Dr. Rachel Susanna Darken, MD

I have had a few sleep doctors over the years. When I told Dr. Darken I was there to seek help for a sleep disorder due to Alpha Intrustion, she commented that Dr. So and So uses that term. I should have walked out right then. For the first time I went all out and told her that my insomnia has lasted 34 years, that the usual things will not work, it's something in my brain, I haven't had a nap in 34 years, I never have energy, I'm always tired, how difficult it is to keep motivated when you're always exhausted. I told Dr. Darken that it was the single most debilitating thing in my life, by far. She asked if I've tried all the things I've heard for the last 34 years and I told her they don't work. Are you kidding me? She said if I won't try cognitive behavorial therapy (I told her I tried all that stuff 30 years ago and it doesn't work), then there's basically nothing they can do for me. She didn't know what to do with me was the problem. Dr. Darken then refused to refill my… amitriptylene and her nurse would only say because "she typically doesn't prescribe that with ambien," asked the nurse many times and she refused to give me a reason. I've been on it for 35 years!! Amitriptylene and ambien are the only things that get me any sleep at all. They probably just did that on purpose so I won't come back because she doesn't know what to do with me. I found this hard to believe--she had so many patients that it would be SEVEN MONTHS before I could get back in. Seriously? With all that education, all she's saying is the same old crap that's been out there for 50 years? I went to my car and bawled, called by daughter and bawled in desperation, bawled all the way home. I have bad ADD and memory loss from my insomnia, I was desperate, have been deperate for many years and that's all you've got? I lost all hope that day.

She's absolutely WONDERFUL

Doctors first question when walked in the room was What are you here for? It was the attitude that she presented with. Unacceptable

I am grateful for Dr. Darken's help. She noticed things that a sleep doctor at another clinic missed and now I am much improved.