Anxiety attacks/ Sleep deprivation

Hey there,

Recently been feeling stressed out and I think i might have had my first anxiety attack and going to be honest, didnt like it ha. Joking aside has anyone felt or had anxiety problems too whether its from work, fears, stress, etc.? What do you do to counter your anxiety?

Also, anyone take any sleep aids? Havnt been able to sleep lately and seeing if anyone has recommendations for sleep aids, NOT AMBIEN lol. Gone through the whole eat right, sleep on a routine schedule, and all those techniques. Did nothing for me.

 

I did several years ago.....At the time, I had heart palpitations and I had a hard time breathing. My throat swelled up and had a 'tightening of the chest'.
I actually went to the ER one day because it got scary.....
They didn't find anything wrong (Thank God). Had to take Advair to clear up my lungs so I could breathe better and went to a gastro-enterologist (sp?) to have a biopsy done to open my throat. I was on acid reflux meds for a while too.

Everyone is different..... and unfortunately, if its stress related - you gotta manage the stress.

At the time, my attitude was a bit more 'serious' about work and when I couldn't perform to my own expectations, it really stressed me out. Most of the time, I couldn't perform because I wasn't trained to do certain jobs they were putting me in. After a while, I stopped worrying about it..... convinced myself I was good enough for the situations at hand and peformed the best I could. It's a bain phuck, believe me.

What's stressin me?

 

I too have been experiencing anxiety. I was told about a all natural store that sold a natural pill call Kava Kava. Went and bought some and it seems to help a little, but not entirely. It took the edge off for me when I felt anxious.....

 

for sleep, you can get tylenol pm or advil pm, those just have benadryl 50mg in them, i don't recommend those. as for non prescription meds try melatonin for a few weeks. start at 3mg per night about 30 min prior to bedtime, then try 6mg or even 9mg as needed. you will want to slowly increase dose, say 3mg for 3-4 days, 6mg for 3-4.... i do well on 3-6mg per night, usually only need it in the spring.

theres not much you can do for anxiety other than eliminate the factors that are causing it, that is if you even know what causes it, some people are just anxious for no good reason. you could talk to someone about it and gets Rx meds as needed as well, anxiety can be crippling so dont let it go too long. if you have a panic attack and hyperventilate, breathing into a paper bag actually works. when you hyperventilate you blow out more carbon dioxide than you should because of increased respritory rate. this causes low CO2 in the blood, which can cause your hand and feet to tingle and painfully cramp up, it can cause dizziness and chest pain as well as many other symptoms. when you breath into the bag it fills with CO2 so you end up breathing some back in and it will help you get better, only do this for a minute or 2

 

I take clonazepam for anxiety. Sleep, some times I have a beer or I just stay up til 12-2am.

 

p90x for me.....i sleep like a rock and have funny crazy rebbecca black filled dreams

 

Op) I have experienced this as well. When mine come on, I realize in my mind that it will not last anything more than about 35 seconds.So i just take deep breaths and try to figure out what triggered it. Most of mine is waitng for things over a few minutes and traffic.Most people refer to it as a mid life crisis. I never had problems until I stopped smoking, then my body turned into a mess for a while. I drink less caffeine and more teas. I have found that to help. Tell your brain to shut up and your not having a Heart Attack. GL

 

Thanks everyone for the input I really appreciate it. Both the sleep and anxiety problems are new for me so it helps a lot to see what people in similar situations are going through or went through. I recently grabbed some Excedrin PM to see if that helps for now if not I'm sure I'll step it up to some stuff I cant pronounch. Luckily the anxiety problems go away with a day or two, cant seem to let stuff go I guess. Unfortunately my anxiety is caused by reoccuring dreams which I cant control but I'm sure it'll pass soon..

 

Excedrin PM is good, but I wouldn't want to use it a lot. If I wake up during the 4 hours of being on it, it makes me jittery and itchy (weird).

Also, try Melatonin. Melatonin is a chemical (?) your body produces naturally to make you drowsy. You can buy pills of melatonin at any drug store in 1mg or up to 5mg tablets. I have a bottle of 1mg's. I use them when I'm on 3rd shift and can't sleep.

Are the dreams related to an actual 'event' that occured in your life? Or are they just off the wall....??

I know for me...different foods affect my dreams. Do you breathe pretty good while you sleep? I know a lot of sleeping disorders can be caused by sleep apnea.....and sometimes people don't even realize they have it.

 

Panic attacks can sometimes lead to agorophobia. I take Lexapro and sometimes diazapam (Valium). If taken occasionally, NyQuil will put you to sleep.

