Panic Attacks Support Group
A panic attack is a period of intense fear or discomfort, typically with an abrupt onset and usually lasting no more than thirty minutes. Symptoms include trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation, and sensations of choking or smothering. Panic attacks can be very sudden, appear to be unprovoked, and are often...
Has anyone ever been in a deep sleep, and woke up suddenly to an instant panic attack. This has been happening to me lately and I dont understand it. I will be fast asleep and as soon as I open my eyes, my heart is racing. I get panicy and scared, feel terrible physically and fear being alone incase something happens to me.
Getting up and moving around helped me get through the panic. I would also turn on the tv as a distraction to try to get myself out of my head and the thoughts I was having.
Over the past few years I have worked very hard at healing from the trauma that caused me to have anxiety and panic so 'waking panic' has subsided considerably for me. So, if you know what led you to have your panic in the first place I would recommend working on healing from it - with a good therapist of course.
Take care
I agree with Jen that the use of music or watching something quiet on TV helps. I used to keep calming music running all night, so that when I woke up in a panic state, my mind would immediately take in the music and start calming down. The panic is worsened by waking up in a completely dark room, so the use of the music, and also, keeping a dim light on all night, was very helpful to me. When things were really bad, I would fall asleep watching the TV, and then when I woke up in panic, the TV would immediately command my attention so that the panic attack would be short-circuited, so to speak. I hope this is helpful - I know these night attacks are horrific -
Since 2011 things have been improving and it had been a long time since I had woken in a panic. But something in a therapy session stirred things up a month ago and it has almost been as bad as it was then. Last week I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 1 in a panic. I think the attack got worse as I lay there. The light was still on because I had tried a new sleep med and I must have fallen asleep while cuddling with my cat before turning the light out. It was one of the worst ones I've had in awhile and I ended up calling my therapist around 1:30 but she's in the next time zone over (I meet with her via skype) so it was 12:30 there. She was up and answered and all I could say is "I can't breathe" I'm usually able to talk a little when I call her in an attack. I don't think I've ever said that to her before. She talked me through breathing and grounding and after I hung up with her, I took a xanax and my old sleeping pill and fell asleep for the rest of the night.
So, that was the worst case I've had lately. A few days in a row every single time I woke up, in the morning or after a nap, I woke with anxiety and feeling paralyzed. When I feel paralyzed, if I don't think about getting out of bed, I'm okay, I can roll around and stuff. But as soon as I try to get up, everything tenses up and freezes. That's hard because in addition to dealing with the anxiety, I feel helpless.
There's another new therapist I'm seeing (switching over) and I told him about the attack last Monday and before I told him that I woke up into it, he asked if I knew what caused it or if it was subconscious. So I told him that and then he said, at night, or when we are sleeping, things can come up out of the subconscious - like the wounded parts of ourselves that have been through trauma but bury the emotions and memories. So he thinks the attack came from the terror of 3 year old me who went through that abuse. And the terror came out because my decision making/thinking parts were asleep and couldn't keep it at bay.
So, like someone said above, the solution is to work through the past trauma with a trusted therapist and as that gets resolved, the panic will lessen as well.