Feeling exhausted by health anxiety and insomnia

[WreckBall]

I am so, so tired. I have great support from DH but he can't even help me with how low I've gotten. I have health anxiety so severe that it is causing extreme sensory sensations and chronic insomnia. This leads to ruminations about the 'C' word which causes me to spiral in so many ways that there's not enough time or energy to put it all into words.

I've tried to manage by using very unhealthy coping mechanisms but these cause me to spiral because there are dire health consequences attached to them. I then regret doing these things because I feel like they are juvenile and quite possibly lead to the exact things I fear.

I've tried healthy coping mechanisms like exercising, resetting sleep patterns, distractions, avoiding symptom checking via Google and ChatGPT, speaking up and voicing things instead of holding them in (although this has only been practiced for a mere couple of days), avoiding stressful situations and toxic people but I still can't seem to shut my head down and get any sleep.

I've been awake for about 24 hours, with a 2 hour nap in between, and I am shattered. Had a drink with DH last night, tons of cake and a healthy meal of salmon, asparagus and new potatoes but I still can't get my head to shut down.

I've decided to abstain from alcohol and sugar and try to reset my sleeping pattern again but I don't have a lot of hope that any of this will assist.

Any tips greatly received. I have a few meetings this week and I need to get my head screwed on right so I can move forward in my job.

I think a visit to your GP to try to get help with your health anxiety would be beneficial to start with. They may also be able to temporarily give you something to help you sleep, whilst waiting for any treatment.
I struggle badly with insomnia. It's outing (albeit highly unlikely) to anyone I know who may see this, but twice a week I go two full nights with no sleep whatsoever, then crash on the third.
It feels awful when you can't sleep and I can imagine having that extra time to think makes your anxiety feel so much worse.
Please reach out.

The problem with all the strategies you're employing to deal with this is that – whilst they are logical – all they are doing is telling your emotional subconscious that there must be something really wrong (when there's isn't).

Anxiety is the emotion that's triggered when there's something too important to ignore/overlook. With health anxiety it's on high alert for all and any signs that you may be unwell, so all the twinges/thumps/gurgles we usually accept as normal, because they are, are seized on as threats.

Add in a chronic lack of sleep, which will increase your physical discomfort and inability to cope with the most basic tasks, and your mind will be taking that as proof that you're ill.

A trip to the GP for some short term relief is a good idea, as is cutting down on sugar and stimulants. Have a look on YT for Progressive Muscle Relaxation; it's a great way to calm mind and body before sleep. One trick I use when my mind decides to use the night time to solve all the problems of the day (and to fortune-tell what's coming up) is to have the words 'no thoughts' on repeat. Picture the words in big grey letters on your eyelids, repeat them over and over and over in your head so that there's no room for anything else to sneak in and you will drop off.

@AlwaysLookOnTheBrightSideOfLife @Eyesopenwideawake thank you both so much for your good judgement and advice. I managed to get 9 hours between 10 am and 4 pm and then 7pm and 9 pm so not the best schedule, since I'm still awake at 5 am now, but at least I don't feel like I'm going to die.

My diet wasn't great. I was really healthy until 10pm and caved to Easter chocolate. The drink the night before probably didn't help and lack of sleep so very glad about my decision to go teetotal from yesterday.

Both of your posts gave me at least a little hope that this spate of insomnia might not kill me so will try to remain hopeful today since I also feel much less alone.

Hi Op I am going through something similar. I'm on a 2WW appt at the moment for something and the scan results will take 2 months, which isn't helping.

Did something trigger yours? Mine has been bad since an operation a few years ago. I do have some health problems but things spiral as well.

I'm on some meds, fluoxetine helps a bit.