 

I havnt looked at the recommended dose I just grabbed it because I was in a rush but what amount do you think is good for the Excedrin PM, I kno your not a doctor just wondering.

The dream is weird but I have no problem explaining it I'm not ashamed or embarassed ha. Im not an end of the world freak and I dont think about it but the Tsunami that struck Japan a little bit ago somehow had an affect on me. I woke up to a text from a friend saying, " Tsunami headed for CA, turn on the news." After reading it I was somehow paralyzed because I had no idea how big or serious it was, I was sleeping. Watched the news, saw what was happenign had me a little worried dunno why. Didnt sleep at all that night because anxiety which I've never felt like that before. Week later my mom tells me that my grandpa who had recently passed. R.I.P. and lived in Thailand with my grandma had warned her in a dream that a tusnami would hit Japan a week before It did... I didnt think much of it until I had the most recent dream where my mother warned me about a very serious tsunami heading for CA and we had to leave immediately and to pack my bags. Woke up immediately and had extreme anxiety and didnt sleep for the rest of the night. Like I said I'm not an end of the world freak I accept it, I can watch videos of disasters and be fine. But I dont know why this dream has affected me so much. So now when I go to bed my heart starts racing and its hard to sleep and I think that thinkif I do get a good sleep I'll have a vivid dream and be right back where I am. I eat pretty healthy but have been drinkin redbull a lot lately so I stopped doing that now. Im pretty sure I breathe fine when I sleep, I know I'm not a crazy snorer. (Wow my fingers are cramping up from that paragraph, makes for a good story though.)

Just hoping some meds will put me down and help me relax more, who knows though.

 

Yes sex calmed me down in the morning ha but not as easy to come by as pills.

I think I'll go to the gym more and see if it helps, drink less sugary and caffeine filled drinks also.

 

skip the "pm" meds, they are just expensive benadryl, many also have tylenol in them, used daily it can cause liver issues. try melatonin

 

Yeah...stop the Redbull. Try to stop drinking any sort of caffeine. Are you on any type of other meds? I was on Allegra D for a very long time and I had to get off it because it made me hyper (and more heart palpitations).

I'll get spurts of stress where I'll have something on my mind and if I'm laying in bed...those thoughts just keep rolling and rolling thru my head. Those things usually pass over time.....come & go. I think it's a normal part of life depending on what goes on in your life.

So hopefully...over time, your Tsunami thoughts will pass.....and you'll move on.

Excedrin is a headache medication and not specifically for sleep. But, 2 pills is the recommendation on the bottle. Sometimes 1 works too...but again, I woudln't use that all the time.

 

Have you gone to see anyone about it? You should. It's a relatively common problem and not something you should be too ashamed of to seek professional help for.

Regular cardio exercise done several days a week helps a lot of folks with anxiety/panic attacks, and also with difficulty sleeping. Try jogging, cycling, etc for 45 minutes or so each day at a pace that gets your breathing. Exercise endorphines work wonders for regulating fight or flight response. Just don't exercise within 3 hours of bedtime.

For sleep, try Xanax before bed. It helps quiet the mind and is much gentler and more "natural" feeling than something drug-like, like Ambien.

Also, Dr. Weil has a CD called "Sound Body, Sound Mind" or something similar that is amazing...it almost forces you to relax.


//I am not a doctor

 

I have problems with anxiety. I would say I mainly get it from stressing out about things that I can't control. I would say good things to do are exercise regularly and find a way to deal with stress. We are always going to have stress in our lives. Try to remember the big picture, that whatever is facing you at the moment that is giving you anxiety is going to go away or be solved. If it won't kill you, it really isn't that big of a deal. I think the more you deal with stressful situations in your life and get through them, the more unstressful situations become. Enjoy your life as much as you can, it is the only one you have.

 

Reducing caffeine, nicotine and energy drinks (loaded with stimulants like guarana) can help as these are stimulants that can make anxiety and panic attacks worse.

Now that you've had your first panic attack, you know what one is. That's good, because now you know that even though it feels like you're going to die, you know it doesn't have that power. Just undertanding that, especially in the moment of attack, can help tremendously.

When I had attacks, I finally started getting up, going to the family room and doing pushups or jumping jacks. Yeah, it seems counterintuitive when your heart is pounding / racing so damn hard, but remember ... it's all a head thing. Take it head on. Take back control of your body by getting up and doing a little excercise. You might be surprised how quickly it passes.

