Insomnia affects millions of people around the world. And while many medications have emerged over the decades, providing hope to patients with insomnia, there is still no means of treating insomnia that can guarantee success.

The fact that so many people suffer from insomnia in silence, making no effort to seek treatment has often baffled doctors. And while some medical experts believe that many insomniacs are unaware of the fact that their ailment is a disease with plausible treatment options, it has been suggested by doctors that certain individuals will self-medicate or make an effort to deal with the disease on their own, without seeking any quantifiable treatment because of the potential benefits the illness brings to the table.

Ridiculous as it sounds, there are people out there that choose to perceive their insomnia through a positive lens, electing to glean the secondary gains of illness and, thus, shunning treatment. Some of those mock gains to which many insomniacs have become attached, for better or worse, include the following:

Time

For a select few individuals, insomnia is a pseudo-blessing that, while destructive to their mental state, gives them access to more hours of wakefulness than the average individual.

The more time these people spend awake, the more productive they feel, making it possible to proceed through one’s day at peace, knowing that you do not have to feel rushed or pressured in your activities because of those additional hours in the night you can use to meet your daily objectives.

Numbness

There are people that crave that chronic sensation of sleepiness that envelopes them during the day time because they didn’t get enough sleep at night. It is a sensation that desensitizes people to the world around them, creating a sense of inebriation and allowing them to avoid the harsher realities of daily life.

Emotional protection

For some people, daytime sleepiness caused by insomnia is the shield they use to not only avoid personal and professional obligations but relationships as well. Certain patients of the ailment have been known to use insomnia as an excuse to avoid intimacy.

It is becoming increasingly necessary for doctors to tackle the semblant gains of insomnia, helping patients realize that they are using the disease as a tool for their own benefit. Doctors should prompt such patients to overcome the psychological barriers preventing them from seeking real treatment for their illness.