Also called restless legs syndrome. I have it. I've had it since the growth sprint when I was only 12-13. I grew 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) in one year.
After that I've been suffering from the restless legs on and off. Since they changed my meds last fall, it's gradually gotten worse and worse... and this weekend, I stayed up all night (sun-mon) because my legs just would not stop moving and cramping and twitching. Those who have ever had this problem know how horrible it can get.
And I think anyone can image the feeling when you've tried to sleep for 8 hours, laying on your bed, staring that the ceiling because they sleep just won't come. As soon as you close your eyes and start to fall asleep, the legs give a twitch and you wake up with a start. You become such a nervous wreck at the end of the night that you don't even try to fall asleep anymore, you just wait for morning to come so you don't have so suffer anymore.
So... I called and booked myself a doctors appointment and went there yesterday. He was foreign, so we had some trouble getting the issue understood (most doctors here in Finland are foreign these days because it's cheaper to hire foreign doctors than Finnish ones.). In the end, after a lot of discussing that I found rather pointless (telling everything that was NOT helping me to sleep, like stretching, walking and massaging my legs), he understood my problem and:
they are gonna change my medication, AGAIN!
This medication (Moclobemid) should be a lot less horrible to change than the last one (Efexor). But still, I am worried, because with a new medication comes new side-effects, and the ones I've had so far had not been all fun and games. Plus this medication I have now has been utterly perfect if you don't count the restless legs... but it's gotten so bad that I get about 4-5 hours asleep during a "normal" night, so it cannot go on like this. =(
So now I wait while the doctor negotiates with my other doctor and they together decide what meds to try next, wooooot. In a week I should know and be able to start the switch, again.
On other news, I love my "workplace"! =D
OMG I AM BRAVE ENOUGH TO FINALLY LEAVE A COMMENT! YAY! XP
ReplyDeleteI've never had restless legs, but I can somehow relate to it when it comes to losing good night sleep over something, for me it is just familiar from having AMC (really uncomfortable pressure in joints and back) and Crohns disease (hell of a pain). x_x
Bwaah I don't get it why they hire ppl who can't speak Finnish properly! :I I mean, gosh, not that they wouldn't be good at what they do, but it IS important to be perfectly understood when it's about your health, right?
Do you know what kind of side-effects this Moclobemid will cause? :/
I'm being stupid with my depression medication and stopped eating them after winter vacation (my shrink's going to be mad at me :_D should start eating them again..lol) - mostly because it gave me hell of a head aches and I couldn't cry at all which has been my way to let everything out and I haven't found any good way to replace it..
You told me that you'd have some tips for relaxing :3 Mind sharing them? ^^
Yayyyyyy Serenity, thank youuuu for the comment! ^___^ <3
DeleteLosing sleep is horrible. ;_; You're so tired all the time that you feel like you're drunk, ugh.
The doctor not speaking finnish was really irritating... he tried to be helpful but there were a lot of things that I just could not get him to understand. =S
I don't know about the new meds side-effects... I just hope it won't get me horribly tired like the last one did, that was just... urgh.
Eeeeeeeek, you stopped taking your depression meds? You could talk to your doctor and maybe find a new med that worked better? There are tons of choices out there. And some side effects go away after a few months of using.
... then again, some just get worse and worse, like my restless legs. X3
Not being able to cry is a horrible feeling. That's the bad thing about a lot of depression meds, they mute emotions so completely that you are kind of able to feel them, but not... completely. Not really feeling like laughing and not being able to cry.
Relaxing. Okay! :D
Well, I use music. And things I like, like reading... like you do, I believe. ;D
But then I use these relaxation methods that a psychiatrist taught me:
You relax your body completely, lie on your back or sit on a comfortable chair. Then concentrate on your fingers, don't move them, just think of them. They might start to feel like they're heating up. Try to relax your fingers as best as you can.
Then move up to your palms, arms, elbows, shoulders... think of them, relax them completely. Your thoughts might wonder, but if they do, just bring them back.
All the while breath slowly, in from your nose and out from your mouth, so that your chest rises, but not so hard that you would be panting.
Rise the "thinking" to your shoulders and chin... this is the moment I always realize that I am completely tense around my chin and neck. Relax everything, move slowly upwards to your cheeks and forehead, scalp and neck, back to shoulders, back, buttocs, legs, back of your knees, feet and back up your feet on the front of your knees, legs, lower stomach, upper stomach and chest.
If you've managed to keep your breathing calm and gone trough all those places, relaxing and not moving a bit, you're almost asleep at that point. If you're going to sleep, then it's really easy to fall asleep but if you want to get up, you'll feel incredibly relaxed.
I hope it will work for you as well as it does for me. ^_^
(you can add some quiet calming music to the background if that helps you to concentrate)
<3
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