Anxiety after home invasion

[skiknee66]

I experienced a home invasion about 6 weeks ago.  I have been experiencing random episodes of a knot in my stomach with the inability to get a deep breath.  I also have difficulty getting to sleep at night.  I jump at every house noise.  I did put in an alarm system with a motion sensor, but I still have an irrational fear that there is someone in my house.  How long do these feelings usually take to go away?  Is this simply a sympathetic nervous response to the trauma?

[skiknee66]

Thank You!  I will do some research into this.

[Peter Forster]

It sounds as though you may have a form of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I agree with you that benzodiazepines are not a good long term solution. You need to get a referral to a therapist (psychologist, psychiatrist, other) who is trained in one of the evidence based treatments for PTSD.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) or Prolonged Exposure Therapy.
This is readily treatable but at this point I think that waiting for it to get better is not the right answer.
For more information you may want to go here for a discussion of EMDR -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing

And here for a way to find an EMDR clinician -
http://www.emdr.com/

And here for a discussion about Prolonged Exposure Therapy -
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/prolonged-exposure-therapy.asp

The right treatment is VERY effective.

[skiknee66]

Thank you for your previous answer.  I have expanded on the information that I previously supplied.

[skiknee66]

Thank you for responding.  I woke up with an intruder in my house very near my bedroom.  I yelled out, and he ran off, and I had a fight response and chased him.  About 10 days after the initial incident, there was evidence of someone either looking in my windows, or trying to gain access through the window.  The police did not catch this person.  I sometimes get out of bed 2-3 times to make sure the door is locked.

When the initial incident occurred, I had the police at my house.  I was in such a state of shock that I never even recognized the officer who questioned me.  I know him.

The feeling of anxiety is not necessarily set off by this incident, but other slightly stressful things now seem to be setting these feeling off.  I have not had dreams about the incident, but I usually can't go to sleep until I hit the point of pure exhaustion.  My heart goes up in my throat with any sudden loud noises.  My dishwasher cut in one night, and I nearly hit the ceiling.  I am extremely jumpy.

The symptoms are worse now, then they were after the initial incident.  I thought I was OK.  Even typing this response about all of this is giving me the anxious feeling.  I usually talk things out, but it does not seem to be helping this time.

I had an incident about a week ago, where I had a fairly stressful appointment that did not go so well.  I was driving back, and I barely have any memory of the first hour of the drive.  That scared me a little bit.  I am not normally a nervous or stressed out person.  My friends and coworkers are even stating that I am not my normal upbeat self.  I am also having a very difficult time concentrating on my job.

I had and have had a few other things that have been causing me stress for the past few months, and I had been handling them.  It seems like since this happened, it has all come to a head, and I just can't get rid of this feeling.  

I usually deal with my normal stressors by doing some intensive exercise, but I am unable to due to an injury(not related to the home invasion).

I did see my family physician, and he did give me a prescription for sublingual lorazepam, but that seems like a temporary fix to me.  I also don't want to be using benzos to deal with this.

What do I need to do?

Thank you again!

[Peter Forster]

I am not sure that I know what you meant by a home invasion. Was this a situation where you were in danger? And did you experience extreme distress at the time? And since then have you had memories that pop into your mind or disturbing dreams, or feelings like it is happening all over again?  These are fairly common responses to those kind of situations and usually improve over time, but sometimes brief treatment may be indicated so that the symptoms don't continue. I also wondered if the symptoms were getting better or not? The answers to these questions would help me respond to your post better.