therapist about the elevator accident. Therapist tried to force me back into an elevator a few times but I could not. It was too much for me. Therapist finally said she is cancelling all future appointments for me because she is tired of wasting her time and I am not going to get better.

On the way home from that appointment I was upset. Could not stop crying. Ended up walking past a pet shop and saw a little black kitten all on his own so I bought him. Felt like I did something good. One week later my baby died. He had stopped breathing during the night. I still wish I stayed awake all night and watched him that night. I hate myself for his loss.

My ex-fiancee went crazy and hired a guy to break in, rape me, kill the kitten. He called it tough love. Wanted me back. Wanted another baby. I reported him to police and they arrested him. When police came to my house they informed me that when they arrested him, he told them he will kill me next time he sees me and maybe it is good idea to vanish, change name etc. They gäve me a letter which I still have even after all these years so I would not be on electoral roll and none of my details known. I moved one week after his arrest from Brisbane to Canberra.

A few days later was my first nervous breakdown.

 

[Cadiche]

So I found a doctor in Canberra. She helped me by putting me on Zoloft. Dosage increased more and more. Soon I was taking 200mg per day. Then second breakdown. I started cutting. She changed me over to Prothiaden. It made a world of difference. I also bought a book called CUTTING which helped fix me quite a bit.

Nine years pass and my ex gets out of prison and tracks me down. I don't have any memory of about a year during that time. All I know is he hurt me pretty bad, and I got scars from stab wounds. I don't know if my memory from that time will ever come back.

I know my insomnia was not an issue before or after the memory lapse and my medication was doing wonders although my doc then also put me on Xanax as well for the OCD and I was afraid of just about anything after my memory started to be ok.

When I moved to Finland, though... no Xanax and no Prothiaden. The local hospital shrink tried me on several different things but all were bad. At my suggestion to go back to basics, they tried me on Sertraliini and Valium. No bad effects with Sertraliini but I don't like how the Valium makes me feel. I only had five permitted sessions with her and now she is no longer working there. New shrink does not speak english. Health system is so different here. Even my english speaking GP is now on holidays until September for kesäloma. I don't know what to do. I do not want to suffer another breakdown and now with the rocking and zoning out full trance... that is new but I don't know who to tell here in Finland or what to do.

Sorry for errors in typing. I have bad hand shaking lately and am typing on my tablet :(

 

[jmni]

@Cadiche
Is it possible to ask for a scrip and ordering from a Canadian or other online pharmacy? I think most medications ship from Turkey where it is less expensive.

 

[Lucycat]

@Cadiche
Is it possible to ask for a scrip and ordering from a Canadian or other online pharmacy?

do you think a Canadian pharmacy would accept and translate a Finnish prescription? I have no experience with this but could see it cause a lot of confusion about legitimacy of the prescription etc. also it would mean the Finnish doctor writing a prescription for a drug he is most likely totally unfamiliar with if it is not available in his own country.

I am not criticising the suggestion, it would certainly be worth investigation.

 

[jmni]

do you think a Canadian pharmacy would accept and translate a Finnish prescription?

Yes those could be issues. Something that might not be available in Finland, it could be in Sweden, or Denmark, etc. Also doctors are informed about different kinds of medication. Not being local or national does not mean that a doctor would be unfamiliar. And yes, I think a scrip in Finnish would be a problem, but English is global. You never know.

 

[Cadiche]

Sadly english is not as global as you might think. It took quite some time for me to find a doctor in Finland who can actually communicate with me in my own language, although we mostly speak Finnish to each other now after having learned Finnish full time over the past 5 years. I learned yesterday that she left the surgery last month and we are now back to having only Finnish speaking doctors.

Regarding the scripts, they did their best to try and get my medication which I had in Australia but it was just not possible because some medicines are available in Australia but not permitted in Finland. A lot of things here are banned which are freely available in Australia. I am not bitching about that at all. I have learned to adjust. But when they could not get my medications via a local GP, they referred me to the chief psychiatrist at the city hospital and she tried as well but failed. My medications are not available here in Finland because they are not permitted here. I now have the equivalent to what I was taking back then, but it was a hard road to actually find the equivalent. It was a big adjustment.

I now take Diformin Retard, Sertraliini Orion (instead of Prothiaden) and Telfast in the morning, and take Diapam (instead of Xanax and Serapax) in the evening. Even my pain killers are forbidden here. Instead of Mersyndol Forte, I now take Tramadol with Panadol Forte. The only thing I hate about the meds is the cotton mouth it gives me and the fully numb zombie persona when I wake up the next day.

One good thing about the Sertraliini and Diapam is that I am fully reimbursed for them by the city. Health care in Finland is extremely low cost, and after the first three doctor visits each year, every subsequent visit is free. I truly am grateful for that.