# How I cured my SA - sleep deprivation



## SignMeUp!

Ok, before the meds my doc gave me, I use to self medicate myself through sleep deprivation and caffiene pills or coffie. I found out this trick when my concerns would keep me awake all night and I was DETERMINED to get to school and not sleep all day and, after staying up for long enough (no more then 36 hours, after about 40 you start felling really ****ty, gotta rest and sleep soon as ur finshed with the day.) and not to little yet not overbored caffiene intake, I had a careless and tired mental state that couldn't bother to think "what people think about me" not irratible, but more gitty and silly, the caffiene helped my motivation and energy for the rest of the day, HOWEVER.. my mental concentration on school work itself was EXTREMLY more diffucult to deal with. but the social aspect? no problem! after doing this for about 2 or 3 weeks I finally was able to fell the same kinda confidence around people while not sleep deprived. ALSO - remember to eat food, caffiene really supresses ur appiete and if you dont eat you will get a rebound effect and most likley fell 10x more anxious then before! if you fell you have to much caffiene in ur system, drink water to flush it out. other then that it should go smoothly.. I still do have a obsessive/neurotic prespective on things and its just something I'll always have to deal with, the meds help with that though. 

i found out about this kinda treatment before it was discovered on the net (i am the master :banana ) and it may or may not work for you depending on how your mind deals with being tired and of course there are sideffects from being tired you have to deal with (baggy eyes, felling abit too wired, somewhat moody, disturbed sleeping patterns and caffiene headaches/caffiene blues which goes away if you just drink a small ammount of coffie and slowy withdrawl after treatment) id like to hear from others aswell who have done this type of treatment 


oh and dont worry about going nuts, sleep deprived psychosis normally wouldnt occur unless u stayed up for like 3 days which is unecessary, unless of course your a manic folk, then of course dont do this treatment, infact.. slap a mental restraining order on it :fall


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## dora

Good to know I am not alone  . I do that sleep deprivation trick little different. I don't like caffeine. so , I keep thriller novels ready. When I am nervous I know I won't sleep and will think about all unwanted stuffs whole night . so, I read novels whole night , early morning I go to work. following same routine for couple of days and nights is enough for me to face my big day.


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## pikindaguy

So this is something you constantly do? It can't possibly be good for your brain..


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## left blank

When i'm sleep deprived I still feel anxious, but I don't drink caffine i've always tried to stay away from that. Maybe the caffine would take away the anxiousness when sleep deprived but the whole thing just sounds too unhealthy for the body plus I get really baggy eyes when I don't sleep. I remember when I went nearly 3 full days without sleep...ooh that was not good :no


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## Noca

relying on sleep deprivation sounds almost as bad as "I cured my SA - Drank a bottle of vodka"


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## SignMeUp!

Noca said:


> relying on sleep deprivation sounds almost as bad as "I cured my SA - Drank a bottle of vodka"


ha! i could see how you could view it as similar to drinking a bottle of vodka, however.. I found long term positive results from it, i dont know if the same applies with vodka, im not a big drinker.. however, being tired effect everyone diffuculty :con


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## likewater

thats real creative man. as I see it you sort of reset your brain's socially anxious thinking patterns through sleep deprivation. so I take it you haven't relapsed into old SA habits? how long has it been? I'd like to know more about your discovery


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## soundsgood

haha. interesting theory. be careful driving though, going to court on manslaughter charges will probally not help your anxiety levels :b i will put this one to the test this weekend, i need to be up at an ungodly hour anyway so i may as well just stay up all night.


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## leppardess

I'm glad that's working for you but just be careful. If regulating your sleep isn't a huge issue, good for you. But, for people like me that have huge amounts of trouble in that area (either unable to sleep or can't do anything but sleep), that's really not healthy.


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## GreenMan

:agree 

Whoa, that's an interesting idea. Early this year I got behind in my studies and ended up staying awake for two days straight. When I went to class I looked like a total slob, barely awake, but I had completely lost my social anxiety!

I don't know if I could repeat this for two weeks though. Very interesting treatment technique in any case.


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## SignMeUp!

so far so good, I haven't relapsed into the same state i was in been before which would be complete fear of judgement and how i was precieved by others, I dont have those kinda thoughts anymore... I gained better prespectives on life through sleep deprivation which helped my self esteem, as much trouble as I had with daily task's I felt like it was worth scarficing it so I could deal with my personal issues, the long term effects on me was a very disturbed sleep schedule which I still am trying to deal with (i also think it may have contribuited to my depression somehow by altering chemicals in my brain over along period of time.. i really dont know its just a guess) im on meds now for mild depression and anxiety (not the type of flight or fight anxiety you get from being around people.. the obsessive and repitive over thinking anxiety which i think trigged my SA in the first place.) trying my best to get healthy, hope all is well on the other side :b


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## SignMeUp!

thanks for the compliments and support people i apperciate it greatly  if anyone does try it keep us posted on how it works out for you, i would be very intersted in knowing how others reacted to sleepy-ness!


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## Skroderider

SignMeUp! said:


> i found out about this kinda treatment before it was discovered on the net (i am the master Banana ) and it may or may not work for you depending on how your mind deals with being tired


Hmmm, that's a very interesting piece of advice. It looks like I sometimes was doing exactly this unconsciously . Didn't seem to work that well, though -- probably because it simply did not occur to me that my SA was diminished.

