Anxiety when I first wake up. Gone by the time I'm up and running.

[mrmandpgh]

So i've been going up and down with anxiety from pull panic to hardly none at all over the last 8 months. Currently i'm in my second week of almost no anxiety after a 4 week spell of pretty pad. It just suddenly went away like it does every time. However it leave a side effect.

When i wake up, (I don't mean when I get out of bed, I literally mean when I wake up), I can feel my stomach tighten, and I feel anxiety about being anxious again. Usually i'll start thinking about what's going to happen when I go back to work (i'm on break). Or something else. I have no reason to worry, I did fine all last week at work.

I've been doing need CBT worksheets. Every day I write down the thoughts that are troubling me, and then break it down into the automatic thoughts behind it, and what the distortions are, and then correct the thoughts. I've been doing that for only 5 days now. I like it. I exercise when I get up. I do my meditations, and if like today it left particularly specific anxiety about something, I'll do my CBT worksheets.

But when is this waking up with anxiety right away going to go away? I can't go back to sleep. So if I happen to wake up 2 hrs before I'm supposed to wake up, i'm stuck lying in bed worrying.

I have been prescribed vitriol to take when I'm feeling anxious. Maybe I should just take it when I wake up? First time I took it made me feel sleepy and calm. Now I just took one and I felt hardly anything. I've only take 3 of them so far.

What can I do to stop this waking up feeling anxious? My day would be perfectly fine if I didn't feel anxiety the second I wake up. And again the funny thing is, once I'm up and do my exercise and meditation.. and get into the day. I feel fine. I don't feel anxiety. I only feel a slight worry about the fact that I'm going to feel anxious again when I wake up. If only this cycle could stop.

[Crinos]

The reason you wake up anxious, IIRC, us because your brain starts making Cortisol, the chemical that causes anxiety, at 3 AM in the morning, so when you wake up your at your most anxious.

Sadly, I don't know what to do about it. I think just working out the nervous energy is the only way to go.

[gypsylee]

Hey there..

Interesting you say "and I feel anxiety about being anxious again". I woke up just before and I've suffered anxiety for so long I notice myself feel it as I'm becoming conscious and my head is saying "god that's a horrible feeling.. no wonder this freaked you out" kind of thing. So it's like I'm finally getting more detached from it but as I say, it's definitely not pleasant. It's quite f'ing awful to be honest and I try to get out of that state as fast as possible, so I grab my phone and check messages or emails. Then when I'm more conscious I get up and make a cup of tea. It subsides pretty quickly and it really is just stress hormones but maybe some people are more aware of it or get a more intense "shot" of it.

So I don't know if it's possible to get rid of it but you can detach from it and not add more adrenaline/cortisol to the mix.

Cheers,
Gypsy x

[mrmandpgh]

OK so if it is Cortisol levels what can be done to those levels down?

[aml0017]

Well the elevated cortisol in the morning is a natural thing don't know how to stop it. However keep in mind that there is still a psychological element here of your mind anticipating the anxiety in the morning, even if you may not immediately conscious of it.

I have found that my morning anxiety is exacerbated by a drop in my blood sugar during the night. I do have some blood sugar issues due to insulin resistance but it is normal for your blood sugar to go down after not eating all night. I try to eat a light snack about an hour before bedtime (like crackers and peanut butter with milk) , and try to eat soon after I wake too. That lessens the shock for me I find.

IN the meanwhile, try to accept the anxiety and not try to fight it so much, since you know it will go away. I find that if I look at it as just a biological phenomenon that will pass soon it is not so bad. Then I don't have any time to wallow and feel sorry for myself. If your days are pretty much anxiety free except for the mornings that is a pretty good improvement from 24/7 anxiety I say.

[aml0017]

Also absolutely no alcohol (if you do imbibe) as that will totally make morning anxiety worse. If you have coffee in the morning drink it with or after you eat so the caffeine doesn't hit you on an empty stomach.