Taking Pain Meds To Sleep Even Though No Pain

[njray]

Last night was almost the first time but I resisted because of the the posts in this forum. Last night I found for the first time in many many months a comfortable way to lie down in my bed and and arrrange pillow and blankets to support my shoulder so I had no pain.... ok maybe a little but it was dull more like numb... lets just say I was at least almost comfortable.... But the problem I just laid there staring at the ceilling. I tried meditation music and other sound stuff that has helped in the past blah blah blah.

I then said to myself "Hey maybe now I should take the pain pill and see what happens"................ Nope I thought about it decided to read some of the sad posts here about those that have gone way of the bottle and pill and read there posts of struggle and thought about how some of my family has resorted to those methods and that was all that I needed. Well I only slept 4 hours but it wasn/t bad. Woke up because of nightmare but at least the sun was up and I did not have to see it rise as I often due.

Is this the point I should feel good about resisting taking pain meds for which I believe it was not intended or feel so sad for those that suffer worse than I that they would probably just about try or do anything to mask there pains?.................

 

[The Albatross]

The former.

 

[Bachall]

I loathe meds that make me sleepy. They tend not to make me drowsy until the next day, anyway. Real helpful. No temptation there for me!

When I'm on pain meds for a while, it masks my chronic pain which regularly disturbs my sleep. Thus, though pain meds don't make me sleep per se, I miss the overall relief I get at night with them.

Sleeping can be a bear the first few nights until I've re-learned to ignore my chronic symptoms. Your saying you felt "almost" no pain made me think of that. Night two and night three MAY be somewhat more difficult. But your mileage may vary. :)

Do you have other relaxation routines? I massage a couple of my dogs (silly I know but to do it right you have to really ground and relax). Then if I still need to I do a round of very basic core/centering/breathing exercises. I was just reading amethyst's awesome posts on aromatherapy. That stuff works well.

This is all for normal wound up sleeplessness. Obviously when I go into zombie burrito someone's coming through the door wakefulness, it's all I can do to get up and go to the bathroom or sit up and eat, much less close my eyes and focus.

I'll have to learn to ramp down from that first, clearly. :P

 

[Reclusive]

I think you should be proud of yourself for resisting. I know it's tempting to take pain meds to sleep. I do on occasion, except I buy them for the sleeping effect instead of pain relief. It's cheaper that way. But I take my prescription pain meds as rarely as I can get away with it, even though they really help me sleep. I don't want to become reliant on them and/or build up a tolerance for them. I need them to work when I need them to work.

Anyways, go you! And congrats on finding a position that's almost comfortable!