Olivia was diagnosed with insomnia; she hadn’t had a non-medicated sleep since she was seventeen. At her worse she was prescribed Benzodiazepines (a type of tranquilizer), which just allowed her body to rest when nothing else was working. Currently, she only sleeps every two to three days.
The longest she ever stayed awake was just over four days, and that was WITH taking sleeping pills every night. She describes that time as being “Zombie”.
She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t think. She was not yet having full on hallucinations, but she was getting there.
She was paranoid, every tiny noise or shadow frightened her so much, she felt like her soul was leaving her body. If she stared at inanimate object, the outlines would wriggle, or change, or merge into the objects around them. The colours were all wrong.
She was sick. Really, sick. She had terrible headaches, was extremely irritable and found most everything and everyone intolerable.
It was affecting her work life and her relationships.
She had hit rock bottom.
Olivia had already tried the medication route and found the expense and the side affects actually made her condition worse.
This was the extreme version, but we hear all the time about people struggling to sleep and waking up exhausted. What most people don’t know is that insomnia is a pretty common disorder.
Last year, HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) researchers estimated that about 1 in 14 (7.1%) of people in South Africa over the age of 15 experience insomnia. The probability of experiencing insomnia increases steadily with age as well.
So if you don’t want to go the route of medication, what is there left to do?
Well, there is a solution that has been used for thousands of years, which modern medical science always seem to overlook and underestimate, and it’s called Medical Massage Therapy.
In this case, it’s possibly your Lymph Nodes that are causing these symptoms.
The lymphatic system functions to drain tissue fluid, plasma proteins and other cellular debris back into the blood stream, and is also involved in immune defense. Once this collection of substances enters the lymphatic vessels, it is known as lymph. Lymph is subsequently filtered by lymph nodes and directed into the venous system.
The lymph nodes are glands that store white blood cells. White blood cells are responsible for killing invading organisms. The lymph nodes are one of the first stands against bacteria, viruses, diseased cells which pass through the lymph channel and are stopped by the lymph nodes.
When faced with infection or illness, the lymph nodes accumulate debris, such as bacteria and dead or diseased cells.
When these get swollen and blocked up, it could cause the following symptoms such as insomnia and tiredness.
The solution is to drain the lymph’s every so month with a Lymph Drainage Massage which will detoxify the body and hopefully get your most important waste removal system back in order.