I will probably try it tomorrow -- we're having a "welcoming for the freshmen" celebration in the university, and naturally I'm not too excited about the prospect .


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## coyasso

There is a great risk of going manic, if you're bi-polar, by doing this. 

I wouldn't rely on this to cure SA, because it has nothing to do with the cause of SA. I do feel better when I'm sleep deprived, because I can barely think, but that's not real. It all goes away when I'm fully awake. This is odd to say, but its true. Sooner or later though, the anxiety catches up with me. I, myself, am bi-polar, that's why I'm against this. Lack of sleep is one of the biggest triggers of a manic episode. If you're not bi-polar, then best of luck to you!

The more I think about this, this is completely ridiculous, and I advise anyone against it. It's the same as taking a drug... its artificial and will create a false sense of success, when infact, underneath, the mechanisms that caused and maintain your SA, are still functioning, just buried, until they resurface at a later date, and you will have to learn to deal with them all over, not to mention, this is completely unhealthy for your body


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## TheGMan

I'm having a little bit of trouble following. Could you give me like a step by step regimen? Like how long to stay up, when you have caffeine,etc.

For example, right now I am up. I will probably be up until 5am and then wakeup around 2pm. Should I try to stay up until tomorrow night or something?

When should I start, what should I do?


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## TheGMan

Still up.


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## Thief13x

SignMeUp, can you give me some specifics? IE how much sleep per night do you get while doing this and for how long do you do it for?

I think you're method makes a hell of alot of sense. Personally, I've always equated being sleep deprived to being drunk, because the two feel almost exactly the same to me, even down to not being able to see straight. Both make you giddy and both make you laugh more than you usually would, and both make you forget about your SA. Once you've learned to not let it bother you, you've escaped the negative thinking pattern, in psychology I think it's called classical conditioning which causes our social anxiety, and those days of sleep deprivation are breaking that classical conditioning. Cool find dude, please give me the details.


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## gooden222

Tag, i'ld like to here more about it please


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## SiriusB1950

*Sleep dep and booze*



Noca said:


> relying on sleep deprivation sounds almost as bad as "I cured my SA - Drank a bottle of vodka"


I'm in some agreement here, but I have found a pint of gin and one Zyprexa gives good sleep and good SA feeling the next day.

But since my doc harps on alcohol preventing quality sleep I only do this in case of great need to both sleep and be more SA functional the next morning.


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## SiriusB1950

*Lasting results?*

It's really common for the sleep disordered to stay awake to get tired enough again to sleep. E.g. You wake one morning and can't sleep at all that night, so instead of giving in to the temptation to nap during the next day you just get deprived and might sleep the second night.

In addition to that and my gin+Zyprexa reset, two others are:

avoiding sunglasses and taking extra care to expose your self to strong sunlight,

taking either a lot of a mild hypnotic like Benadryl (diphenhydramine) or phenobarbital (what I've "graduated" to these days) to absoltely force sleep (but I'm being very specific about *just these two drugs*--not other things I take like Xanax).

However, these all can help my SA the next day in a noticeable way, but that's all--*just the next day *with no lasting results for SA (or sleep).

I'd appreciate any info. about getting this calm, non-SA feeling on a lasting basis. That would be miraculous!!!!

P.S. the stuff about sleep deprivation leading to mania or hypomania is serious and not just for the bi-polar.


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## ebolarama

-


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## njodis

Am I the only one that thinks this is one of the worst suggestions they've ever heard?


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## ebolarama

Njodis said:


> Am I the only one that thinks this is one of the worst suggestions they've ever heard?


yes


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## TomB

When I first winged off of my head-meds I tried sleep deprivation along with many other techniques I had heard about. For me, was just another attempt at a quick fix for a life long problem. Eventually I would crash. Today getting a proper amount sleep is part of my defense along with diet and other coping skills. What works best for me is practicing being selfless and helping others and lots of prayer. I was and still am to some extent a self-centered person. SA is one of my biggest symptoms, so wrapped up in myself and what everyone thinks about me, me, me. I was either better than or worse than others always comparing. Just trying to be equal now. I was so judgemental of others and always critical of myself. The more accepting and forgiving of other people the more I was able to offer myself the same. For me, and I have heard various theories on why and how, I believe it is a thinking problem ( mental illness), I am definitely not responsible for it but I am responsible for my recovery. Using cognitive skill which takes lots of practice I can turn off that negative self talk and see it for what it really is, negative self talk and not to be trusted. I have learned to unwrap from my self obsession by helping others. This is what is working for me. If depriving yourself of sleep works for you, more power to ya. Live and let live!

Tom B


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## aviator99

I dont know though it does sound like it could probably work. Being so sleep deprived you probably are more 'Subconcious' than fully Concious.

Then you go into Social Situations, and your conciousness is so messed up/deprived that theres no thoughts running through your head. The side effect of this is that, subconciously, you think, " Oh my god its cured! Look i'm ultra confident and dont have anxiety! ". Your subconciousness learns that there is nothing wrong with the situation (because your conciousness doesnt get in the way this time). So you kind of retrain yourself.

I dont know, i'm no doctor, just thinking up some stuff, hehe.


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## Gerard

i feel like crap when i sleep deprivate.....im weak.....and my eyes twitch and get really red.......eh gad.......if it works for you.....great........not for me thats for sure.


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