Riding the insomnia train
I am among the millions of people out there with occassional sleep issues. For the past few years, insomnia has come and gone.
When I was using, getting sleep was really not much of a problem since I was self-medicating and in a state of perpetual buzz. I never seemed to get enough sleep and I almost slept too much.
Today, I am clean and sober yet blissful, uninterrupted, deep sleep is sometimes a challenge. Is this an after-effect that many addicts/alcoholics experience in recovery? Was I too stoned at the time to notice insomnia? A good night’s sleep is priceless and nothing beats natural, unmedicated sleep.
On those dreaded nights I am struggling to get to sleep, I have to really ponder over whether or not to take a sleeping pill. Do I tough it out or do I sucumb to the meds? We insomniacs in recovery have to consider the psychological implications of choosing a pill to sleep.
The pharmaceutical industry pumps millions into advertising those new sleep aids that are touted to not be habit forming. Big Pharma has gotten away on a technicality. They claim that the new generation of hypnotics are non-habit forming because they are chemically different from the older generations of hynotics like benzodiazapines.
Because they are classified as non-benzodiazapines they claim they are not habit-forming however they work on the brain exactly the same way, using the same mechanisms as benzodiazapines So if they work the same way wouldn’t it be logical to assume they ARE habit-forming? If not so much physically but psychologically? Another thing is, we don’t really know what the long term effects are of these new sleep aids.
Entire nations of people are getting hooked on a pill just to fall asleep and stay asleep. We must learn to manage insomnia, not give in so easily to taking medication for something that every living creature does naturally — sleep!