What's YOUR problem? A thread for griping.

Kramer from Seinfeld: “I’m out!” Can’t do it!

Oh, well, I’m never ever get sick at sea. Hardly ever.

Don’t go to bed, with no price on your head. Don’t do it!

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Just a quick note for any lurkers out there who are too shy to gripe in public: we are sorry for what you are going through, and we are here if you ever feel comfortable sharing your gripes. Regardless, free hugs!

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So when I was 18, I got my wisdom teeth taken out like a lot of kids that age, but the Dentist was some horrible quack that screwed the whole thing up. I won’t get into details, but he obviously did things very wrong, because my gum has been hurting for like two weeks and the last couple of days, something hard was there. I had called a dentist to see what they could do, but this morning, a piece of wisdom tooth pushed its way out of my gum! I’m 45 and it’s been there that long.

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Ouch!! Well I hope that it comes out smoothly.

I didn’t get my wisdom teeth out until I was 41 and man that hurt like hell

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It already came out. I thought it was some sort of scab from a bad cut in the gum, but it came out and it was clearly a piece of tooth.

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Holy moly!!

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I actually have a gripe, which I’m sure that I’ve griped before, I can’t sleep. I just can’t get more than three or four hours in before waking up into limbo for the rest of the night.

I haven’t had a solid sleep in weeks and it’s grinding me down.

I went to the doctor and he prescribed melatonin but so far it hasn’t done anything. I’m so tired I can’t think… And that’s a problem given my job is problem solving for eight hours a day

Arrgh!

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Be careful with melatonin.

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Thanks for the link :+1:

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I’m surprised it was never caught on x-ray in all the time since then.

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Maybe it was and they didn’t think it was worth extracting? Admittedly I haven’t been to the dentist in quite some time due to lacking dental insurance.

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This isn’t really a gripe, persay, but people have been griping about it.

Back in October '21, my friend and I bought tickets for the Shawn Mendes/Dermot Kennedy (if you haven’t heard Dermot Kennedy, you really should) August 2022 concert. We’ve wanted to see Shawn for ages and we love seeing Dermot; he was our last pre-pandemic show.

Now, a month or so ago, Shawn postponed 3 weeks of his tour, citing his mental health. He’s long been open about his severe anxiety (he wrote “In My Blood” about it) and his dislike of being away from home. And today, he canceled the remainder of the tour and is seeking professional help for his anxiety.

I am not mad about it - I wasn’t crazy at the thought of an indoor 25K+ concert with no Covid mitigation - but MAN, the entitlement of people. He’s getting predictably blasted, and it sucks to see. Hah, this did turn into a gripe after all!

NORMALIZE :clap: PRIORITIZING :clap: MENTAL :clap: HEALTH. :clap:

We now return you to your regular programming.

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Even that article on melatonin glosses over the side effects. I’ve heard people say their doctor said there were no side effects. Look it up and you’ll find it has many possible side effects you need to watch out for.

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Melatonin was a miracle when I first started using it 10-15 years ago. That combined with being very consistent with my bedtime rituals has - knock on wood - helped me finally figure out the whole sleep thing.

One caveat, I have found that if I’m not prepared to sleep and I take the melatonin too soon, it seems to have the opposite effect.

Good luck. For years I felt your pain. Lack of sleep sucks.

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That’s awful – sleep deprivation has terrible effects. I’m a lifelong semi-insomniac; my official diagnosis is Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, which is different from what you’re describing. Like @FreemanLowell I also have to be very strict around bedtime rituals (I literally start prepping for sleep 2-3 hours before I go to bed), I take melatonin, and I also take Unisom every night. This plan, except the Unisom, was developed with the help of a doctor specializing in sleep disorders. My regular doc isn’t thrilled with me taking Unisom every night, but compared to chronic, never-ending sleep deprivation, I’ll take whatever it’s doing to me. Ditto the melatonin, though my sleep doc did say that when people take it we tend to take way too high a dose because that’s what’s sold here. Most melatonin is sold in 3-10mg doses, and she said the body’s natural dose is more like 1/10mg. I think Whole Foods sells a 1mg dose, which is what she recommended.

None of that may help you but be assured that (a) you are not alone and (b) YOUR SLEEP IS IMPORTANT, don’t let anyone tell you to suck it up or that sleep is for the lazy or the weak.

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I also have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. I usually get by on 5-6 hours a night on weekdays. Lockdown was heaven because I could work from home and sleep in an extra hour.

I’ve used melatonin but I find that it quit working if I used it very often. I would generally restrict myself to taking it on Sunday evenings when I had to switch from getting up at 8-8:30 to 7. And it only produced a temporary window of drowsiness. If I didn’t go to sleep during that window it would pass and I’d be screwed. Ditto if something woke me up after I did fall asleep.

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Yeah, I find that too – when I start to feel sleepy it’s LIGHTS OUT because 30 or 60 minutes later will be too late.

I don’t take melatonin pills anymore, I drink one of these each night:

It’s not cheap but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than when I was drinking Knob Creek instead. And I can only find it on Amazon, nobody carries it in store around here. It’s got melatonin, trytophan, L-theanine – if someone ever tied it to sleep they crammed it in here. The effect may be entirely psychological but that’s still an effect.

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L-Theanine is the stuff in green tea, right? I used to take tablets of that to control anxiety after my Paxil crapped out. The tablets, though not chewable, had a green tea taste to them. They seemed to work a bit, though it may have been psychosomatic. Either way…

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That is a good link. I think when my father was in ICU a few years ago, they gave him like 2mg of melatonin. I take 10mg everynight, but I can probably cut it down to 5mg or something.

A slight word of caution if one follows the link on the page about diphenhydramine (Benadryl) as a sleep aid. I’m almost 100% sure based on some research I did in the past that the anticholinergic properties of Benadryl are inconsequential. Perhaps it depends on dosage, but I find it an essential sleep aid. My doctor agrees with me, and a quick Bing/Duck-Go search should easily allay any worries.

But, they are right that melatonin, at least in my limited experience/observation, is given in far lower doses when administered by a health professional in a controlled environment than what you’d typically find in your average OTC bottle.

The gummies are tasty, though!

It does seem that the serious risks are confined to children, largely; however it’s a somewhat sobering perspective, if true.

Exactly my experience with years of using Benadryl as a sleep aid. An hour and half, I’m out like a light, have plenty of high-quality sleep, but you’ve got to grab that window of opportunity or you’ll be back at square one.

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