Anxiety manifesting itself when least expected?

[Humphreyshead]

Walking up in the night with a racing heart, lump in my throat and a strong need for oxygen and deep breaths.

Is this anxiety?

I’ve recently been to the doctor, who has said that it is.

But what’s triggering it?

I get a few heart palpitations throughout the month, which have been checked and not seen as an issue. I’ve also got a higher blood pressure than what’s normal for me. I’m otherwise healthy.

I went to bed perfectly fine, but then woke up like I’ve mentioned. This has happened 3 times in the past 2 weeks

It's the stressful job. I had this and at times went to A&E because I genuinely thought I was going to have a heart attack. A friend told me that it's quite popular for it to happen at night when your body isn't in fight mode.

I did do that a couple of years ago. When the palpitations and breathing started. Went to A&E. It all checked out physically and I felt so stupid at the time.

I thought it was settling. The palpitations are almost non existent compared to a year ago when my heart was skipping every 3rd beat and it would suddenly race to 120 in the evenings. I don’t get that anymore.

But this I’d way worse! Even though it’s not as regular.

I teach kids who are in care, and their behaviours are challenging. They’ve had so much trauma in their own lives that they are always in fight or flight, and I’ve been doing the job for 6 years. I think their stress levels are impacting mine.

I would actually love to quit! But it would mean taking a £10k pay drop, and that’s too hard atm as my dh isn’t working due to a car accident he was in a couple of years ago. He used to be the main earner, and although he’s getting interim compensation payments, we have seen a huge reduction in our way of living.