Sleep Doctor almost ready to give up on me

I started having bad insomnia since April. The cause is primarily anxiety as a result of a couple of life events which I have been handling better, but still have some anxiety from them. On any rate, my insomnia has only improved very slightly; I am lucky to get 3-4 hours sleep on my own and it's not a deep sleep at that leaving me exhausted.

I started seeing the sleep Dr. (who is supposed to be a top guy around my area). I had a sleep study test that ruled out anything notable.

I was taking Trazodone for several months and it worked rather well as I was getting a quality 6-7 hours a night (although I would still wake up after 4-5 hours, but get back to sleep), but once I was up to 125 mg, I started getting too many side effects.

I then switched to Mirtazapine, but for only two nights. 7.5 mg the first night and 15 mg the second night but all it did was make me very groggy and irritable.

Switched to Doxepin and 7 days (from 10mg to 30 mg) and all it seemed to do was make my sleep worse.

I went back to Trazodone and it worked very well - but it made my anxiety worse. Weird, I know. But, everytime I go on Trazodone it makes my anxiety much worse....even sometimes on the brink of having a panic attack. I tried pairing it with Buspar (15 mg twice per day), but hard to say if Buspar did anything for my anxiety; if it did, it was slight.

Lately, I tried sleeping without anything and just taking a .25 mg of Xanax after waking up from 4 hours which will put me back to sleep for 3 hours. I've been doing this 3-4 days a week, but Xanax is a temporary approach and know there are issues longer term with it.

I've also tried Zoloft for 4 days back in the summer for anxiety, but it made my sleep HORRIBLE. My sleep Dr. fears another SSRI might do the same. He suggested Welbutrin for anxiety, but I see nothing in the literature supporting anxiety, only depression.

I met with him today and I suggested giving Mirtazapine one more try and a higher dose - will start it tonight. He also said he didn't know what more he could do after this and suggested I see a psychiatrist to address the anxeity. I was seeing a CBT therapist and still do occasionally. I feel like I still have anxiety, but it's better controlled, but I guess not enough as I am still not sleeping well.

Any suggestions welcome. If Mirtazapine doesn't work, I might just go back to Trazodone and deal with the high anxiety on it.

Thanks.

DH

I'm having the same problem. My doctor gave me Trazodone, but it makes me super jumpy during the day. I only sleep three hours a night. wake up, then take an Ambien to get three more hours, but it's not even real sleep, and I wake up tired.
I'm thinking that the best bet is with a sleep deprivation technique, but I'm near the point of madness now. Feel like I could try it after having a good nights sleep or two under my belt, apparently it's very hard to do.

If the mirt won't do it for you at a low dose, a higher dose probably won't work for you. Strange enough the antihistamine in it is more effective at low doses, if I take more than 30 mg it does nothing but make me groggy the next day. Everyone different though