Is this normal ? Extreme mental/ emotional exhaustion and sleeping to cope

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi
I want to share how I feel esp on days I work -
I feel very overloaded and drained ..
Have spent a lot of yrs over sleeping and hiding to cope -
Now I am doing a 12 step programme for eating I have a routine which requires me to be up early and take actions in any given day-
I am on anti depressants too and these are sedating ( tried others etc
How do people cope with tiredness in the mind and body -
I feel like I want to sit or lay down such a lot and meditating is good for mental process - it's like my system is over loaded and I need a long time to de load -
Feel that I try my best and rest where I can but the truth is I always need and want more - I feel safe alone in the dark
I don't have ME I don't think
It does feel like my body speaks my mind
I am in therapy in recovery have support do meditation eat well - sometimes I feel despairing with how drained I feel and don't know what to do - other times I feel better have energy
I don't have many friends or social as I literally can't put the energy in -
Any experiences / ideas welcome
Thanks me listening
Emma x

[Bluevermonter]

All of your symptoms were shared by my cptsd ex.  I have no suggestions for you.  Except to remind you that the subtitle to Pete walker's book is "from surviving to thriving".  There are no easy solutions.  she self-diagnosed and self-medicated with OTC supplements and that, IMO, only made things worse.  Refused to see a psychiatrist.

My ex felt the way you feel now for many years so I do understand how horrible it is.  Please remember that cptsd produces very real physical consequences.  My ex dealt w her situation by leaving me, instead of dealing w her trauma.

I think you are headed in the right direction because you are at least on this forum to learn about cptsd and its effects.

God bless you.

[keepfighting]

Kudos to you for having so many selfcare practises in place already - eating well, a routine in life and meditation are very powerful tools in recovery.

How do people cope with tiredness in the mind and body -

For me, what helped was the realization (through Pete Walker's book CPTSD From Surviving to Thriving) that that's the shape and form most of my EFs come in and that it's basically a freeze reaction.

What helps me is using a flight action to try and counter the freeze: I exercise, normally 2-3 times a week and maybe an extra time when I am in a bad EF. Maybe there's a flight action you can think of that might help you? - I know it often feels like the last thing I want to do - leave the house and exercise - but I also feel better able to handle myself (body and mind) after having exercised.

I do hope you'll feel a bit better soon. 

[Rrecovery]

Hi Emma, My heart goes out to you    You are telling my story too.  The last few months things have shifted, finally.  So I can tell you how I see things at this point from my own experience and hope something might help.  I am not a psychiatrist or doctor, so what I say must be seen from that light.  So, for me:

The anti-depressants I was on for years caused me IBS, which is a very draining condition.  Some meds can cause extreme tiredness, especially Paxel and Seroquel.  Eventually I began researching my own meds and made choices that improved things.  I was especially impressed with an over-the-counter supplement called SAMe.  It's a robust antidepressant that many people have no side-effects from.  It is more energizing that sedating.  It eventually bothered my g.i. tract too and now I'm on (over-the counter)  sublingual 5-HTP. I feel it's the best antidepressant I've been on because it doesn't cause drowsiness or IBS (if taken sublingually)

Another factor causing my tiredness was the anxiety and EF's.  Meditation and mindfulness help a lot, and therapy.  I'd also recommend exercise, it burns off excess adrenaline (especially weight lifting)

The other main thing that helped was to conceptualize most of my tiredness as depression.  I had to look for negative thinking patterns and shift them.  For instance I shifted "I'm SO exhausted" to "I'm depressed"  which made it an issue to solve rather than a state of being.  I also listed all of my negative beliefs, and there were a lot of them, and shifted then into rational alternatives.  Beliefs can be very covert.  One of them was, "For some reason, I chose a REALLY difficult incarnation,"  to "Things have been more difficult in my life than for most people, but this can shift."
I believe that our thoughts have a great deal of power over our reality.  So changing thoughts is more than just improving mental patterns and corresponding emotions, I can actually change my outer world with my thoughts and beliefs and their corresponding emotions.  This paradigm emphasized the importance of thought-changing and the real power that could have to alter my circumstances = HOPE!

I also looked for patterns when I was feeling better and worse.  This showed me what was at the core of better and worse energy days.

I will be praying for you 

[seasaw_]

RRecovery, thanks for your post - can I asked how you linked your meds to your IBS symptoms?

[Boatsetsailrose]

Thank you all very much for your replies
Very helpful - hopeful and caring
Xx appreciate

[Rrecovery]

RRecovery, thanks for your post - can I asked how you linked your meds to your IBS symptoms?

Doctors never suggested my IBS could be related to the anti-depressants. Looking back, I find this frustrating. I took myself off of them because I began to suspect this might be the case. The IBS went away completely. Every time I went back on them it came back. Meds taken sublingually don't pass through the g.i. tract. So I'm able to take in a serotonin booster this way.

[Cottonanx]

I am VERY sleepy lately, and it reminds me of when I was recovering from "regular" PTSD after being raped. I just wanted to sleep ALL THE TIME.

[Sandals]

Try googling "Adrenal Fatigue" - there's a lot of interaction between cortisol levels and your adrenal glands that can cause extreme fatigue.

[Liliuokalani]

I also want to sleep all the time and feel like my emotions are beating me up. I learned with my first real therapy session about two and a half years ago that I am deeply out of touch with my emotions. So the therapist had me start listing out my emotions at the end of the day, and that it may take time because there are many layers of them. Try using different colors and shapes and kind of creatively exploring the emotions. Just dive into them. But of late, having to study for a HUGE exam, I have had to kind of set that stuff aside because I don't really have the time. But I should probably be doing it more because I'm super exhausted and emotionally beat up. I start exploring my emotions and then I just explode into tears for HOURS. Or spend the one day off a week I give myself just sleeping.

My emotions, now that I'm feeling them, are ridiculously strong! No idea what to do about it. So many therapists say sedating and calming medications keep you from properly processing those feelings, but maybe if I took a little edge off that would help? Most psychologists don't even really know what to do. PTSD in all forms is pretty darn difficult to fix. Anyway, I take Effexor, second to lowest dose in the US, and Xanax on the occasions where I cry for hours and don't stop, or I get horrible performance anxiety, and that I do the lowest dose and sometimes even cut that in half on the better days. I take one maybe once every other week, I could probably be safe to push that a bit more.

You can see it's extremely common. Is it normal? I don't even know what the * normal is. Sometimes I wonder if anyone really has a calm and happy life, completely free of trauma. What does a happy person look like? What is their typical day? Who knows. I would like to find a healthy happy person and interviewed them. I interviewed my therapist once, asking her what the healthy mother of a healthy teenage son does. I burst into tears when she told me she smiled at the messes he made and the sign on the door that said "keep out." My mom would torment me for those things. For days. I have no model for comparison. Maybe that's what we need? A healthy big brother/ big sister program?

Anyway, rambling, just saying I may be experiencing some of your pain and some days I feel I'm getting healthier but it's a cycle. There are good days and bad.

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi lili
Thank u for sharing
Yes I relate the emotions are 'huge strong and consuming
I take an anti depressant and it appears to take the edge off --
The things that help me and are important are - meditation ( and / or quiet time - everyday
Mindfulness
Breathing
Grounding techniques ( saying that I need to learn more and practice more of this
Spiritual life
Writing ( don't do this much though
Talking
Alone time
Working a 4 day week
Nurturing activities
Love