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May. 16th, 2011 09:38 amHello, 9:30 am. Ahh, finals and their unique ability to force you to stay up for days straight and then give you no reason to resume a normal sleeping schedule for some time afterwards.
Not looking forward to putting the computer away simply because sleep has been less than restful since I clench my jaw worse while sleeping than any other time. Problem is that I don't clench my teeth together, but rather outward in sort of a grimace, which means commercial remedies like a mouthguard are of no help. Also, I do it while I'm awake without being able to stop it; it's pretty blatantly a neurological side effect of the medication, as it also tends to start at a predictable time after taking the medicine and stop when it approaches 20-24 hours after a dose. So that's more than a little disconcerting.
I'd like to think the Effexor is working on my depression and anxiety, but the problem is that you just can't compare my stress/depression/anxiety levels during an 18 hour semester of graduate molecular biology courses to the levels after the semester has ended. (Even though I'm taking a few classes this summer, it's just no comparison.) I think I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for the summer (as I do think it's been decreasing my appetite, which is welcome) but I'm not so sure I can handle the jaw stuff it's giving me -- waking up and spending the next 12 hours in huge amounts of jaw pain leading to tension headaches leading to migraines every day is not going to fly. I realized I've unconsciously gone to taking several 1-2 hour naps over a 12-14 hour period instead of having one long sleep, I think just so I can wake up for a little bit and give my jaw a rest; that's fine on the weekends, but probably isn't even going to be possible these next three weeks during my first summer class.
So basically, I'm still hoping it stops, but we're beginning week 4 of the drug and it hasn't yet, so I'm not hopeful. We'll see how long I can take the pain.
Not looking forward to putting the computer away simply because sleep has been less than restful since I clench my jaw worse while sleeping than any other time. Problem is that I don't clench my teeth together, but rather outward in sort of a grimace, which means commercial remedies like a mouthguard are of no help. Also, I do it while I'm awake without being able to stop it; it's pretty blatantly a neurological side effect of the medication, as it also tends to start at a predictable time after taking the medicine and stop when it approaches 20-24 hours after a dose. So that's more than a little disconcerting.
I'd like to think the Effexor is working on my depression and anxiety, but the problem is that you just can't compare my stress/depression/anxiety levels during an 18 hour semester of graduate molecular biology courses to the levels after the semester has ended. (Even though I'm taking a few classes this summer, it's just no comparison.) I think I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for the summer (as I do think it's been decreasing my appetite, which is welcome) but I'm not so sure I can handle the jaw stuff it's giving me -- waking up and spending the next 12 hours in huge amounts of jaw pain leading to tension headaches leading to migraines every day is not going to fly. I realized I've unconsciously gone to taking several 1-2 hour naps over a 12-14 hour period instead of having one long sleep, I think just so I can wake up for a little bit and give my jaw a rest; that's fine on the weekends, but probably isn't even going to be possible these next three weeks during my first summer class.
So basically, I'm still hoping it stops, but we're beginning week 4 of the drug and it hasn't yet, so I'm not hopeful. We'll see how long I can take the pain.
