To think it would be wonderful living without anxiety

[Dreamiy]

I have always experienced anxiety on and off; mainly health anxiety when a close one isn’t well; however I think I have been experiencing more anxiety lately; probably menopausal. I am 53.

I am waking up during the night with shortness of breath and tight chest. If I don’t have any coffee during the day I go back to sleep; but if I drink coffee I stay awake. I don’t drink alcohol.

I do excercise, yoga, meditation, started on Menopace today. I don’t want HRT as I don’t have any other symptoms.

Are there any natural treatments to help get rid of this? As it is impacting my work. I read acupuncture and CBT could help? Has anyone got experience of it.

I need to stay healthy for myself and my family

Why are you against HRT, I have started and it has massively reduced the anxiety (similar symptoms to you?

Just comments I have read in the menopause forum. Which one are you using?

Ohh, that is not good. That is my concern you solve one problem and give yourself another one.

I have similar feelings, often at 3am! I started taking a magnesium glycinate supplement at bedtime which seems to have helped loads. I still wake up sometimes but can squash the spiralling thoughts and worries. And usually go back to sleep.

I had some success with duloxetine, was in therapy for years (nearly a decade), changed jobs to get away from one that was very stressful, stopped drinking and started exercising. I have no idea what actually did the trick tbh.

Can I ask what strength propranolol you take? I tried it for my physical anxiety symptoms (nausea and diarrhoea mainly) and it didn’t do much to help.

Evorel patches. The doctor said I could either try HRT or meds for anxiety so I started with the HRT and noticed a difference within a couple of weeks.

That’s your anxiety speaking

Could you have sleep disordered breathing? I have similar symptoms & suspect I have a form of sleep apnea.

It’s very common and goes heavily undiagnosed most of the time until it gets severe.

Therapy made mine worse. Propranolol helps

It’s 40mg and I can take it twice per day, though I’ve never taken more
than one.
I think my anxiety stems from IBS. I had regular bouts of terrible diarrhoea and I became so anxious going on car journeys, people’s houses etc in case I needed to go. It became really awful and I had started having terrible anxiety attacks. It really has made a huge difference to me (though my IBS is also much more under control now with medication and a low fodmap diet).

Do you know what dosage you were on? Do you also have IBS by any chance?

I think I am going to ask for the HRT; as this is very debilitating. I do have other symptoms actually; loss appetite and feeling tearful, a bit more tired in the afternoon if I don’t have coffee; but with coffee I am unable to go back to sleep.

I still got a teen going through puberty and need my mental health to support her as much as possible

Well if it’s linked to the menopause HRT will probably be effective. Or Sertraline as others have said. Beta blockers are effective for panic attacks.

Psychology will only be effective if your anxiety is caused by negative thinking patterns/avoidant behaviour though that could be a part of it as well of course. I guess that’s your call.

I've been on the maximum dose for years and can confirm the libido thing, I also found the 'runners high' I used to get from exercise has gone, though I'm also on lamotrigine which also smooths everything out.

No anxiety though.

I had loss of appetite and tearful as well! The anxiety had been going on a while but when I started feeling tearful I twigged that it could be hormonal as it reminded me how I felt on my period when I was much younger.

Really vivid dreams, and I was grinding my teeth for the first few months but that's disappeared now. It can have various side effects, but it might not. I tried fluoxetine before with no effect. You might need to try different medicines to find what works for you. Re libido, sertraline actually improved mine because I was so miserable before.

I don’t think so. I think is menopausal related