Insomnia is one of the many common side effects that plenty of substance use disorder patients experience. Some of these patients became dependent on a substance that they initially took to treat insomnia that they already had, however, which can make the situation more complex.
Insomnia Symptoms
Patients may worry about the possibility of suffering from insomnia again if they stop using certain substances. However, many of the substances that were once given to professionally-diagnosed insomnia patients can actually cause additional issues with a person’s normal sleep cycle.
The people that took these substances for years were not truly falling asleep naturally. They would fall asleep after taking the substance. Different substances can make people feel more fatigued. However, they’re not going to create the same conditions that people would experience if they had a normal, natural, and healthy regular sleeping pattern.
People who were once given medication to treat their insomnia may never have been able to identify the underlying cause of that condition. It’s possible that the modern medical professionals who are able to help patients detox and recover from substance abuse might also recognize what could have been causing insomnia in the beginning.
Patients sometimes experience insomnia because of stress. Those sources of stress might still be present in their lives, or their situation might have changed since then. Medical professionals tend to recommend different types of stress management today.
The substance use disorder patients at medical detox centers will sometimes have the opportunity to try working through more than one mental health issue. They might essentially be able to do something about insomnia that they had once tried to solve using different substances.
New Diagnoses
There may have been another defined medical condition causing insomnia. It’s much easier for medical professionals to formally diagnose many illnesses today than it was years or decades ago. Some insomnia patients may have been living with undiagnosed medical conditions for years. Taking certain substances might have changed some of the symptoms that they experienced.
The substances could have caused some symptoms to be less identifiable. Medical professionals might be able to diagnose an insomnia patient more easily after that patient has fully completed the detox process.
There won’t be as many complicated variables involved after that point. Substances can also cause many symptoms of their own. When a patient has fully detoxed, medical professionals won’t have to wonder if a particular symptom is caused by the substance itself or something else.
Patients can read more about conditions that might have caused their insomnia, and they can see if any of the lists of symptoms or descriptions sound familiar. They won’t be able to get a formal diagnosis this way, but they can work with medical professionals to find the answer. It will be easier for patients to discuss these possibilities with medical professionals if they’re able to focus and fully concentrate, which will be easier after they’ve detoxed.
Medication Changes
The patients who have become dependent on barbiturates may have been given prescriptions for those specific substances in the past. Today, insomnia patients are given much safer types of medication. There is significantly more information about barbiturates now, including the risks associated with regular barbiturate use. Even small barbiturate overdoses can be lethal. It’s also comparatively difficult to avoid those emergencies when barbiturates are used because of the inherent difficulty of calculating barbiturate doses.
Many of the other medications that were once used to help long-term insomnia patients get sleep have now been found to be unsafe. Fortunately, insomnia patients can manage this symptom in other ways today.