Stress Center Peer Support

I am almost finished this session, I am on the last day tomorrow, but I am still having a HUGE issue with sleeping and panic attacks. The only way I have managed is by pushing myself to the point of complete exhaustion. By about 6-7am I can pass out in my bed and sleep for a few hours. But if I am not completely exhausted I can't sleep, even if I was tired and falling asleep on the couch or at my desk minutes before.

I am worried that there is something else wrong with me because my situation seems a little weird. This is what happens:

The moment I start to relax it is like I get this strange jolt of energy that I can feel everywhere in my body. The closest thing I have seen to describe would be like a mania state - my thoughts start to race, I get a ton of energy, and my heart starts to beat really fast. At that point I don't feel anxious or panicked, just very awake and energetic. If stay laying down and follow the steps in the lesson I can sometimes calm myself down enough to fall asleep. But every single time that happens I wake up minutes later in a panic attack with all of the same symptoms from before falling asleep in addition to fear, shaking, chest pain, a foggy feeling, feeling like I am going to cry. I liked the part in the audio where she says to just 'pull the blanket over and have the panic attack' and so I have tried to just let it happen. And I can, but it comes back! So after about five minutes the panic goes away but almost instantly the sensations come back and start all over, so I lay there and let it happen again and again. I did this last night through five panic attacks before I just couldn't take it anymore and I got up.

I have no idea what to do about this. I have tried listening to the relaxation audio to put myself to sleep - same thing happens. I have tried baths, sleep teas/herbs, nothing has helped.

Hey I’m new to this program and your story caught my eye because I would go through the same exact thing. I was wondering if you found a solution to this?

Hi, sorry I never saw your response so it is probably way too late. But the only thing that helped was time. As I got better and the longer I went without anxiety and panic attacks in the daytime, suddenly I was just able to sleep again. The only thing I did was I stopped trying to force myself to go to bed and face the panic. I just slept on the couch when I was too tired to stay up anymore and just got whatever sleep I could. At some point I just realized the fear was gone and I just went to bed without any issue.