Night time anxiety

[MummyTo3Beauts]

Hiya, this is my first post, and was just wondering if anybody else wakes up having a panic attack. I've suffered from anxiety for most of my adult life and have been on sertraline for the last 5 years. My current bad spell has been happening for the last 2 months where I wake up within an hour of falling asleep to my heart pounding and then straight into a panic attack. I have been to the doctors and have been given propanolol and they also did a blood test which showed low iron, so I'm also taking iron tablets. I'm also keeping a diary of them because it seems to be worse within a week and half of my period starting.

I hear you OP.

I think this is a very common problem. We live in stressful times

• here I am with insomnia!

I hope the propranolol is helping and a diary sounds like a good idea.

I wish I could say something more useful but here’s a response at least!

Merry Christmas 🎄

Insomnia is worst. I find my self too scared to sleep because i don't want to wake up to a panic attack.

Thank you for replying and merry Christmas to you too

Thank you!

Let’s hope we both get some sleep soon- tomorrow (today!) will be a challenge otherwise 🛏💤

Hey if you're awake, I find myself having panic attacks before bed and then being up till silly o clock panicking and exhausted. I just want to sleep :(

I have to admit my insomnia tonight may involve quite a lot of Xmas chocolate yesterday evening.....😶

But I really want to sleep now.....

I’ve tried lying here quietly, I’ve been downstairs for a bit.

The loud snoring from my bedfellow and two of our Xmas visitors isn’t helping!

Ahhhhhh! Insomnia is a pain in the arse isn't it! When you just want to sleep the panic off but you can't! And then the more tired you are then the more you panic! Well I do anyway aha

I came across your post whilst looking up CBT. I understand where you're coming from- been on propranolol for the past two months and it seems to work. I wake up myself frequently in a sweat (sounds lovely I know ) and can't seem to calm myself down sometimes. Not sure if you've tried this but on occasions I use the headspace app and listen to rain music as it calms me down. Other times when nothing works I just have to ride it out.

Definitely keep taking the iron tablets. I had terribly low iron levels last year and I felt terrible, so run down and low, really anxious and stressed out. It got better for a while, then I went onto the contraceptive injection to stop my periods and it just made me 100 times worse again!!

Waking up into a panic attack is just horrendous, I feel for you op. I went through an episode of this recently and after about 2 weeks I had to go to the gp who increased my anti depressants (citalopram) from 10mg to 20mg. One week of the usual feeling like utter shit because of changing dosage and i was absolutely fine. Any chance you could do with a dosage review for your medication?

Thanks for your replies. I have looked at the headspace app. I just seem to be in such a state when I wake up there's no coming out of it.
I've been on the iron tablets for about two weeks and I've got a three month course and then back for my bloods again.
I was trying to come off my sertraline and the beginning of the year I had got down to 50 mg but an now back up to 150 mg. I suggested maybe a change of medication but they didn't seem to agree with me.
It's really getting me down

@Mummyto3beauts
I hope it gets better for you! Just try everything you can think of. Things like bath oils, candles, breathing exercises, talking it out, positive affirmations to yourself and anything which makes you happy. Well done for trying to come off it and getting it down! Doesnt matter if you're back up right now, it shows you do have the strength in you to beat this.

@HKCheema
Thank you and I hope it gets better for you too. I know what you mean about waking up in a pool of sweat. I think the propranolol is working for me too slightly. I can talk myself down in the day but when I wake up with it the fear is horrendous. Do you know what is causing yours xx

@MummyTo3Beauts

Thanks! I know you mean, dread waking up some mornings and it does get very uncontrollable. It's a mixture of things, over thinking, worrying about people leaving my life etc.