feel awful every night

[carriezebra]

I have been feeling anxious every night, almost without fail, and can't figure out how to stop it. Basically, I'm not really that stressed any night. It's just like when I get ready to go to bed, my body (but not my mind) suddenly starts panicking. I feel this awful feeling in my chest--maybe too much adrenaline? And with that feeling, no matter what I do, I can't sleep. The feeling lasts for like 2 or 3 hours and then I finally take a sleeping pill.

I wake up in the morning and the feeling is often still there. Sometimes it gets worse during the day, which is miserable. But usually by distracting myself I can eventually make it go away.

I have done everything I know to do to be relaxed, have good sleep hygiene, etc. Now I really feel like my body is manifesting these stress symptoms almost on its own, even though I'm not all that stressed.

What would you recommend to get me out of this cycle?

[cj29]

In my opinion, many times we feel anxiety at night because that is when we are least distracted from all that is going on during the day.  Also, remember, that anxiety will take a toll on you both mentally and physically which is part of the reason people stay stuck in this cycle.  

First of all, I would express my concerns to my doctor; usually he/she is the first option to ensure that there is nothing medically wrong (which is normally the case), and they can often refer you to a therapist and prescibe certain medications if needed.  For me, this combination worked really well, but the most important thing to do is talk it over...you recognize that this is a cycle and the next step is to understand this cycle.

[nursegirl6572]

In my opinion, it sounds like classic anxiety, even panic attacks.  These things are VERY cyclical, and usually a lot of people have very clear patterns with their symptoms.  Of course, everyone is different.

At one point for me, when I was suffering from (what I call) a "panic" reoccurence...my panic was AWFUL first thing in the morning....even if I had had a wonderful night's sleep.  WHY?  Because I anticipated it after feeling like that one morning.  In my mind, I related the early hours with the panic symptoms (just like one can relate a PLACE to panic)...same thing.  Our minds are cruel to us sometimes...honestly.

I had to basically decondition myself and convince myself that the timing was completely irrelevant.  That, coupled with some Ativan for the mornings I really felt I couldn't handle it...and I got through it.

I would talk to your doctor about it, and see if maybe some anxiety treatment wouldn't be beneficial to you.  

Also, even if you do nolt "feel" stressed or anxious, it doesn't mean you aren't.  Like I said...anxiety is often a vicious cycle, and usually after you learn how to break that cycle, you will notice improvement.

Call your doc, and in the meantime, talk to yourself, reassure yourself that the timing is completely irrelevant, and that you are basically "working yourself up to it", so to speak.

Good luck to you!

[nursegirl6572]

Your sniping me all over the place...LOL!

Carrie...I wanted to mention one other thing....hopefully so that you understand what it was I was saying.  

When I said that your mind "relates" the timing to the anxiety/panic...use this example to understand that...if someone has a panic attack at the bank, then our minds are predisposed to basically automatically relate that event TO the bank, even though the PA would have happened regardless of where we were.  Then we begin to FEAR and avoid the bank.  Fearing the FEAR itself.

SAME thing with time patterns.  ONE anxious night/evening/lunchhour/morning....and all of a sudden, we are anticipating that the timing will bring on more episodes.  I mean, they can come like CLOCKwork.....and it is all basically due to the power of suggestion in our minds...even subconsciously.

I hope that makes sense!