Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Shock Me

So I’ve decided to treat my anxiety-driven insomnia with shock therapy.

Lately I’ve been wearing something called an Alpha-Stim cranial electrotherapy stimulator. It administers a tiny electrical current to my cranium through conductors clipped to my earlobes. The general idea behind cranial electrotherapy stimulation is that the current “evens out” the racing brain to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression and/or insomnia.

Frankly, I have no idea how it works or if it works at all, but I do know I've been getting much better sleep since I started wearing it for an hour a day. The irony of voluntarily shocking my brain while officing in a former psych ward isn't lost on me, either. I think most people just assume it's an iPod.

Whatever the Alpha-Stim is or isn’t doing, it’s probably safer than popping a bunch of Simply Sleep tabs night after night. You can only get an Alpha-Stim with a prescription in the U.S. and they’re not exactly cheap. I’m borrowing the one I’m wearing now and the FDA can confiscate it from me when they pry it off my cold, dead earlobes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds pretty odd. Have you tried getting some exercise. It does wonders for putting your body back into decent sleep cycles.

Anonymous said...

I started walking 2-2.5 miles a day a few years back when I had trouble sleeping and it worked very well.

I'm still walking, but my brain doesn't seem to notice as much as it used to.

Found in the Alley said...

gotta run greggie. takes a while to get in to it but if you don't take on more than you can chew it is very beneficial. helps you poop too.

my word verification is foqfu.