When do you see a doctor for insomnia issues?

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I'm dropping this in the haven because I'm not thinking real clearly lately and I'd appreciate it if that be kept in mind should you decide to respond here. I'm not exactly okay.

For the last few months I haven't been sleeping much. I don't remember the last time I got more than five hours of sleep in a night. Over the last few weeks it's gotten worse and now I have a few nights a week where I don't sleep at all and maybe nap for an hour during the day. Over the last five days I've gotten about 12 hours of sleep total. Someone came here last night so I could take some sleeping pills (I won't take new medications if I'm alone because I'm afraid of having some weird side effect). I took two of those things and still got zero sleep last night. Damn things didn't work.

I've had bouts of insomnia before, but nothing that has lasted this long. I've tried to keep exercising to help make me tired come evening, no screens an hour before I want to try to sleep, doing some stuff I find relaxing before bed, minding my diet, trying to keep active during the day and not nap unless I had absolutely no sleep the night before. I don't drink caffeine after noon... Now I've tried sleep aids. I don't know what else to do here.

I don't like doctors. I don't like going to see them. I also don't have a ton of cash to be blowing on copays for visits and medications. I'd rather not do all that. Part of me thinks to, that not sleeping isn't a serious thing and isn't really doctor visit worthy. I don't know though. It's been brought to my attention that I should go see a doctor. I'm not sure if I should or wait it out a bit more. What's an acceptable amount of insomnia? Where do you draw that line? I dunno. Any thoughts, anyone?

I’m lucky I don’t frequently have insomnia.

When I do, I do various things.

One of them is masturbation. Another is trying to envision myself as a little baby falling asleep.

I would say, in many cases, that a therapist would be better than a medical doctor to treat insomnia.

^ I haven't tried masturbation, but I did have sex last night and that didn't help any either. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was fun, but not helpful in the sleep department.

A therapist might be helpful. I have no idea. I'm not very emotionally intelligent. I know I've been stressed, and stress does me no favors. I also wonder if I have some depression going on, but it's hard for me to know that. Generally, I gauge how I am psychologically by my weight...if I'm not okay I eat less and drop weight. Or I might gauge it by my house...am I keeping up with things. Except the sleep stuff, I seem to be otherwise okay despite being stressed a bit. But ultimately, I'm not good at recognizing what I'm feeling, so I could be worse off than I think I am.

Having sex keeps me up. Masturbation helps me sleep.

Maybe a therapist could help you with the quandary you’re going through now.

Sex can knock me out if I know I have the time and space to sleep after. I mean, it doesn't necessarily put me to sleep every time, but if I can sleep after, I will. Same can be said after a big meal. Sleep compliments some things nicely, imho.

I dunno about the therapist. It's not the easiest task around here to get one. The clinic where I go has counseling available, but you get put on waitlists (generally a month or two out) and if the therapist is not a good fit, you're looking at another couple of months waiting to try a different one. I'm not optimistic about the options there, but they provide transportation and I don't have a car atm, so I need that. I'm also not sure I can swing the copays to regularly visit someone. Though I could always ask for help with paying those. I might be able to get my visits comped by them due to being low income. They do that for psych related issues there sometimes.

You may find this thread interesting:
viewtopic.php?t=411266

I have no idea how I missed that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It is interesting and helpful as well. Much appreciated.