is this anxiety?

[gizzy32]

hello, for that past couple months i have been waking up in the middle of the night, trying to catch my breath and it feels like a weight on my chest. lately this has been happening more during the day and when i feel like this, i fell clostorphobic and pannicy. i am recently clean from a very bad drug that i used for 5 years and not sure if this is what is causing it. can anxiety just show up out of nowhere and how do i find out it this is what i have. any advice would be great. ty

[shelzmike]

Oh, and one more thing. (and having experienced this myself, I realize how impossible this will sound right now) When you do wake up with this feeling - do everything you can NOT to sit up and concentrate on your physical symptoms too much. I know it may seem that you are wide awake all of a sudden, but if you just try to lay there and go back to sleep, you will be amazed at how quick your parasympathetic nervous system will kick in and you will go back to sleep fast - in fact even still while your heart is pounding and your breathing is shallow. The worst thing that you can do is give in to your body's physical bluffing...this causes a cycle of panic---fear---panic over and over, which is the root of most anxiety disorders.

Mike

[shelzmike]

Yep - then I would bet it is anxiety (assuming that the dr will tell you it is not Sleep Apnea). And you better believe it is scary - all of us in this forum have been through it, which makes it so great.

And you hit it right on the nose with being honest. Us testerone types have difficulty admitting fear, which this really is realated to, but in order to even start getting over anxiety, you have to first face your fear and then accept it. Then, with time, you will learn to float past it all and be back to normal - it is possible. Good luck.

Mike

[gizzy32]

thanks for the advice. i have been clean 3 months right now, but it has been really bad the last couple weeks. i guess going to my dr and being honest is my best bet. it's just kinda scary cause this just started happening. thanks again.

[shelzmike]

While it is true that this sounds exactly like panic/anxiety, it could be a couple of other things.

First, depending on how long you have been off of the drug, it could be realted to withdrawal; however, many withdrawal symptoms are just that - anxiety. It is all related to the sympathetic nervous (which is the nerves that act on adrenaline and affect your body, which you have no control over - you can only control your mood that affects your response to these - it is called sensitization).

Secondly, it could be related to sleep apnea, which sounds scary, but is very easily treated and MANY people have it. However, I thought I might have had this, in addition to my DR thinking so, but turns out I did not - mine was just anxiety -

**(Recopied from my response to another post about the same thing)**More than likely this is realted to panic/anxiety disorder. It happens to me sometimes too. I will go through periods where I get them several nights in a row, but it is not all that often. However, I can say that I have never had them to that level. I usually wake up gasping for air and heart pounding, but usually can fall right back to sleep as I know what it is from.

For many people, they only experiene anxiety attacks like this. During the day they are completely fine, but while they are sleeping they have these experiences.

Unfortunately, I am not sure if there is anything that you can really do to stop them, per se other than working on your anxiety during the day and "retraining" your body on how to handle levels of stress and anxiety appropriately. If you are relaxed during the day, then the same usually hold true at night.  However, you may want to talk with your doctor about taking like .25-.5 mg of xanax half hour before bed and this might help. However, the only downfall with this is is that you usually sleep longer and can be groggy when you wake up.

Good Luck!