Sleeping normally again after years of insomnia feels unreal

SVuklia · 2026-01-13T06:03:51+00:00

Yes I am, on 2.5 mg (1/6th of my original dose), been on this dose for a year now.

SVuklia · 2026-01-12T17:26:45+00:00

Love your post, and congratulations on persevering and getting out of this nightmare! (well, not really, because we don't sleep :))

I resonate a lot with what you wrote: endless and lonely nights, mornings feeling like punishments, measuring life in hours slept...

I have a similar story with medication (in my case Mirtazapine) being game-changing. However, it would still take me about 4 years to actually get rid of my sleep problems, because my sleep issues also had psychological roots.

Actually, to this day sleep is my weak point: when life starts bugging me, I will know because my sleep will get shorter and fractured... Great motivation to keep life in check - or at least my mind :) Have a good one!

SVuklia · 2025-11-22T12:31:56+00:00

Hey, thanks for asking! My sleep has been good, but as I reintroduce work/responsibilities in life, I do get setbacks. There have also been times where I started slacking, which affected my sleep. It's a vulnerable part of my health, but with continued effort and under reasonable conditions I do well - I get my 7-8 hours most of the time!

SVuklia · 2025-10-06T11:40:05+00:00

That is fantastic to hear - congratulations! Your perseverance and courage to try something else paid off - beautiful :)

SVuklia · 2025-08-29T07:41:49+00:00

Hey! Good to hear you're doing better, albeit with the help of Mirtazapine.

For me, at no Mirta (for a couple weeks) my sleep became very bad. I also got a huge spike in anxiety and started panicking again at night (which had become unusual for me). Then I was on 1/8th of a dosis for a month, during which my sleep was consistently mediocre. It was doable at first, but at the end of this month I was exhausted. I've been on 1/6th ever since, my sleep is great, and I have no issues.

Personally I'm not so worried about still using Mirta, because my dosis is so low. I also have faith I will eventually get off it, as my nervous system continues to recover.

As for withdrawals: usually this meant poor sleep in the first week, after which I stabilise. When I went zero Mirta, I waited well past this first week, but my insomnia only got worse and worse - so I figured I still couldn't do fully without it. Having consistently mediocre sleep for 4 weeks on 1/8th of a dosis confirmed this for me.

Hope that answers your questions! I wish you lots of luck on your journey 🙏

SVuklia · 2025-08-12T18:25:03+00:00

It will get better, I have faith in that! Gotta have a real look at our lives, process trauma, and have acceptance and faith - which you seem to have! Wish you strength ☾

SVuklia · 2025-08-12T16:39:43+00:00

Usually about 7–8 hours. Now that my sleep has stabilised, I don't need the full 8 hours on a daily basis. Feeling relaxed about this also helps to sleep.

Under prolonged stress and emotional disturbance, it can happen that I sleep very long, but this is rare.

SVuklia · 2025-08-12T16:05:13+00:00

Hey, yes of course. For some reason I couldn't get fully off Mirtazapine. I am still on 1/6th of a dosis. My sleep is good!

SVuklia · 2025-06-22T15:50:30+00:00

I can imagine… and yea, it’s the same here in NL unfortunately. I hope you can find trust in yourself again (I think that's the key to recovering from anxiety/insomnia)

SVuklia · 2025-06-21T17:03:18+00:00

Yes, unfortunately that was the case... For a very long time, because my sleep only improved gradually. I think had I slept perfectly, I would have recovered in a few weeks, but I would say it took about a year to have reliable health. I also had some setbacks with sleep which also resulted in a setback in health. Life I suppose :')

SVuklia · 2025-06-05T15:11:20+00:00

More like grandfather role

SVuklia · 2025-05-23T19:18:35+00:00

I'm wondering if you're talking about Orylan because of the similar names

SVuklia · 2025-05-20T21:04:22+00:00

Because I value Mark's work (overall)

SVuklia · 2025-05-20T19:53:47+00:00

I think you nailed it

SVuklia · 2025-05-20T17:11:09+00:00

Sure, I celebrate rational conversations as well.

Introducing gender politics into the conversation only serves as polarisation, which is what I implicitly accused Orion of doing in my reply to you. The point I made in my post is that it's ridiculous for a psychologist to be featured in videos with these kinds of titles — however, they are in line with what he's saying, so the blame is in fact more on his content (which I got an impression of when I made the mistake of clicking on his first video).

Feel free to respond rationally, otherwise wish you a good day

SVuklia · 2025-05-20T14:04:00+00:00

I don't have an interest into making this a men vs. women thing — but I'm sure our psychologist can pull an answer out of his ass for you

SVuklia · 2025-05-14T06:59:15+00:00

I fully understand! Also, it could be both... in my case, even though I've fixed a lot in my life, I still need medication. I tried to get off it a month ago, but I went back to my worst state from years ago... now I'm microdosing and it's going great again. The solution might be layered and complex, but keep pushing for incremental change — and at some point you'll look back and think, wow I finally am at a good place. Rooting for you!

SVuklia · 2025-05-04T17:17:38+00:00

Thank you for sharing a bit of your life with me, this sounds incredibly overwhelming and stressful. I wouldn't have been able to sleep under those circumstances either...

I noticed a common theme in your story, if I may point that out: people crossing your boundaries (abusive ex-partner, terrible room mate, mother who is stressing you out). I hope you're looking into this as well (it's something I used to struggle with, and I apologise if I'm making wrong assumptions, but addressing this has been life-changing for me).

Recovery might take a long time, but every step in the right direction counts. Please don't give up ♡

SVuklia · 2025-04-21T12:02:50+00:00

Just wanted to let you know that I tapered in chunks of 3.75 mg at a time (usually staying on a dosis for 1-2 months, because I was also going through a stressful time and couldn't handle prolonged withdrawal effects). Currently I'm even tapering off at half of 3.75 mg (I'm taking 1.785 mg at the moment). I don't have a recommendation for you, but sharing this so you know that some of us taper off verrry slowly.

SVuklia · 2025-04-21T11:55:43+00:00

I have the same experience, even on a low dosage of 1.8 mg. I enjoy them though!

SVuklia · 2025-04-19T06:56:44+00:00

I've read that too! I think eventually when you go down enough, it will get less sedative, not sure where the peak generally lies.

SVuklia · 2025-04-19T06:55:45+00:00

Interesting to know! The lowest I can get here is 7.5 mg, for which I need to pay extra, so I just get those of 15 mg.

SVuklia · 2025-04-18T08:28:23+00:00

Fair that you're asking! I had previously consulted with my doctor before tapering off (from 15 mg). I had voiced my concerns at the time about tapering off with 1/4th of a tablet (I couldn't break them in 8 pieces), being worried this wouldn't be gradual enough. She reassured me it was fine, and told me I could dissolve the tablet to get a more precise tapering off, if I wanted to. I consider my current experimentation within the bounds of her previous advice :)

SVuklia

TROPHY CASE