Nearly 5 years
 

It's almost five years since my self inflicted accident, and thankfully pretty much healed from the myriad of symptoms. However, consistent sleep still evades me, this week has been particularly bad, caused by being in the middle of stressful a house move!

I think the concussion has left me vulnerable to anxiety that seems to take over, so I'm finally considering going to the docs and asking for Amitriptyline to help with sleep despite being very anti drug use so far.

Super E,

We did our damage about the same time but you found this site before me. It was a much bigger help getting me through a scary time than my docs were.

Mine was self inflicted also, my little voice yelled at me twice to put the anchor inside the boat and I ignored it twice!

Happy anniversary in the club!

Bud

I advise against taking amitriptyline as this is an older, anticholinergic antidepressant that is likely neurotoxic. It is known to lead to mild cognitive impairment, unlike others which do not interfere with the actions of acetylcholine. A GP offered me that drug, but my instincts rightly led me to refuse the prescription.

I strongly recommend looking into 2 things:

1) Hemp oil - CBD helped me a great deal with sleep during the earlier parts of my injury, and is totally non-toxic. It works with the adenosine receptor system in your brain which is what actually regulates normal sleep, as opposed to the effects of certain psychiatric drugs. You will most likely wake up feeling rested and clear-headed without side effects.

2) Hyperbaric Oxygen - This helped me with sleep more than anything, even after the very first dive. It grows new capillaries in the brain, which is important due to the fact that the brain consumes more oxygen during deep sleep than it does while you are awake.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the input guys, I've been feeling a lot better these last couple of days. I'm sure part of my sleep issue is the tinnitus which seems to have flared up, a couple of weeks ago it had almost gone and didn't bother me at all at night. I have a doctors appointment Wednesday so will see what he says although I'm not expecting much.

@Bud Glad to hear you're doing well, do you think you've about recovered? I've progressed steadily, even the last few months have seen improvements so people who put time limits on recovery I think are wrong.

For me 10mg of Melatonin has help me sleep better. Still not great but much better then before.

Super E,

I still have things that bug me but nothing to the point of hindering what I hold important and had as recovery goals.

I have most days made peace with the probability I will always have things that remind of my event but have become reasonably skilled at ignoring them, a sore head being the most pronounced. I never really had what you would describe as a classic head ache but my head is always sore, kind of like a flu or sore muscle on the left and top of my head where it was hit.

I still get to chase grandkids around, ski and exercise so all in all it's a pretty full life for which I am most grateful to God for.

Take Care,
Bud

I know I am a little late to this, but I just wanted to let you now that I have suffered from horrible insomnia (awakenings during sleep, no trouble falling asleep) since my injury. I have, like you, attributed this to being more sensitive to stress and anxiety and found that no pill would help me.

This may not help, but I just wanted to throw out that I read a couple books that helped me immensely just in easing my sleep anxiety:

1. The Upside of Stress
2. Say Goodnight to Insomnia

You may take some of the content with a grain of salt, but reading up on some of the research on a REAL healthy amount of sleep really helped calm me down and in turn has helped me sleep better.

Reassuring to see that your depersonalization has gone away - curious how that felt, did it taper off?