How do you tell the difference between the drug working and just a good week?

Bring a list. Embarrassment makes everyone forget things, including you. Not on a closed practice but the pattern is familiar.

Small wins count. Walking to the mailbox is a data point.

Sorry for the basic question, but how do you actually start one of these diaries?

Same shape here, different drug. The thing that helped was documenting the refusal rather than re-arguing it. They refer rather than write.

An inconclusive account is useful if it stops the next person mistaking a story for a controlled comparison.

It gets smaller. Not easy, smaller. That distinction kept me going. Currently on zopiclone myself.

You are not imagining it and you are not being difficult. Document it and take the document in.

Small wins count. Walking to the mailbox is a data point.

Log dose, time and sleep. Ten seconds a day and it turns the anecdote into something you can look at.

Small wins count. Walking to the mailbox is a data point. Not on a members-only area but the pattern is familiar.