PND or pure exhaustion?

[Avicw]

Hello. My daughter is 15 weeks old and a god sleeper (so far)! Unfortunately I have developed insomnia over the last 3-4 weeks which has got worse and worse and leaves me awake all night, most nights with my mind racing. I can't believe I am still functioning (to a basic extent) with no sleep. My mind and body is totally exhausted and I've had to have friends over this week to help me with my daughter as i couldnt stop crying.I've tried everything I can as I'm breast feeding from homeopathic medicine for sleep, just started cbt counselling and now accupuncture. However as I spent most of this week crying I went to the doctor in desperation and she prescribed anti anxiety medication (Sertraline 50mg) and 5 days worth of sleeping pills to rest my body. I'm so upset as didn't want to go down this route. I don't know whether the sleep deprivation is causing the anxiety or vice versa. Is this depression? I can't think straight as so tired. I had 8,5 hours sleep last night after taking a sleeping pill and it was glorious, I can't tell you how much better I feel today! I havent started the anti anxiety drugs yet as not aure what to do. Also, and i know this may sound stupid, but apparently you cant drink on them. its summer and sometimes I love to enjoy a glass of wine with my husband when my daughter has gone to bed! I feel like all the things I enjoy are stopping! Has anyone else suffered this and got through it? Any words of wisdom? Thank you in advance.

[nextphase]

Sorry your having a rough time.

I think PND and exhaustion can feed into each other, so maybe not quite as easy to separate the two as you might think.

How would you feel about taking the sleeping tablets for a few days, and seeing if a decent amount of sleep helps things? If so, then maybe you just need to work on the insomnia, rather than anxiety as well?
If a week of decent nights isn't really helping, maybe then start on the sertaline??

Don't know about the alcohol. sorry.

Hope your feeling better soon.

[Zipitydooda]

Please ask your GP to test your thyroid levels. I had this and thought it was PND. It wasn't until after my second baby when I knew I wasn't depressed but felt so anxious, exhausted and couldn't sleep etc that GP tested thyroid and found I had post-partum thyroiditis. My consultant said it often gets misdiagnosed as PND.

Google it and see if your symptoms match.

You don't actually mention low mood in your post which made me think maybe its not depression.

[Mumlar]

Sorry to hear you are not sleeping well. I had PND after my third baby and as you say I couldn't tell if I felt so bad because of a lack of sleep or something else. Mine started with feeling disconnected from everyone around me, I was very detached from everything and very anxious too. I had insomnia too so on the rare occasions when my baba was sleeping I was thrashing about trying to get to sleep.

I definitely think tiredness magnifies the problem hugely so if you can break the pattern of insomnia with the sleeping tablets, hopefully you will start to feel better.

I think that every depressed person feels their depression in a different way. If its any help as I said earlier, mine manifested itself as a feeling of disconnection. I also felt anxious, had a massive crisis of confidence and felt that I could not cope. I did though, I got through it and recovered. If you are depressed, you will be abe to do that too.

Good luck.

[Avicw]

Thanks all! I've just read symptoms of overactive thyroid as Zippiyydooda suggested and top 2 symptoms are anxiety and insomnia are top 2 symptoms! Inhae my got the other symptoms but don't imagine you'd be unlucky enough to have all! I'm going to docs tomorrow to ask for a test. Fingers crossed . I halved my dose of sleeping pill last night am although my mind wasn't racing all night I only caught 1.5 hours of sleep so feeling dreadful again today. Back to full dose tonight! Thanks again everyone so good to know other people have felt a similar way!

[Avicw]

Were any of you put on Sertraline and if so, did it help?

[Zipitydooda]

Glad you're investigating thyroid. It was such a relief to me to actually be diagnosed with something as I thought I was going crazy/ didn't understand why I couldn't cope.

Post partum thyroiditis causes a period of thyroid over activity then under activity then it usually normalises after about a year. So you end up with symptoms of both.

[catsdogsandbabies]

Not heard you can't drink on sertraline - I took in during university and am ok and that was not a teetotal time!

[Avicw]

Thyroid all fine!! Start Sertraline tonight and feeling very nervous about it :0/

[catsdogsandbabies]

Good luck, I started sertraline this morning. How are you?