To think the this anxiety will never go away?

[Shinyshoe73]

After having my first son four years ago I suffered badly with post natal anxiety - I got so worked up about sleep that I stopped sleeping which started a vicious cycle on no sleep and anxiety. I was put on fluoxetine which really helped. I came Off fluoxetine and then had the same anxiety problem eight months later. This time I was put on sertraline which again eventually helped alongside CBT.

I came off the sertraline in February and had been fine until a couple of weeks ago when the worry about sleep started to creep in which led to another bout of severe anxiety. I’ve been back and forth to the doctors. I started off on Mirtazapine but it made me extremely low in mood and I also wanted something unlinked to sleep as I know that I have no problem sleeping, it’s the anxiety and worrying about it that causes the issue! I’m now on fluoxetine (day 2) bit gave convinced myself that I’m a lost cause and will never be able to stop this horrible horrible anxiety and dread over bedtime which is making me miserable. I’ve convinced myself that I have untreatable anxiety and that I’ll never be able to look forward to anything or be happy again

Anyone have any words of advice?

I’ve convinced myself that I have untreatable anxiety This would suggest to me that you would find CBT useful, but I see you've already had some. You could try either asking GP for more CBT, or going beck to the techniques you learned before and trying seriously to do them. I know it's hard! It feels like playing games, telling yourself things that the inner you believes are nonsense.

My GP, when I complained about difficulty sleeping, merely remarked "it's a self-correcting problem".

Thank you! Did you find CBT worked for you in the past?

You need to talk to somebody such as CBT or therapy general - your baby will pick up on your anxiety also so have somebody to help with the feelings you're having

Yes it will go ... I promise 🌹but grab it by the doo-dah's and get some support

Good luck 😉

*child

If the medication works for you, why do you come off it?

Thank you for your replies. My children are now 4 and 2 so really need to get it sorted! I fell into the trap of feeling amazing so thought I could do without medication.

If sertraline works and doesn't cause you any side effects I'd just stay on it. There's nothing wrong with taking medication for an illness. It's not causing you to feel unrealistically amazing, your normal feeling when you don't have anxiety is to feel well and happy. If sertraline made people who don't need it feel amazing, it would be a huge black market drug like heroin.

There could be all sorts of psychological reasons you feel anxiety about sleeping, who knows. I do think some things can become habitual and 'triggers' can set off anxiety again. CBT can help with this but I think it depends on how deep the habits are. It's easy to divert a trickle of water, harder to divert a stream, and much harder to divert a river - and pointless to try if it's in flood.

Medication can help dry up the water! My own GP told me years ago that studies showed the longer a person stays on medication the better the chance of anxiety or depression not recurring. So I stayed on them even though I felt much better. I cut the dosage though as after the first suicidal year I wasn't as bad. I did finish up completely after a couple of years and did restart - but my depression was triggered by SAD and recurred every winter unless I took medication. My GP was happy to prescribe from autumn to spring as that worked for me.

I didn't take them when I was pregnant or breast feeding and have managed every winter since as some of my life circumstances have changed for the better, and while I suffer sporadically from anxiety I have dealt with a lot of the issues I was suppressing and I know what causes the anxiety now (unresolved anger and grief in my case).

You clearly don't have untreatable anxiety, OP, since it has successfully responded to treatment on multiple occasions. You may need to take the medication permanently, or at least much longer-term than you have been doing, but that is fine. Talk to your GP about that.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, so helpful. I’m on fluoxetine now, only two day in, so just hoping that it works as I’m worried all medication will now not work!! Xxx

YANBU to think there's no end to it, but one day it will pass. I've got through PTSD, panic attacks and anxiety after a serious assault.

In the meantime (and I know this sounds like it wont work) please do yourself a facvour, and use the breathing exercise designed to calm the vagus nerve and control anxiety. It helps if you practice when you are at your calmest.

Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, and aim to gradually slow your breathing. Start with whatever you can mange, and count. Aim to work towards being able to count to 4 or 5.

The vagus nerve activates anxiety but doesn't have an off switch, this exercise is the only thing anyone has found so far that works to calm it.
www.thecut.com/2019/05/i-now-suspect-the-vagus-nerve-is-the-key-to-well-being.html

Would you feel ok if staying on medication was a way to control your anxiety long term? I mean I was on anti depressants for a good while and was concerned about coming off them but my Dr assured me it could be a long term thing if that's what I needed.

For me what worked was a small dose of an anti psychotic called quetiapine (sp?). I was initially wary as it's, well, an antipsychotic and I was worried my Dr obviously thought I was psychotic. But no, he explained a tiny dose works to control anxiety. So that helped me get on my feet and I was able to pursue CBT. Now I know you've had this...did you do anything on automatic thought records? I found this really valuable for analysing what I was feeling and then being able to rationalise a more moderate response to the situation. I have used this since finishing my treatmebt. And it has really helped me. I guess I'm trying to say that I have come out the other side after years of thinking that was impossible. I am now not on any medication and have been able to face setbacks and problems in a rational way.

Would your GP prescribe a few.sleeping pills to help you get a few nights rest? I know it's not a long term solution but it might give you some respite before your other medicine kicks in.

I wish you luck op

No answers, just a massive hug from another sufferer from post natal anxiety. I know Mumsnet doesn't do hugs but, hey, fuck it!

Thank you everyone!

You're welcome, OP. I didn't want to be on medication either initially, just because I thought I shouldn't be, and I wanted to be fine without medication. But I was well with medication and I suffered no side effects so I didn't see a problem with taking them in the end, and I was grateful there was something so easy and common that made me feel well.