Antidepressant to help with insomnia

[Shedding01]

Hello, this is the first time in writing on this board.  I believe my insomnia was due to being sensitive to medications and having a sensitive thyroid that ultimately caused me to lose my ability to sleep, I previously was a very deep sleeper, it’s a very easily.   Even the low thyroid medication that I’m on is causing me to get less sleep since I resumed it 20 days ago.    I can’t keep taking sleeping pills.    I took Lexapro only 5 mg and I got rid of the anxiety pain and I get at night and early morning tightness and shoulders neck and pain feet pain, increase the dose to 7.5 per my general practitioner and woke up sweating with a palpitating heart.  Sorry getting to the point I was told by a pharmacist that Lexapro can cause insomnia and the symptoms I described her is basically because the medication is not a sedative  medication.    I’ve tried Busporin  and it just causes my heart to  palpitate  from the second I take it and I tried it for about for five days  with the same unfortunate results.

Has anyone had any luck with any antidepressant that has Sedative properties,  to help relieve them of anxiety and help them with their insomnia?

Thank you

[specialmom]

Hi there.  Sleep difficulties are very common with depression and anxiety.  And depression and thyroid issues are commonly linked. And anxiety and hormones are commonly linked. And anxiety and insomnia are linked . . .   see where I am going.  Yes, it all can be interrelated.  

Sleep medication depending on what it is is really not a great long term solution.  I understand why you wouldn't want to do that long term.  Thyroid is trickier if you have a slow acting thyroid. But I WILL tell you that I had hypothyroidism for about a year and a half.  I also had low level depression.  I treated my depression and was waiting to see an endocrinologist due to their having a long waiting list and during that time, my thyroid began functioning normally again and has been for 20 years
since!

The thing with most antidepressants is that they take some time to work.  And there are 'start up' side effects.  So, say you take Zoloft (common and well tolerated medication used for depression/anxiety).  You would start on a low dose and they increase it to a therapeutic level slowly.  So, maybe you start at 25 mg and then go to 50 over the course of a week. For the first bit of taking it, there are transient side effects that can happen.  It is your body getting used to the medication.  You MAY feel slightly more anxious, agitated, have other things that you feel. BUT, these peter out.  So, it is important to stay on any of these types of medications for 6 to 8 weeks to really know what being on them would be like.  Unless the side effect is just absolutely horrible, trying to get through it is best to know if the med would work for you. Because MOST of those start up side effects go away.  Not that the medications are side effect free but most are fairly well tolerated.  Also, note---  when discontinuing any type of mental health medication, be sure to titrate back down which means to decrease the dose over time.  This gets away from any side effects on the other end or at least minimizes them.  

The only thing I'd do in terms of sleep aid that I have heard of having success without the issues of sedative medications is to use melatonin.  That's a natural product sold over the counter that is known to help.  It doesn't have any hang over effect and isn't addicting.  It doesn't cause long term issues.  

But absolutely, this could all be intertwined and you are NOT alone.  hugs

[Shedding01]

Yes you are absolutely right.   I do believe they’re all intertwined.    But it’s so hard when you’re already sensitive to medications.   I just got off the phone with my pharmacist who said most anti-depressants start out  making you sleepy and then it goes away because they don’t want people to be sleepy during the day.   I got hypothyroidism  after a stressful event of caring for my father and I think it’s stress induced but I can’t keep being a guinea pig and feeling sick all the time.   I can’t even handle a starting dose of 25 µg but maybe I should consider getting off thyroid medication and seeking an antidepressant and maybe that would make things go back to normal and I would be wonderful.    I’m going on your four of us hell of a ride.   Thank you for the suggestion of melatonin I actually take it every night.  And wasting my life away being sick, damn I’ve had insurance in my whole life and now that I need it I don’t.    I guess maybe I should take, my leftover line of credit on my credit cards, to pay for that psychiatric visit, my primary doesn’t want to prescribe me anything more than Lexapro and I’m just tired of being sick.   Sorry for the long message, thank you for your kindness and for sharing your experience, I wish so much that mine went away after year and a half and that I never lost my sleep, I honestly feel it’s hard to sleep just because of taking thyroid medication that as you I’m sure you know increases your energy and I’m already to alert as it is, not full of energy always feel tired but to alert, I don’t feel that the generic  fireman Acacian will do anything different.  I was recommended to try that as well.  

