took .5 xanax, woke up at 3:00 A.M?

[abreaken]

hello, i seriously need help. yesterday i got a horrible, i would call it, ''OCD attack''. it was an anxiety attack that lasted almost all day after i woke up, most likely caused because of lack of good sleep accompanied by really bad nightmares.  approximately at 5 pm i started having horrible intrusive thoughts about hurting my loved ones. it was so overwhelming i ended up crying like a baby, that gave me some kind of relief. i also went to the gym and had a routine of extreme cardio at 7 pm (note that i hadn't gone to the gym for about a year and a half, so this is ''new'' to me) after arriving home extremely tired, i took .5 mg of Xanax and a half pill of Dramamine at 8:30 pm. i ended up sleeping at 9:30 pm. well, i thought i would sleep like a baby, but here i am, really loud tinnitus woke me up at 3:00 am and I am still awake, the tinnitus is not as strong as when i woke up but it is still there. anybody else had something similar or knows what happened? why didn't the xanax knocked me out like it usually does?
note that i am not an usual medication consumer. last time i took xanax was a week ago and it was only .25 mg, so .5 mg is a large dose for me.
best regards to everyone!

[Skysky001]

gg

[abreaken]

thank you very much for your words, they brings me peace of mind. i eventually falled back to sleep for 4 more hours. i don't have the intrussive thoughts at the moment, just anxiety. and trust me when i say this, i can deal with this by myself just as long as those thoughts dont invade me again.
my best wishes to you too. as for the exercise routine, i just started yesterday, there is no way i am giving up on that. i've had tinnitus for about a year now, so that particular episode was most likely agravated by what you said. no chance for me to use this day as a rest day, i am at work at the moment. i have found that being in my room 'relaxing' is the worst for my anxiety and intrusive thoughs, as i start to think and over analyze everything. working and being out of my house helps me keep the anxiety at bay.
as i already said, thank you very much for your words.

[Michelle_Love]

"Lack of good sleep" stands out here and can trigger these symptoms. Crying seems like it was a good release of emotion at first- and I am sure exercise helped get emotions out also.

I would suggest to separate the "OCD attack" urges as being just thoughts, which is very separate from taking harmful action on them. No matter how strong or intense the thoughts are, it does not mean that you need to act on them. I am sure you know this but I find it helpful to say it outright in your own mind when the intrusive thoughts start up. It can break the cycle trusting you will not act on them, the thoughts lose their power.

In my experience, intense exercise (as you said you did "extreme cardio") can rattle around water that is naturally in my inner ear, causing tinnitus. And sometimes a ringing in the ear can even trigger anxiety.

It sounds like a lot going on with your body and mind- please use today as a rest day, mental and physical rest. Do you think the intense exercise caused tinnitus? I want to add that lots of exercise puts our bodies into "activation mode" which hypes us up- even a dose of Xanax can not bring that hyped up state back to a calm state. I am thinking you were so activated, from the anxiety to the heavy work out, that it would have taken a ton of xanax to get a calm state! That is my conclusion based off of personal experience and knowledge on these topics. Maybe keep a log of activities and thoughts, with corresponding times, to help you identify what triggers what? Best of luck and I hope today is bringing more calm.

-Michelle

[abreaken]

forgot to add, i took one drop of rivotril (0.1mg clonazepam) at 11 am after waking up.