Post date: Aug 15, 2013 6:9:29 PM
A man from the Iraqi city of Hilla has been suffering from severe insomnia, claiming to have only slept around 3 months over the past 10 years.
HILLA, IRAQ (RECENT, 2013)(REUTERS) - For about a decade, Iraqi Haider Kadhim has been suffering from extreme insomnia. And, no amount of pills or treatment have been able to help him sleep.
The 43-year old from Hilla says his condition, began in 2002 and since then, he hasn't been able to sleep more than a total of three months."My case started in 2002 and it still continues up to now," said Kadhim surrounded by medical reports. "The sleeping hours began to gradually decrease in 2003 and 2004. I was going to bed at 1 am or at 2am, sometimes at 4 am. So I went to the doctors in Baghdad, Syria and Iran, they gave me treatment to help me sleep."
His condition has meant Kadhim is not able to work because of problems related to concentration. He said initial treatments appeared successful despite side effects, but now nothing appears to help him.
''The treatment initially went well, but at the same time I had headaches and it caused parts of my body to be numb. Since 2008 all of the treatment that I've been given hasn't had any effect on me, pills, anaesthetic injections, medicine, it doesn't do anything," he said.
A psychiatrist who has treated Kadhim says he believes his problem is more linked to depression than anything else.
''His problem is that he has depression and he views his life in a bad way," saidAhmed Lateef, a psychiatrist at the Murjan Teaching School.
"He always complains about his social and financial condition. So, of course all of these circumstances have lead him to be depressed, and of other generic or biological reasons too. Generally speaking he has depression, and insomnia and sleep disorders are symptoms of this,' he said.
Kadhim's young daughter says she wishes she could give her father the gift of sleep.
"My father hasn't slept for nine years now. I'm used to seeing him awake, readingthe Koran and praying every night. I wish I could give him sleeping hours from each one of us, my mother, my sister and my brother. He hasn't slept for a long time," saidBanen Haider.
The man's family has asked the health ministry to look into their father's case and to hopefully help him once again be able to sleep.