Also I have found meditation / centering / awareness exercises to be a tremendous help, especially over time. Take a few minutes each day to sit alone, in a quiet place, without distraction. It can be as simple as sitting in a chair, folding your hand in your lap, closing your eyes and breathing. Focus on the breath ... feel it entering the nostrils and then leaving. Feel it on your upper lip. Make that you point of awareness. The point is to have a simple point on which to focus. If you find you drift away from it (and you will), come back as you can.

Do NOT try to stop your thoughts, but take notice of them like clouds in the sky ... they come, build up, some thunder and rage and may cause fear. But that like clouds, they aren't solid ... they shift and change, and eventually dissipate. Pay attention to this. It really all is in the head, and in our hyper-fast, 24/7 news cycle, information coming at you from all directions, modern technology driven society, it's very very easy to forget this, and to get swept away. We really have forgotten what it means to calm down and take stock of things. But it's so important.

There are also some short term, fast acting anti-anxieties on the market, if you find you need something quick... things like Ativan (generic name Lorazapam). Talk to your doctor. But like any anti-anxiety, they can become addictive over time. So it's definitely a "use sparingly" sort of thing. But it really works.

I have sometimes combined a Lorazapam with awareness exercises .. take one and then pay attention to the effect .. notice it coming on .. notice how my thoughts begin to dissipate, and the hard edges of the mind grow softer, and things ease.

And finally,don't hesitate to talk to someone. It's weird when all of a sudden, you .. normally healthy and not plagued by anxiety .. find yourself dealing with what is almost laughable fear, because it seems to make no sense. Like in your case, all of a sudden there's this dream. But you know, over a lifetime, we all lock all sorts of shit away behind doors in the mind, and sometimes it doesn't take much to break some of those things back open. That's why you hear people saying "I never say it coming" .. because sometimes the trigger (whatever it is) just makes no sense and now there's all this anxiety and/or fear. Don't be afraid to explore this with a professional in your area.

And though you say watching disaster images doesn't affect you, it's not your rational, conscious mind that's the problem. It's the subsconscious, that comes more to the surface while you sleep. So while you can watch that stuff and feel nothing, what it's doing is adding more fuel to the fires of your deeper mind ... more imagery for your subconscious mind to pick and choose from. So stop watching them.

Feel free to PM me anytime about any of this, OP. Happy to help. Been there, done that. And peace to you.

 

Ancixty
I have Been dealing with anxiety and severe physical pain brought on by the anxiety for over 4 years now, and the main thing that helps me is walking, walking up hill and walking fast, like over 4 miles an hour, not running but power walking really helps its llike medetation in motion with a great healthy destruction at the same time. I go on a good power walk anytime I have something I need to think about or make an important decision on, it just helps me think so much clearer! Also when you are in the moment of it try and remind your self that it will end and you will feel better at some Point, don't let it seem endless. It has also helped me a lot to think of each time I deal with my anxiety as a test to see how strong I am. And as another way for me to prove my strength, learn about and understand my self better.

Sleep
I don't have as much experience with this one sorry, when my anxiety was at it's worse I had some problems sleeping as well and the good old stay up till 2ish worked( it was scary because of my anxiety but it worked) but since then I have learned to meditate(which helps a lot with the anxiety too) my main sleep tip is to simply go and meditate in bed, eventually you WILL fall asleep.

 

Anxiety sucks, man. It can be crippling if you let it get out of control.

Review what you are "telling" yourself. We all "talk" to ourselves in our thoughts and actions. Make sure you're not putting undo pressure on yourself as it will only serve to feed your anxiety. Don't put the world on your shoulders and expect yourself to carry it by yourself.

Find the triggers and try to eliminate them. If they can't be eliminated try to coach yourself about them. Most aren't as bad as they seem once you really look at the whole picture.

Find an outlet. At the end of the day you're going to need to release some of the pent up energy to relax yourself. It can be anything.

See a psychiatrist and not just your regular doctor. Tell them everything that is going on and they will put you on the right medication. Xanax works wonders and it works fast. You can take it during an anxiety attack and it will calm most people within a few minutes. It works great as a sleep aid, too. You get relaxed enough to sleep but don't have that drowsy hangover feeling like most sleep aids leave you with.

This is just my $.02 but I know a lot of people that have ADD/ADHD and also high anxiety. It would seem that they are over stimulated and it feeds the anxiety, too much going on in their minds in too many directions. You may want to look into getting diagnosed for either of those.

And as said, lay off the energy drinks and caffeine. They'll only multiply your senses and make your anxiety worse.