One’s perspective does make a huge impact when suffering from certain disorders as it determines the individual’s ability to cope despite the odds. I’d like to take a look at one common disorder which is Insomnia.

Sometime in the past, a friend of mine explained her ordeal to me, how insomnia had started very early in her childhood. She was perplexed as a young child by the issue, to the point that she would cry unending for hours with her mum by her side, asking why she was unable to sleep. The insomnia sometimes could rid her of sleep for so many hours at night that she would have to rise like everyone else and start her day knowing fully well that she was awake all night. One can imagine how a young child would have to suffer this ordeal and still have to go to school in the morning. Eventually she learnt to accept it.

My ordeal with this experience started way back with the neurological issue I suffered. I would be wide awake for unending hours which always triggered off amnesia and proceeding episodes. I just couldn’t explain it and every time it always caught me unawares. How exactly? let me explain.

You see when the neurological issue I suffered started earlier on in my life, it always began with attendant insomnia which I have already noted. This insomnia would trigger off amnesia and I would finally have episodes which were occasioned by hallucinations. As a growing adult, it took years for me to understand and know when the warning signs were appearing. Normally, I should have taken the insomnia as my green light to rush to the hospital but I didn’t. It was actually my mum that understood and always flagged it off to me but rather, I would wave it off by telling her I was okay. After several years, I finally learnt to note this warning sign.

Thus, I would like you to view Insomnia from a much different perspective which is the upside of the disorder. I know you would be asking right now, “Onuoma can there really be a positive side to Insomnia?” Well, if viewed correctly there can be. By channeling your energy into something productive, yes, there can be a positive aspect of it. Let me tell you how I use mine these days that my episodes are over. I’m sure you must have guessed, lol – by blogging.

Lately, I find myself awake especially during the late hours of the night, for no special reason. I remember a particular occasion that I went to the hospital for treatment of an entirely different issue. The doctor that attended to me, took one look at me and asked, “you have circles underneath your eyes, Onuoma that’s not right. It means you have not been sleeping properly and this is giving me reasons to evaluate your health”. I looked at her silently and whispered “yes, I sleep for short periods and wake up but take advantage of the time it lends me. Rather than letting it go to waste and tossing and turning all through the night, having a pity party, I simply sit up and write posts for my blog”. To tell you truth it’s been of great advantage to me. Surprised, she smiled at me and said “you’re a true warrior”.

So I googled the reasons for her concern and discovered that warriors actually have sleep disorders that only afford them brief hours of sleep. Why? because they have become accustomed to pain. Below is a picture of an indwelling catheter that was placed in my neck. This of course is enough pain to endure. You weep when it’s going in and you also weep when it’s coming out OR is it the different crises that warriors experience? You could be weeping all through the entire period only sleeping off only when the pain relievers are administered by the doctors. Immediately the medicine dissipates from your system, the pain comes back with full force and you are weeping once more. It’s quite an ordeal.

Now I know that this blog is not only read by warriors and some of you may be battling with one medical issue or another. Should it be Insomnia which is the topic of my post today, I encourage you to not be depressed by it, rather view that insomnia as positive energy and channel it into something creative.

Need I say more, all I’ll ask right now is, what will be your upside of Insomnia? my response?…If you delve deeper, the answer will be staring you right in the face.

Until my next post, take care…

See below the pictures.