TMJ Tiff

One of the most common symptoms of depression and anxiety is having insomnia or oversleeping.  I remember the height of my sleep disturbances was last year. I would not be able to sleep till 6 AM and would lay in my bed for hours feeling tense and worrying about what I had to get done the next day.  I felt like my head was running 100 mph.  When I could not fall asleep, I would sometimes go online and become fixated with online shopping/browsing or refreshing TMZ.com every 5 minutes (even though there were no updates).  When I could finally fall asleep, I would have horrible nightmares and wake up extremely tense.  I would wake up to a puddle of drool on my pillow, an inflamed jaw, sore neck, itchy throat, and headache because I only got in 4-5 hours of sleep.  Going to my morning class was a drag because I could not pay attention with my pain & lack of sleep.  There were many days where I would even skip class and actually sleep till 3 PM.  Where did my day go?  On top of being be

Growing up, I had no understanding about issues of health care.  For 19 years of my life I was making visits to the doctor for the typical illnesses...a cold, fever, and the flu for only a $20 co-pay. I never questioned what co-pay meant.  I just thought everything was $20 and medicine would always be around $5-$10.  I thought it was affordable for everyone. Occasionally I would get a blood test and the only medication I really needed was DayQuil and Amoxicillin, but in the fall of 2007 things started to change. I've been battling a chronic pain disorder called TMJ for almost 4 years.  I experience pain in the form of muscle spasms on my scalp, half of my face, mouth, and back.  I always seem to have pressure and swelling in my ear and jaw joint, and my teeth ache.  I would describe my arthritic pain in my jaw as a dull aching pain .  My equilibrium feels off and it has really compromised my ability to focus and have a normal life.  I went from $20 co-pays to $400 consultations fr