Again thank you for your kindness and taking the time to write about your experience and how fixing the depression resolved your issues.  As well as other suggestions to help with my problemS. :)

[specialmom]

When you deal with something long term, it is easy to get really fed up with it.  Hang in there.  Not having insurance complicates matters.  Check to see if your doctor will allow you to pay in cash for reduced amounts (or check, or credit card, . . . just self pay).  Some will.  

Don't stop your thyroid meds without supervision.  that's important!  You really need a doctor to oversee this whole thing.  Do you qualify for assistance or anything like that?  

[AnnieBrooke]

Hi, other things are better for sleep than antidepressants. Antidepressants help with sleep if they relieve anxiety that keeps one awake, but mostly they don't have sedative properties.

Have you looked into natural substances that are said to increase the ability to sleep, or to decrease anxiety? There are a lot of them. A good health-food store with a big medical section might be able to advise you.

Exercise, not too close to bedtime but enough to get your heart pumping at least three times a week, is said to test as more effective against anxiety than antidepressants are.

Re-sorting your memories by journaling and reading the journal over can get rid of fears. We begin to get adjusted to them, and they no longer trigger the amygdala.  You could record what the day was like and what you ate, when you had a worse night, and when you had a better one. Re-reading and analyzing the information for patterns and clues can make the anxiety fade.

If the initial issue came from thyroid medication, you might also check the thyroid community to see if others have had the same problem, and how they solved it.

[Shedding01]

Thank you for the response.   I’ve had anxiety since I was a child unfortunately because of unforeseen circumstances, trauma, after taking care of a family member, I just messed my body up and I ended up losing all my hair and being question why I had a fluctuating  thyroid to begin with.   But once I lost the sleep it made it much worse and everyone tells me it’s the anxiety that’s causing it.   I know exercising will help, before all this happened I actually exercised and ate healthy for over year and felt wonderful and did not need any medication for anything.    I was motivated, happy, social again, after so many years of being foolish and wasting my youth For a unworthy reason.   I already had IBS from stress when I was taking off medication and not titrated off of it properly and ended up losing my job.    I know I need therapy and I need to start exercising but it’s just so hard to be motivated again when you’re so tired all the time and you don’t have emotional support.    I know I need to push myself, I’m so tired of pills, I just want to be me again, sadly I had a whole two weeks of fun before the family member my father became ill, too much stress was put on me and nobody heard my cries or cared when I said I was having panic attacks and I stayed and continue to care for him because I had a conscience but knowing what I know now  I should’ve ran away knowing what I know now and pursued my life, he was in a good father, and still isn’t.   But besides the point it made me so sensitive to stress, cause me to have another stress related illness was a thyroid issue fluctuating and it doesn’t even run in my family nor do I have any antibodies causing it.  

Sorry getting to the point, I am struggling going back on thyroid medication and taking sleeping medication and I want to stop, I wake up Zaidi is so bad that my entire body hurts hands feet next shoulders, I am so tired of pills, I am so tired of just living and not feeling alive.   It is hard when you don’t have an emotional support system, and it is hard to get rid of the resentment of your families wrongdoing, I was just trying to find something that would help with the sedative property I would help me get over the bump of adjusting to the thyroid medication, and I have chronic yeast infections  which I thought I took care of when I start taking probiotics but after starting the thyroid medication and I guess the hormone changes from it it came back, so I’m just a big hot mess trying to just get over this hump, but yes you were right I should be exercising but it is so hard, it’s hard to do anything.

I apologize for the long message and appreciate your kind response, I guess I just have to push myself. Hopefully one day I’ll stick, like I did before, I’ll be harder than it was before to lose the weight I gained back and to feel that confidence again but I guess I knew the one who needs to push on the gas.