I'm going to try to make a long story short. I'm currently 23. Around age 19 I began having trouble falling asleep at night. Sometimes i'd be up for hours, maybe going to bed at midnight and falling asleep around 3 or later. I saw a psychologist who suggested doing deep breathing in and out. Certainly didn't help...started seeing a psychiatrist who gave me ambien. I took ambien every night for a couple of years, either 5 or 10mg.

At some point the ambien didn't work that well so as a backup, i was given ativan/lorazepam. It worked alright but sometimes gave be erectile problems...

In any event, around April or May i was able to get off of everything except for the occassional night. However, a few months ago, i started having problems again, and am back to ambien or lorazepam every night, and even with it, i often am up for 1-2 hours before falling asleep.

At one point i also saw a therapist who was a supposed experty in relaxation techniques, none of which worked for me. I have the name of a CBT therapist that i am goign to talk to about what he does, but i was told it'd be similar to the relaxation technique person, so i'm not optimistic.

I don't want to be on the meds really, but if i am on them, i'd rather them put me to sleep than taking them and still being up for an hour or two. My personality is definitely on that i worry a lot, and often the sleeping itself is what i'm worried about. I haven't been succesful at all in taking a hold of this problem.

I should mention before seeking professional help, I did try all the standard sleep hygiene stuff and relaxation herbs and OTC stuff. Any suggestions from anyone about what else I can try? I really am not too hopeful that i will be able to find a solution.