Fingernail on 5/2/2011 at 12:15

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I find new thom somewhat creepy/sinister

Fingernail on 5/2/2011 at 14:55

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Yeah, it almost seems like the subtle internet references:



has overtaken




It put me in mind of salad fingers too. I think it's mainly the hollow pupils.

The Alchemist on 5/2/2011 at 22:52

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I had problems with sleep until I was prescribed Seroquel, oddly enough not to treat my sleeping problem.

TTK12G3 on 6/2/2011 at 15:50

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Yes, but did you ever publish?

jtr7 on 8/2/2011 at 12:27

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Me too. I stopped taking it over a year ago and still haven't recovered from what it did. It took months to begin to recover from it, and weeks between each bit I got back of myself. Not only that, I was prescribed it to deal with the crazy insomnia spike I got while on Lamotrigine. That stuff burned me out. It gave me five days of no sleep but a three-hour nap I managed in the middle of it, and I didn't feel wired or tired, just on and I knew after day 4, if it kept on, I'd be in trouble, and when day 5 held no hint of sleep or sleepiness, I begged the doctor for something to knock me down but to keep me functional. I took advantage of a workless weekend and slept 16 hours, just using prescription allergy medicine. Afterward, my brain was like an over-inflated balloon that was withered and deformed when the air was finally let out.

No doctor knows what the hell that was all about, especially since Lamotrigine wasn't supposed to have a side-effect like that. We lowered the dosage, and then I eventually ramped down over a couple of months and stopped taking all the stuff. While I was on it, not long after the freak five-day spike, my sleep was erratic and unpredictable, but rarely more than 4 hours, so I was prescribed the Seroquel.

Altogether it was like Alzheimer's in a pill. Confusion, memory loss (especially of things I've known for decades, as well as what key did what, what pills I'd taken already, my PINs for the ATM or purchasing groceries, knowing the difference between an elevator button and an electronic key lock, and a bunch of embarrassing crap), driving like I was drunk and/or having the part of my brain that processes peripheral vision and lets me know if there's anything of note (like a car coming) stopped working. I had to remember to deliberately look both ways and stare long enough to read what I saw in instances where I could normally flick my eyes and let my peripheral vision do the rest safely. I threw away a spindle of CD-Rs I'd burned of my late father's recordings, thinking it was just some trash. That, and the doctor's indifference and telling me I would likely have to take these pills for a couple fo years before I stabilized, were the last straw.

To this day I have to take Unisom before going to sleep (diphenhydramine products don't work for some inconvenient reason), and maybe a little melatonin if I feel particularly wired, and I don't know if I will get more than six hours of sleep, always trying to get 8 or 9. I feel every hour I don't get, and it affects me all day. Damned lack of sleep has definitely proven to cause my acne, greatly increased allergen sensitivity, and other signs of reduced immunity, such as getting a low-grade fever after eating food I haven't prepared myself sometimes, accompanied by a headache. More full-cycle sleep just improves life all around.