[westmanguy]

The funny thing is I know exactly why I don't fall asleep. I'm on my laptop for an hour or more right up until before I go to bed. Or I watch the national news right before I go to sleep.

Of course, this influx of news - usually negative - usually gets my mind running.

What I do sometimes (and it works), is force to have myself off the laptop an hour before I want to go to sleep and read a book. Even though I'm most likely reading when I'm online before I go to bed its not the right type of reading. I'm readings news articles an analyzing different ideas.

Its funny how you KNOW the answer, but you end up putting yourself through trouble due to habit. I tried melatonin a bit last year and it didn't really work, but I'm thinking of giving it another shot in the new year if my sleep doesn't get better with this new resolution I have to read an hour before bed.

Oh and I'm also someone who is quite anti-caffeine. If I'm desperate and in terrible shape in the morning I will succumb to a coffee but otherwise I avoid coffee, chocolate, energy drinks, and pop like the plague. Especially after 2pm, caffeine can stay in your body up to 8 hours.

Only exam time do I ever potentially allow myself to turn into a coffee whore.

[andyt]

You realize that for caffeine to really work, you have to be in that caffeinated state when the info goes in to really have access to it when you want to recall it?

[Bruce_the_vii]

I talked to a couple of psychiatrists and developed a negative attitude towards them. You can go shopping for a diagnosis, what ever your reasons are. Then I found the industry, the nurses and that, have a term "medical model". Here all peculiarities can be diagnosed and they have a pill to fix them all. Give a man 14 years of university training and he can work miracles.

[raydan]

It's a "medicate first, ask questions later" world.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Bruce_the_vii wrote:

I talked to a couple of psychiatrists and developed a negative attitude towards them. You can go shopping for a diagnosis, what ever your reasons are. Then I found the industry, the nurses and that, have a term "medical model". Here all peculiarities can be diagnosed and they have a pill to fix them all. Give a man 14 years of university training and he can work miracles.

Yep, I remember a few years back, bi-polar disorder was the diagnosis du jour.
Hell, having a blah week, it's bi-polar disorder, here's a pill.
Marriage ended and you can't stop crying over it? You have bi-polar disorder, here's a pill.
Do you smoke? Here's a pill we used to use to treat bi-polar disorder.
Live in Montreal? Meh, dont worry about any pills, just drink tap water. Anything you do need and everything else you don't, is likely in it.

Pills pills pills. Can't eat? There's a pill for that. Eat too much? There's a pill for that. Can't sleep? There's a pill for that. Can't wake up? There's a pill for that. Don't want kids? There's a pill for that. Want a bunch of kids? There's a pill for that too. Wanna rape someone? There's a pill for that(although NOT its intended purpose) Wanna boner? There's a pill for that. Wanna make someone interested in your boner? There's a pill for that.
Got psoriasis? There's a pill for that. Although, even though psoriasis isn't lethal, some of the pill's side effects can be.
Got the runs? There's a pill for that. Can't shit? Got a pill for that too.

Anyway, sorry about the rant. I haven't taken my meds today

[xerxes]

I'm a bit like Bart in the trouble sleeping category. Some nights I can't get my mind ot shut off or shut up for that matter. It's annoying. It's nice to have during the day, but sometimes I'm trying to sleep dammit.

[Bruce_the_vii]

Regina wrote:

This whole article has little to do with fact and more to do with an axe to grind with brand pharmaceutical companies and bad doctors.

"Bottom line: Stop Big Pharma and the parasitic shrink community from wantonly pushing these pills across the population."

I find people want to be diagnosed, want to be labeled wonky. Also they're families that want a troubling son or daughter to be drugged, tranquilized. Finally if you talk about mental health at at bar with friends you'll find rather a lot of people have some quirk they want a pill for. So it's not just bad doctors and big pharm there's also a big demand for a little pill to make you feel a whole lot better. You got a complaint you shop around and you'll find a doctor that will prescribe a pill.

[Regina]

Bruce_the_vii wrote:

Regina wrote:

This whole article has little to do with fact and more to do with an axe to grind with brand pharmaceutical companies and bad doctors.

"Bottom line: Stop Big Pharma and the parasitic shrink community from wantonly pushing these pills across the population."

I find people want to be diagnosed, want to be labeled wonky. Also they're families that want a troubling son or daughter to be drugged, tranquilized. Finally if you talk about mental health at at bar with friends you'll find rather a lot of people have some quirk they want a pill for. So it's not just bad doctors and big pharm there's also a big demand for a little pill to make you feel a whole lot better. You got a complaint you shop around and you'll find a doctor that will prescribe a pill.

I agree with that too.

[Brenda]

Funny thing when I was in the ER 2 nights ago after that car crash, it took them 3 hours to ask me if I wanted pain medication...

[andyt]

Brenda wrote:

Funny thing when I was in the ER 2 nights ago after that car crash, it took them 3 hours to ask me if I wanted pain medication...

Just roll around the floor screaming "arrrrgg, the pain, the pain, make it stop, for God's sake I beg you make it stop" and you'll probably get faster service. Or tell them you're Steven Harper's niece.

Yep. We'll shove pills down people's throats like a foie gras goose, but when it comes to pain meds - oooo, we don't want them to get addicted, and it's all in their head. Actually the last part is true. Sit in meditation and watch a pain and it will eventually dissolve into just sensation and not hurt anymore. Admittedly I've only done that with knee pain from sitting, not with a spike sticking out of my head, and even then it doesn't always work. But pain is all in your head - where else would it be?

[Brenda]

andyt wrote:

Brenda wrote:

Funny thing when I was in the ER 2 nights ago after that car crash, it took them 3 hours to ask me if I wanted pain medication...

Just roll around the floor screaming "arrrrgg, the pain, the pain, make it stop, for God's sake I beg you make it stop" and you'll probably get faster service. Or tell them you're Steven Harper's niece.

So were you all doped up for New Years?

Nahhh. I don't like losing control, so I am rather in a bit of pain than having a weird head...

[andyt]

Brenda wrote:

Nahhh. I don't like losing control,

"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me." Hunter S. Thompson

Everything in moderation, including moderation." Oscar Wilde

But no, I'm too old for that shit too.

[Macguyver]

andyt wrote:

Sit in meditation and watch a pain and it will eventually dissolve into just sensation and not hurt anymore. Admittedly I've only done that with knee pain from sitting, not with a spike sticking out of my head, and even then it doesn't always work. But pain is all in your head - where else would it be?

I agree and I disagree - I took some pain management classes and they really helped. I however cracked some ribs and tore a few muscles a few months ago and that pain management crap DOES NOT WORK for the first week or two after trauma (in my experience) - but I think there is some delayed pain that exists for no obvious reason well after the wounds have healed - that is when the meditation and pain management might work.

I have a drawer full of pain meds - Oxycontin, T'3s and morphine (well the morphine is gone now but the empty bottle is still there).

Now who suggests I use the meds, who suggests I smoke the weed and who suggests meditation?

And actually I've used Andy's "dissolve" method with pain and itching skin at night, and it does actually work.

Speaking of meds, if you have ever had Oxycontin, that shit is the shit. I have never felt better with a pill. It is amazing and it totally numbs the mind and the body and I totally understand how people can get hooked, because no matter what your mood or what your pain, its gone in 10 minutes and you feel PERRRRRFECT. That is why I stopped taking it, I was too scared I'd get hooked. Its like really good weed x 100. And I know I have exactly 6 pills left...I almost look forward to separating my shoulder again just to take one .

Anyways, I'm going home to blacken some chicken, play some black ops and smoke some nice kush.