Your path towards
FULL INSOMNIA RECOVERY
How and why insomnia happens, what is it that sustains it, how to break the cycle,
why nothing works, and how to taper medication or come off completely.
Hi, my name is Vid Gavallér Certified Sleep Coach
Main Issues
Regarding Insomnia
and My Stance on Them
This is not medical advice but my personal opinion based on my several years of experience, visiting all kinds of healthcare professionals, and taking multiple medications. If you have specific health concerns seek out a medical professional.
Insomnia Recovery
The recovery process rarely happens by itself. Or you wouldn’t notice because you go back to your old thinking and behaviour before the progress you've made could've settled. In order to stay on the recovery path you need to know exactly what’s going on with you. Sleep is a passive process. Anything you do in order to achieve sleep will only result in more sleep monitoring, which leads to more awareness/wakefullness. What did you do to achieve sleep before you were an insomniac? that's right! Nothing. What we do here is learn to go back to the old way of sleeping, and get rid of all the maladptive behaviors which are keeping you in this cycle.
Why Nothing Works
Chances are you haven’t yet heard of sleep efforts. A sleep effort refers to both cognitive and behavioural conscious attempts to initiate sleep. The thing is everything we do in order to achieve sleep will backfire on us. All of our efforts be it meditation, pills, sleep hygiene like avoiding blue lights, drinking a certain type of tea etc. All of these shift your attention towards your struggle to initiate sleep (which is impossible to do), and so they only make you more vigilante at night, resulting in more sleep monitoring, and even more anxiety.
Aviodant Behavior
After you have been battling with insomnia for a while, you tend to give in to several kinds of avoidant, safety behaviors like not going out with friends, quitting your job, and missing family events. All in order to preserve sleep, and not to interfere with whatever bedtime routine you might be following. The problem with this is that avoidant behavior reinforces that you can't function normally if you didn't get enough sleep or sleep at all. You need to give up these safety behaviors and show your brain that you're still able to function and do the things you want even if you haven't slept.
Medication
What always bothers me is that the most common response to sleep issues is to go on medications. Why? There's this misconception that trouble sleeping is a medical issue. I would go as far as it's not only not a medical issue, but not even a mental health issue. This is why no doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist can help you (in my opinion). As I'm sure you've experienced this. Insomnia is the result of dysfunctional thinking and behavior. Good news is you can think and act yourself out of it. There's no need for any medications (that's my personal opinion not medical advice). If you want to stay on your meds that's okay too. Recovery is possible while taking meds also. But if you need help with tapering or coming off completely I can help you with that.
Tapering Off
After five years of taking all kinds of medications I have finally tapered off completely. No psychiatrist ever addressed the issue of tapering, so I had to do it alone. You don't have to as I'm here to help through my own experiences. No need to rush into this, as there is a hich change that you have a pretty strong psychological dependence to meds. Why they work sometimes is because we believe that they would take care of sleep for us. And so we step out of the way, and let sleep happen by itself. This is always the case. You never get real sleeping pills anyway, as they don't exist. these are merely anxiety reducing medications that work in a similar way as alcohol. Only with a much more subtle effect. If you're allert, you will not sleep. And what makes you allert is your fear of being awake / not sleeping.
Life After Insomnia
It's absolutely unbelievable when you're in the midst of insomnia, but you can get your life back just as it was before. Insomnia is the result of unfortunate cognitive and behavioral changes, but it can be unlearned, and the world will open up to you once again. This unlearning requires specific behavioral changes, along with growth in both your sleep confidence and your ability to handle the day on little to no sleep. You'll need to be mindful of your own thinking, question what your mind is telling you, be brave, and face your fear of being awake—or the potential consequences of it in the days, weeks, or even years to come. Once you've faced this fear, you'll gain valuable insight into your own mind and how it works, allowing you to cope more effectively with negative, fearful thoughts.
There is a solution
You Won't Stay Like This Forever
FREE FIRST TIME CONSULTATION
If You'd Like to Have a Consultation I'm Happy to Help.
I offer a completely free 30 minute first consultation, where you can get to know me better, and have a conversation of insomnia and recovery.