Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
i have a hard time with relaxing, for example,
sometimes when i am just drifting off to sleep, i must subconsciously think that ive stopped breathing or my heart has stopped, and i wake suddenly and take a huge breathe, like i'm gasping for air.
also i got relaxation tapes from one psych i saw, and it is a guy talking to you telling you to calm your body bla bla bla, and in the end it puts you to sleep, i tried it once and the minute i was completely relaxed, again with the jumping up and gasping for air,
and sorry this is so long but there's one more thing.
when i was taking valium, for the first few weeks they would put me straight to sleep, then one night i felt really anxious so i took a valium, then after a while i had kinda drifted off but was still semi conscious and my body was so relaxed and warm that i started freaking thinking i was burning up and that the valium was slowly killing me. and from that day forward i never took a valium again, terrified of meds since that day.
anyone else experienced any of this at all?
or any suggestions or comments on this?
it's really annoying because i am on guard constantly and i'm starting to get extreme insonmia because i'm too scared to relax.
sometimes when i am just drifting off to sleep, i must subconsciously think that ive stopped breathing or my heart has stopped, and i wake suddenly and take a huge breathe, like i'm gasping for air.
also i got relaxation tapes from one psych i saw, and it is a guy talking to you telling you to calm your body bla bla bla, and in the end it puts you to sleep, i tried it once and the minute i was completely relaxed, again with the jumping up and gasping for air,
and sorry this is so long but there's one more thing.
when i was taking valium, for the first few weeks they would put me straight to sleep, then one night i felt really anxious so i took a valium, then after a while i had kinda drifted off but was still semi conscious and my body was so relaxed and warm that i started freaking thinking i was burning up and that the valium was slowly killing me. and from that day forward i never took a valium again, terrified of meds since that day.
anyone else experienced any of this at all?
or any suggestions or comments on this?
it's really annoying because i am on guard constantly and i'm starting to get extreme insonmia because i'm too scared to relax.
I have had similar situations like that in the past. When I'm under a great deal of stress or pressure and I go to bed, about 10 or 15 minutes later after drifting off, I feel like my heart stops and I jump out of bed thinking that I almost died. I've had panic and anxiety for a while now, so I know that it is the adrenaline jolting back into my system keeping me "aware" of what my mind perceives as "danger". Knowing this and reminding myself that these symptoms and situations may be uncomfortable, and unwelcomed, they really are there to protect me...
Easier said than done, I know, but the more I focus on that way of thinking, the sooner my body follows along with it and I can relax and sleep.
Hang in there, altough you may feel like you could die, the symptoms are there to protect you, not kill you.
I've learned since to just pass it off as nothing. I guess since it's happened so many times without actually being a sign of something gone wrong I've become numb to it.
Your subconscious (where anxiety comes from) never sleeps even when you are, so if it perceives danger, it will react. I used to get nocturnal panics all the time, which were awful, but that was when I was first diagnosed and haven't had them since.
Hopefully, in time, you will be able to sort of desensitize yourself to the feelings and really drill it into your mind that it is only adrenalin and WILL NOT hurt you, so therefore, there is no need to panic.
It takes time and practice, but the pay off is a great night's sleep:)
Hi,
I use to have panic attacks when I was sleeping when my anxiety was at it's worse. It scared the hell out of me so I really feel for you.They eventually stopped and last year I thought they started again, but I notice meds was not helping. It turns out, I have a mild case of sleep apnea as someone stated earlier. Klonpin worked the best for me at bedtime for anxiety. If you wake up and your throat hurts and is very dry, it may be from snoring and/or sleep apnea.