Sleeping at irregular hours and dealing with very intense sadness

[ScarlettR]

Hello all,

Basically since early May, my sleep pattern has been out of whack. I am awake during the night till about 9am then sleep till about 5pm, and the cycle continues. I think this resulted from watching a scary movie late at night (which is not something I normally do as I don't like scary movies) and maybe the experience messed up my sleep pattern. Add to the fact I am on meds for paranoid schizophrenia and depression, and it's not a happy situation.

It is now July and I am still having irregular sleeping. Recently, I tried to keep awake till about 5pm as the plan is to sleep to about 6am and that will restart my sleep pattern. Hasn't happened yet but I'm working on it.

Recently as a result of bad sleeping cycles, I have been feeling very sad and teary for no reason. On the outside, I appear normal and well-adjusted but I guess my family/ home situation is unusual. I am a 32 year old single female who lives with my 70/71 year old parents and 30 year old autistic sister. I have no issues with mum, but my dad has been continually angry and irritable since 2013, for reasons I can't explain. Also my sister tends to be snappy (due to her condition) and she also likes to take it out on me, as if I'm to blame for her disability.

I know it's unusual for an adult to live with her parents, but I have no other relatives or friends or support where I can secure my own place, and also because I am family-less and friendless, I don't want to risk living on my own and being mentally sick, so I decide to stay with family - which I think is a common arrangement these days among people.

I think the cause of my sadness was in 2012, when my parents wanted to move into a city apartment, and because they don't allow pets, they rehomed our two cats. I was against it from the start, and insisted we stay living in a house so pets are allowed. But my parents were stubborn and had them rehomed anyway, saying "it's my problem" if I don't like it. Still, I think to this day, my parents secretly regret rehoming them, because it took out a significant part of the family.

I am not suicidal or overwhelmingly hopeless, but I am just upset over my irregular sleep pattern and sadness. I just feel less than human and like I don't deserve to be happy or live a normal life (as enforced by my always-angry dad).

I am considering taking anti-anxiety meds on top of my usual anti-psychotic meds and anti-depressants.

[white knight]

Hi, welcome

If I can’t direct you to some threads here dealing with the topics relevant

put these into the search bar at the top

a good nights deep sleep

anxiety, how I eliminated it

dysthymia

Dysthymia is one of my illnesses, responsible for tremendous sadness. Meds do work well countering it.

Think of strategies to place a buffer between you and your sister. Avoidance is your friend

TonyWK

[White_Rose]

Hello ScarlettR

Thank you for telling us about yourself. Not sleeping properly is more than a nuisance, it really messes up your life. If you feel you need additional medication such as anti-anxiety the best place to start is with your GP or perhaps your psychiatrist if you are receiving therapy from a psych. Taking additional meds is more than taking something to deal with a particular difficulty. Your doctor will need to check on interactions with your current meds.

I am sorry to learn of your difficulties with your dad and sister. Families do take others for granted and forget they have feelings as well. Tony says avoidance is your friend and I am inclined to agree. If you can stay out of dad's way and your sister it may help. Can you do anything about the reason your dad is grumpy?

It's a shame about your cats as pets often have a calming influence on humans. Are you still living in a house where you can have pets? Perhaps you can adopt another cat. Just a thought.

Mary

[Curious77]

Hello ScarlettR,

Living in cramped circumstances must make it very hard to stay out of each others way and give each other space so hopefully your father can seek help so that he and everyone else can live in a calmer house which would certainly help with yourself. Stress of mental illness as well as stressful environment is no friend of sleep. Pets certainly help as well so I think your just trying your best to cope with a lot of difficulty so don't beat yourself up about being a adult still living at home because you simply don't have the supports available to be in a better situation. There is nothing wrong with you and other people are not walking in your shoes.