Insomnia - Know When To Cry For Help
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Nothing proves the prevalence of insomnia more than the sales drug companies make from sleeping pills. Benzodiazepines alone which is used to treat insomnia, anxiety disorders, seizures and alcohol withdrawal made more than $21 billion in 1999. In the same year, a Canadian report was released. This report shows that benzodiazepine prescriptions surpassed all other prescriptions. On a side note, the said medical conditions also have insomnia as a symptom. Not to mention drug dependence from sleeping pills also causes insomnia. Thus, it is only prescribed for short-term treatment. It shouldn't be used beyond 2 to 4 weeks.There could be nothing worse than wanting to sleep and not being able to. The number of people dying from sleeping pill overdose is also quite disturbing. It shows that people who find themselves suffering from lack of sleep are so desperate. Desperate enough to increase the dosage just to get that ever elusive sleep.Common and overlookedInsomnia is the most common sleep disorder. Tens of millions of people suffer from it. This sleep disorder has over five hundred different causes making it so common. Among those causes, there can be several of them affecting a person at the same time making it hard to be treated. It is also often overlooked by the people experiencing it and the doctors that diagnose them. Out of tens of millions, it is estimated that only five percent of insomniacs seek medical help. Sixty nine percent won't even mention it to their doctor. Both insomniacs and doctors often assume that the condition will resolve in time. That is true. It can happen. In many cases, however, insomnia doesn't just go away.Consequences Insomnia, by itself, cannot kill. Nevertheless, the depression that comes with it can make people want to kill themselves. If it's not that, then prescribed sleeping pills can.Many road and work-related accidents also occur more often for people who don't get enough sleep. A road accident wherein the driver falls asleep on the wheel often ends in fatality. That not only endangers the insomniac. It endangers the other people around as well.Cry for helpIt becomes important to know when an insomniac needs help. The fact that this sleep disorder is tied to neurosis makes sufferers prefer to suffer in silence. Everything known about sleep has only been discovered the past 25 years.Not everything is "just in the mind." Human sleep-wake cycles, in fact, have been discovered to be genetic. Studies have also shown that artificial light affects people's sleep-wake cycles. Insomnia isn't a condition people bring upon themselves. There are many cases wherein insomnia is caused by natural aging, hormones, and genes. Usually, it is a symptom of countless other medical conditions. To be checked for insomnia might lead to the discovery of the other medical condition causing it. Very often, treating the underlying medical condition cures the insomnia. Just as often, it can be the medication prescribed that causes it.Insomniacs should know when to cry for help. Sleeping pills may give temporary relief, but they don't really "cure." Self-medication, at times, can do more harm than good. There are a lot of options available for treatment. The only thing an insomniac needs to do is to cry for help.
