All sleepy.
Took my dose of chlormethiazole earlier, and I hadn't had any for a while. Might work wonders with preventing my myoclonic attacks, but fuck, is it ever one potent sedative/hypnotic.
I'm actually slightly surprised it is still in reasonably common use, and not a 'dinosaur med' as I sometimes refer to some of those old, old medications which are still technically prescribable, but that nobody ever, ever gets these days, such as the intermediate or short acting barbiturates; as it has an awful lot in common with the barbs, such as a steep dose-response curve, being potentially lethal in overdose-its what got keith moon, of the band The Who. Fast acting, highly effective...funny physical properties though.
Its very, very difficult to form a stable salt from for one, so its dispensed in nominally airtight squishy gelatin capsules of the freebase, which smells sort of like a mixture of fruity, rotten apples, ether, and a metallic, minty kind of odor. Weird smell. Only those capsules aren't airtight, a small quantity must diffuse through it, as it can ONLY be dispensed in glass bottles. I've had one local pharmacy, before they for some reason couldn't obtain it through their suppliers anymore, refuse to allow me the glass bottles, purely out of stingyness. Nevermind that the package insert specifically instructs glass containers only.
The result was that they turned cloudy, softened in the hand, and after a while, the tops became welded to the plastic bottle necks, and the bottles had to be smashed open. I've left a couple of caps of the stuff on my keyboard, after pricking a tiny hole in one end with a needle tip, so they open up quicker in the stomach and take effect a bit faster when I wanted to sleep quickly after being really tired through several days lack of sleep.
I had to prize them off with the tip of my knife, and to this day, I still have two capsule-shaped burn marks between the F8 and F9 keys of the keyboard
Took mine at something like half 8-9am, and only just woke up at 4:45pm, very refreshed indeed, although fell asleep in a sitting position at my computer pipe still hanging between my teeth
Glad I asked my doc specifically for chlormethiazole, rather than a benzodiazepine, to control the myoclonic attacks. As it takes HUGE doses of many benzos to make me sleep when I have insomnia, I'm really resistant to many of them, even from a position of only using one once in several blue moons, if that, and having zero tolerance what in hades so ever; so this med has a dual use. Triple-use purposes if one considers that whilst I very very rarely suffer from anxiety, this stuff would kill it dead in the water.
The barbiturates were dropped from clinical outpatient rx use, aside from the ultralong-acting phenobarbital as an anticonvulsant, almost entirely, as was methaqualone (discontinued totally, no longer available in western countries), both due to abuse potential, and the fact that it doesn't take all that much more to off somebody, than it does to turn them into a jelly-legged, stumbling, intoxicated boneless heap.
Chlormethiazole has all those properties, and might even have a narrower therapeutic range than some barbs, but for some reason it is still used. Perhaps the fact that it has a very specific interaction with alcohol, a dangerous one to drink on, very much so, but its used in treatment of alcoholics to detox them as it slows down alcohol metabolism, allowing for a slower decline of alcohol plasma levels in severe alcoholics. Also used as a sedative in...of all the crowseaten demographic populations, old people, for some reason.
Works really well for controlling my myoclonus, and I've not had one seizure since starting it, at the same time, never taken a better sleep aid. Doesn't leave me with any kind of sluggish headed hangover either.
So I'm feeling, freshly awoken, very refreshed and relaxed.
Oddly, I'm less stimmy than usual, at least, less prone to finger-flicking, rocking back and forth, hand-flapping and spinning around on my computer chair, my preferences have abruptly for some reason, switched to use of external sensory stuff.
I.e two hairbrushes with the handles snapped off, the kind with lots of small narrow bristles with a slightly prickly plastic blob on the end, that I keep under my computer desk all the time to press my feet down on them and roll the soles of my feet over the things.
Pure classical autie spazz heaven
