Hi,
Just reaching out as I feel very low. Mum only died a month ago, but it feels longer.
I took my Mum’s sharps bins to the Macmillan Centre Hospital today. We’d spent lots of time there together and it’s a place that strongly reminds me of Mum, and all that she went through.
Going there today really hit me emotionally (there were private tears). It was so weird, but I felt her loss so powerfully in there. I really felt the absence of her.
I’m speaking to the GP tomorrow as I haven’t been sleeping. I’m really worried about it and I wonder what they might suggest. Not sure that I want to take sleeping tablets.
Maybe they’ll give me an anti-depressant? I need something, but it’s so early in the grief process. I am worried I’m going to get worse and I don’t want to have to live on sleeping pills/ anti depressants forever.
I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences with insomnia from grief. Did you ever recover your old sleeping patterns? If you did, how long did it take? Were you given medicine, counselling or both?
Thanks for listening and for any advice
Stephen
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Stephen, you are right, your GP may dish out pills but please remember it’s up to you what you take.
I looked into alternative therapies and that work for me and I didn’t take any medication but that’s me and we are all different. They also told me to change my routine around meal time and bedtime routine, all helped along with counselling but I was further down this horrible road, I think I must have been slow at understanding that my life was never going to be the same again. Hope this helps and now you have asked for help that will also you sleeping better. S xx
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Thanks for your advice Susie. It’s very helpful.
It’s so difficult to know what’s best for me. I know I need help as it’s been a month of really bad sleep. It’s not helping me cope.
It’s good to hear their are alternatives which worked for you. I think I need something medicinal at the moment to help me reset my brain to allow me to fall asleep. I just hope it gives good quality sleep. I tried a sedating anti histamine - that didn’t really help.
I used to just fall asleep when my head hit the pillow. Not any more!!!
I hope that when I’m further along with my grief that sleep might improve naturally. Fingers crossed…
I think counselling might be very helpful for me too later on.
Thanks again.
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Just after my husband died my GP said he wouldn’t give me sleeping pills. He said disrupted sleep pattern was normal for newly breaved people and normal sleep would return in time . 14 months later I still don’t sleep well, so now I am going back to GP to see if councilling would help.
I hope you find something that works for you.
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Hi Debbie,
I hope the GP helps and refers you for counselling. I think people sometimes need a helping hand and I don’t think the body can always return to what it was like ‘before’. Grief changes so many things doesn’t it?
In my web searches for answers counselling seems to really help a lot of people. It’s something I should like too - at the right time. I hope you can access it.
Please let me know how it goes - if you don’t mind.
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Hi Stephen, I will let you know how I get on and what my GP suggests.
Debbie X
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Hi Stephen, sorry to hear you have found yourself in this group, but I hope you find help and comfort from it.
I lost my Dad 6 months ago, and my sleep was shocking in the early months, last month I got some over the counter sleeping tablets from boots and the lady said they were to be taken temporarily to get me back in my sleep pattern. And 6 months on, I am starting to sleep a lot better.
I hope you get some better sleep soon!
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Thanks Diane,
I’m sorry for your loss and grateful you reached out.
It’s good to hear that your sleep improved. I will see what the GP says later.
Fingers crossed.
Stephen
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