Anxiety hits AFTER stressful times are over. Anyone else???

[njmom]

I have no idea WHY ths happens. After 5 days of stressful events (for me anyway) I wake up this a.m. with anxiety. Mind you, the meds I am on are helping greatly and I can control it now and know what it truly is, but for the love of pete, I don't understand why it happens when I can relax and am LOOKING FORWARD to relaxing finally. This is just ridiculous. Even though I am not feeling horrible and having a major attack... I still hate this jittery restlessness and lack of motivation.

[mamascrazy1985]

i dont takes meds as you know but if i have a stressful day the next day will be hell .

[Charmbracelet81]

I don't take medicine either, but everyday I wake up and have instant butterflies...no reason, but thats what GAD is I guess, free-floating. *sigh*

[mamascrazy1985]

i know right... my favorite part of the whole day is bedtime because i know that it wont haunt me while i am asleep (thank god sorry to those who does) but thats wrong ya know my favorite part of the day should be when i am spending time with my kids....but i am seriously thinking about lexapro when my husband starts vacation... i dont know if i can handle much more of my depression and mood swings.. one week im fine and the next week you dont want to know me... so frustrating... and i also figured out that if i am tired or stressed out thats when it hits me bad.

[AaronHypno]

The reason you wake up feeling anxious after a stressful day can be explained with the use of a metaphor. Imagine you have a bucket and each time you experience stress that bucket fills a little. Now when you sleep you go into whats known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Whilst this only take up a small portion of your sleep time its role is to move events from the primitive part of your mind (which puts its emotional stamp on events) to the frontal part of your mind (that has the ability to put in into perspective and puts some rationality on it).

And while you take in that information you may bring to mind times when you were angry about something but when you woke up it didnt feel so bad (hence the common saying "it will feel better in the morning").

However the problem come when you dont empty your 'bucket' enough (exercise, laughing, yoga things like that) so if your 'bucket' is brimming when you are asleep the REM process goes WHHHOOAAAAA overload and wakes you up because you've overwhelmed it. Hence the 4am wake up feeling knackered but unable to sleep again.

The first step to changing this is fitting in activites that you enjoy that counteract the stress. If you are going through the day on autopilot taking one hit after the other, its the bodies way of saying "we need to change, how can we change".

Hope this help
Aaron Morton

[Charmbracelet81]

Thanks Aaron! That makes alot of sense. I do go to sleep everyday stressed (and over-filled with alcohol to have temporary relief of my anxiety) and so I see the pattern of my body trying to catch up to itself and I am anxious, because I dont know how to limit stress or successfully deal with it. I am in therapy however, learning how. Thanks again for the great insight!

[Mattymo]

Alcohol and anxiety dont mix well. You will feel great that night while your drunk but the next morning it will leave you feeling very irritable as the alcohol starts to leave your system and you are becoming hungover. Every time i drink heavily the next morning i find myself reaching straight for the xanax because i feel jittery and terrible.

[Charmbracelet81]

Mattymo-I told my therapist today that I see the cycle of the drinking giving me relief after a looooooong day of suffering with anxiety, but then the next day, I feel more anxious. It's just hard to break the cycle and "sit" with the anxiety all day long rather just during the day and then drink for relief at night. She told me start slowly, like going longer than I would normally have my 1st drink/having less than I usually do, that sorta thing. I will see how it works. *sigh*