My wife discontinued with the 150mg 5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan) a couple weeks ago and is now taking only 150mg Zoloft. At my persistent nagging, she has decided to go adjust her sleep hygeine so that she goes to bed closer to midnight. She still wakes up occasionally at 430-5am, but the majority of the time is able to fall back asleep. The one remaining symptom of her anxiety disorder is the muscle tension that she still complains about, but even that she admits has improved. However, all of her other symptoms (insomnia, heart racing, excess sweating, low energy, depressed mood) are pretty much gone.
She had previously tried CBT with a therapist, but it did not help, as her case was unique: she did not feel mentally stressed, nor emotionally anxious, and yet showed all the physical symptoms of anxiety disorder. There was no specific set of circumstance nor set of thoughts which would trigger the anxiety symptoms, it would occur randomly. Google has helped us to find alternative ways to treat her unique situation. One thing that did help was sleep hygiene, and also progressive relaxation techniques. But in my opinion, I gave her as much emotional and moral support as I could best muster, and I think that also made a difference. One thing that I found pleasantly strange was that we were not very affectionate to each other after we got married, but while she was going through this time of trial, she gave obvious body language and other signs of wanting to be hugged. I later read that hugging can be therapeutic. I can say there was lots of hugging in the past 100 days. Ooohhh yeeaaah. But now she is showing less signs of wanting to be hugged, which is also how I know that she is getting better.
Yeah, I am going to miss giving out those hugs.
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