Panick attacks, nightmares driving me mad

[Charleesunnysunsun]

I am 32 weeks with number 2 and i have come to the point where i dread the night which is so unusual for me as i love to sleep!

For the last god knows how many weeks i have been surviving on about 2 hrs a night sleep and it's not got to the point where i am depressed and physically suffering.

I go through the day fine as soon as i get into bed and the house goes to sleep i start panicking, my heart races i can't breath and i feel really panicky but i don't know why! Yes i know it's stupid.

I used to think i was worried about labour but thinking about it im not really no more than anyone else. I also don't think its becuase of worrying about how i will cope ect as that has never been an issue.

Anyway after housrs of this i manage to drop off only to have bloody horrible nightmares mostly again about either needing to contact someone and can't or being chased by someone bigger than me who want's to hurt me.
Which then wakes me up leaving me feeling so aound up i can't sleep again. I have tried everything but nothing works.

Its really getting me down.

Poor you , sounds like you are having a horrid time. Have you thought about trying hypnotherapy, I have found it really helpful for panic attacks and sleeping - it seemed to help from the very first session - i had about 3 in the end.

Charleesunnysunsun - No I don't think your stupid feeling like this. I think a lot of pregnant mums go through this, you only need to look at the ante-natal club threads and see what time in the early morning some of the posters are posting .

When I was pregnant with dd and couldn't sleep either through worry, or uncomforatable or weak bladder, I would log onto mumsnet and find other worried insomniacs.

I used to panic that I wouldn't be able to cope with a wee baby and a toddler, I used to worry I'd be too tired for work the next day, I used to worry that my nightmares might mean something bad was going to happen, infact I used to worry about anything!!

I'm sure if you talk to other people on your ante-natal thread, you'll get reassurance. Or it might be worth having a wee chat with your MW about some of your concerns.

That's just it RedTartanLass i don't know what my concerns are! I wish i did.

I have had a few niggles about 'will i love the baby' and 'how will i cope with labour' but only for a few minutes and then im reassured by someone and i feel fine again!

It's just so draining it comes up to night time and i sit there dreading it becuase i know im gonna feel so crap all night.

Hi have you suffered from Panic attacks before Pregnancy? I went through a phase of having them and at first they are scary but you learn to cope until they stop by themselves. Something must be triggering them, is it work or anything you may not have thought of?

I had hypnotherapy tapes BWT.
most of all don't think you will always have them because they do go away in time

Thanks.

No i have never had them before, i rack my brains tryng to figure them out. I think it's probably a case of extreme hormones that are making little normal worries pile up into one big problem thats getting blown out of proportion although im totally not sure.

That's why i don;t want to talk to my midwife about it becuase she's bound to ask what im panicking about and i honestly don't know.

I had a horrible pregnancy last time this one is bliss compared to it! The last pregnancy was all physical problems i was mentally fine through the whole thing this time is physically stable but an emotional wreck!

Sounds similar to the insomnia I had when dd was born. I couldn't identify a particular worry but when I went to bed I would get a racing heart, whooshing legs and other panicky symptoms. It became quite severe. I know now that it was generalised anxiety and although it's mainly fine now (she's 4) I still get periods of it occasionally, had a patch of it in this pregnancy but managed to overcome it with methods that helped me before, relaxation, wholefood diet, and workbooks left over from cognitive behavoural therapy (which really helped for that and other anxiety related issues) You can probably control it with alternative remedies, it's a case of trying things to see what suits you. Good luck