Amber's Insomnia Journey - the full story

Описание: Overcoming insomnia with Somly's sleep therapy program, and how it changed Amber's daily life:

"My name is Amber. I am a stay at home mom. My husband owns a small business, so I support him in that. I have 3 children. I have struggled with insomnia my whole life. I can remember times as a child where I just couldn't get to sleep. And I remember even once my mom giving me like half a Unisom.
After my youngest was born, I really went into a tailspin of not being able to sleep. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to go through multiple surgeries and radiation and just something happened. I just stopped sleeping one day. I tried a bunch of different sleep drugs, went and saw a psychiatrist, and then we ended up deciding that Ambien was the best choice at that time. The psychiatrist even told me, "You'll probably be on this for your life, for the rest of your life."
So we just kind of went with it. And then one day it didn't work. I think I was on Ambien for about 4 years. And then I spent the next 2 and a half years just trying to survive. I went back to not sleeping at all. I mean, not sleeping for 2 and a half years. I would kind of get 2 hours one night. I'd go 3 days without sleep. I might get another 2 hour nap. I was just trying to sleep at any point in time that I could. But my brain wasn't allowing me to do that.
And then 2020 hit. Even before March, I had a string of really stressful situations, one after the other, and my sleep went away again. I started googling any sort of help. And I found Somly. I reached out at 4AM for help. I just knew I couldn't go back to the 2 and a half years of no sleep. I was on the verge of checking into a mental hospital because your brain just can't go without sleep.
As far as events that caused my insomnia, I do recall a situation where I was really ill. And my kids had all gotten strep throat. One of them even ended up having Scarlet Fever. I had strep throat and didn't realize it because it didn't look like my children's strep. And I had let it go. And then that morphed into everything you could possibly imagine: double pneumonia, double ear infections, double pink eye, a sinus infection. And that was what triggered a really bad bout of insomnia, which led me to the Ambien.
When I found Somly at 4AM, I had looked at several different CBTI programs. I liked the testimonials. I liked that there was a direct contact to somebody, it wasn't just this put in your info and at some point some robot's going to respond. Dr. Oexman called me, talked to me. We had weekly phone calls. At the beginning, there was a struggle because my brain was not happy with the changes and the adjustments it was having to make. I was able to text him, call him. He was available. I appreciated that because sometimes you feel like an anomaly. And it was really good to know the assurances over and over that, "You're going to get better. This is going to work. We have a proven track record."
So, when somebody is willing to put that on the line and say, "Look, we're just here to help you," I felt that right from the get-go is these are people who are here to help me and not try to earn money off of my struggle.
After Somly, it's much better. I would say the biggest difference is I no longer am in a mental panic. I'm in a much better place mentally. And I know that the sleep I get is quality sleep.
Anybody who decides to do this program will notice right away that there's going to be changes in the way they approach sleep. But the way my life is now is 180 degrees. I can get up early. Before that, I went years not seeing my kids out the door just because I couldn't get up. I had not slept. Years with my husband in a different bed so that I wouldn't keep him awake. And he was kind of bearing the brunt of getting the children out the door in the morning. I have energy to work out, run errands, volunteer in the classrooms, go swimming with my kids or on a bike ride, anything. Before it was everybody walking on eggshells because I was so exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, that I could only just go through the motions and say, "Okay, I've made you dinner. That's all I have in me."
Already everybody is just much happier. It's a lighter feeling in the home. It's just a lighter feeling in my life overall. And I really appreciate being able to go through this program and realize I don't need a pill. I don't need a magic foil or spray or mask or anything. That the brain knows what to do. You just need to give it what it needs. And then it will take over and do the rest.
I know I'm not alone, because I've seen communities out there where people are getting off of benzodiazepines and Z class drugs and struggling for years and years. And I just want people to know that they're not alone. They're not an anomaly. It might take a little while, but there's healing out there and there's help out there. And your body and brain know what to do. They want to heal. And there's hope for people like me."