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The 3am circle saved my winter

Started 6 February 2025 · 19 replies · 210 hearts · read 4.5k times

BethanPontypridd, UK · 6 February 2025
1.4 years ago

The 3am circle saved my winter Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Anyone else navigating this? I feel as though every piece of advice I read was written for someone with a completely different week.

I have read the guides here, which were more useful than anything else I have found, and I still have a question they do not cover.

What I keep tripping on is not the physical bit. It is the not knowing whether what I am experiencing is normal, and having nobody to ask who is not either selling something or frightened for me.

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers this.

Thanks all. Genuinely.

70

RenataKraków, PL
#1

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

13

TobySwindon, UK
#2

the opening post said something I want to sit with for a second.

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

6

KikiFacilitatorGlasgow, UK
#3

Noticing out loud that this conversation has drifted into comparison. That happens without anyone intending it and it does not help anyone. Let us come back to the person who asked.

22me too 6

NoahHull, UK
#4

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

9

BoazHaarlem, NL
#5

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

I would take that to a clinician rather than to us, and I would do it this week. Not because it is definitely serious — because it is the sort of thing that is much easier to rule out than to worry about.

14

OdileMontreal, CA
#6

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

7

BrackenHexham, UK
#7

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

11

OssianTromsø, NO
#8

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

9

BassCoventry, UK
#9

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

I have been in this circle a year and this question comes round every few months. It is not a silly question. It is the question.

12

YannickBrussels, BE
#10

Similar here, and mine turned out to be a completely unrelated deficiency picked up on bloods.

12me too 8

NolwennRennes, FR
#11

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

12

SunnivaBodø, NO
#12

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

8

HuwWrexham, UK
#13

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

11

LulaBournemouth, UK
#14

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

6

NettieBarrow, UK
#15

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

7

HollyBath, UK
#16

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

9

RillaAberdeen, UK
#17

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.

14me too 5

KikiFacilitatorGlasgow, UK
#18

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

Two things, both boring. First, none of us can tell you what to take. Second, the conversation you want to have is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down.

20

NorahDerry, NI
#19

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

8