this is just unbelievable

[niq]

I feel like I have just reached the lowest point of my life to date.

Last night I was laying in bed trying to get to sleep when I got hammered by a panic attack. This was when I was on medication, no less. After that my body was so amped up on adrenalin that I couldn't sleep.

Today I have been mentally fatigued due to lack of sleep. The anxiety really took hold this afternoon, and I had nothing left to keep me fighting.

I NEED a good sleep tonight if I'm to have any chance of getting out of this cycle, but here I am laying awake again. Same thing happened... laying in bed trying to sleep and BAM... panic attack. I have taken herbal sedatives and prescription sleeping pills but I STILL feel like I've just drank 10 red bulls.

This is the start of a very destructive cycle. I know it is. But I am powerless to do anything about it. My meds aren't working. My sleeping pills aren't working. Herbal sedatives aren't working. I just need some sleep to give me a fighting chance.

I am already in-and-out of derealisation, and everywhere I look I see a black spot in my right eye. This is driving me batshit crazy. What other symptoms are going to pop up tomorrow if I have another sleepless night?

Ugh!

Ok... I'm done venting. Just needed to get this out of my head and onto some other medium. Now... glass of milk and back to bed.

[Peter]

If you can, try going for a quick 20 minute stroll. Do some inner searching...is anything bothering you? Is anything wrong in your life right now?

[angelmum63]

hey niq,
hang in there. hey Peter is right do the walk thing... get out in the fresh air, breath deep and start believing that u can change ur life around. that's what i'm doing and hey... miracles of miracles i have just had two days with no anxiety attacks. not so long ago it was my life.. day after day dreading the night... i know it's horrible, i know it's scary and i damn well know not sleeping doesn't help... sleep when u can too - any sleep at this time is good sleep! things will get better .. u got to believe it!
take care, Diane

[1970]

Hi Niq

Sorry to hear you are having a really rough time of it lately, i know so many of us can understand how you feel, im sure we all have at sometime felt we are all standing at the end of the road thinking we could have never gone that far down it

Hang in there and keep fighting it, its hard to see now but you know you will have better days ahead, look at it as a lesson learnt how bad you are feeling right now and remind yourself you are strong and you dont want to get to that point again. Try relaxation techniques, deep breathing, try to think of something you really enjoy, try light reading to take your mind off things.

As with any cure or fix to anything there are bound to be set backs along the way try to see it as a learning curve and not a failure, because its far from a failure, even joining up here and telling others how you feel and helping others out is a step forward in the right direction

I hope this has been of some help to you and you can start to feel better really soon

[niq]

Thanks all for the advice & support.

I have taken some of this advice onboard, and I've been sleeping a little better the past few nights. Breathing exercises seem to be particularly helpful. I'm still getting hit with panic attacks but they aren't as severe, and I can usually get to sleep a couple of hours after the attack passes. A solid 8hrs of undisrupted sleep would be a god-send, but really any sleep is good.

[hesson81]

Alright, gonna sound like BS, but I had to do it. Through many sleepless nights, treat em like they are a part of getting past it all, that's what so hard about getting over all this stuff is getting into the right frame of mind, but you gotta try. I tell people it's like having someone stick a needle in your eye, the less you struggle and fight it the better off your going to be, because you'll desensitize to the needle. It's so hard, I know, so hard.

You know when your in the state that your were in. You can lay there, and the room feels like it's spinning, or your falling. Feel like there's a major imbalance in your head?? You know this, but your brain/mind is extremely tired.

Try this, here's the Bull sh--.... try your hardest to go with it. I know how hard it is, real hard. Just go with it though, remember that 1 2 3 maybe 4 nights of your life is nothing compared to the ammount of nights left in your life. It's hard because what i think happens is you become so consious of how important your sleep is through all this. That's what I think actually keeps you up. You need to learn how to let yourself fall asleep again.

I know you have probably done this, I know I have. Your trying to get to sleep, you notice yourself about to drift off, and then you wake up. Or subconsiously you kick or shake and bam your up again.

Don't worry about what will happen the next day. I know what you mean though, because i was there to. You start wonder what else is going to happen, and then what will happen is you'll start to become so hypersensative to everything. One thing I started to wonder is if I was going to start hearing stuff and seeing stuff. Then the next day when your tired as crap, you start hearing regular noises, and start to wonder if your loosing it. I also had to embrace that frame of mind to. I started to tell myslef, "if I hallucinate i hallucinate." It's completly normal to start doing that during lots of days of sleepless nights. That's why when people (nonanxiety) are forced (some military training) to stay up for days, around the 5th day, you do start seeing stuff. You might see a mirage with a a hotel, and a bed. That's what the mind will do.

Once I stared to accept the fact, that i was going to feel like udder crap after not getting any sleep, and that i was willing to start doing it all over again, I started to be able to get some sleep. I know how though it is, I used to be flabbergasted at getting 3 hours of sleep, just happy to get something. I'm not there anymore.

Seems the mintue you empower something with this god aweful anxiety it feeds it.

Give er a try, embrace the fight.... passive aggressive.

[Adrenal]

This can also be a symptom of an adrenal tumor. Have your MD do a blood test for epiphrine and norephiphrine and a 24 hour urine collection to rule out a pheochromocytoma. My husband has just been diagnosed with a pheo and suffered many years before they did these tests.

[Namrata]

If you can, try going for a quick 20 minute stroll. Do some inner searching...is anything bothering you? Is anything wrong in your life right now?

Yes, I think it can be a right option to opt as through this you will find the solution of your problem and can get act accordingly which can definitely leads to peace of mind. See, solution is with us only, the only thing we require to do is to find it by staying calm and relaxed.

Thanks