This is how my sister became addicted to alcohol (the second time - the first time was because when she took her prescription pain meds with alcohol because they worked better - go figure...18 months in drug rehab - people who are addicted to crack spend 3-4 months on average). I would reccommend talking to your doctor (or call up the ask-a-nurse in Baltimore - hard without a phone, huh?)and ask about using it as a sleeping aid or use physician reccommended sleeping aids instead - that way a health professional is aware of your risk for addiction and you can take appropriate risks that are monitered. There are also some herbal sleep aids that are no0addictive that you could try. --Ru
*nod* I'm aware of the addiction risk and a bit scared of it, much as I am with the narcotics. I try to be careful. This is one of the reasons that I keep a log of all the drugs I take (okay, so I don't log my chocolate consumption even though I should); it's partly to monitor how often I need various drugs, partly to track their effectiveness against my "how I felt today" log, and partly to be able to spot "Gee, I'm falling into a pattern here, aren't I?" conditions to watch for usage becoming habit instead of response to conditions.
I figure I can't use alcohol as a sleeping aid too often for three reasons -- 1) risk of plain old addiction, 2) risk of dependence on a sleeping aid even when the current, immediate causes of insomnia are absent, and 3) lower quality sleep when I use alcohol to get there. So it's not something I do more than a few nights in a row or more than a few nights in a single month.
The prescription and herbal sleeping aids I've tried have not done me much good. (No, I've not exhausted the entire list yet...) Chamomile doesn't help; lavender is somewhat relaxing but doesn't make me sleepy; the prescription stuff either doesn't work at all, or works the first night, almost works the second night, and then stops working entirely.
I haven't given up the search for solutions in general, but I have given up on the idea of an easy answer.
Alcohol as a sleeping aid
--Ru
Re: Alcohol as a sleeping aid
I figure I can't use alcohol as a sleeping aid too often for three reasons -- 1) risk of plain old addiction, 2) risk of dependence on a sleeping aid even when the current, immediate causes of insomnia are absent, and 3) lower quality sleep when I use alcohol to get there. So it's not something I do more than a few nights in a row or more than a few nights in a single month.
The prescription and herbal sleeping aids I've tried have not done me much good. (No, I've not exhausted the entire list yet...) Chamomile doesn't help; lavender is somewhat relaxing but doesn't make me sleepy; the prescription stuff either doesn't work at all, or works the first night, almost works the second night, and then stops working entirely.
I haven't given up the search for solutions in general, but I have given up on the idea of an easy answer.