Does anybody have any suggestions about how to control anxiety while you sleep? I wake up in the morning remembering fighting and running all night long and I am exausted. Sometimes these dreams wake me up with my heart racing and irrigular (in spite of the rythmol the dr has me taking). I usually takes 4-5 hours to go back to normal, but it has been getting longer.
I have been using the relaxation CD before going to bed but it does not seem to be affecting it. Is this something that will take time?
I am only in the 2nd week of the program and have not had the opertunity to use the 6 steps for panic attacks when my heart acts up.
I hope this prgram works. I have been looking back at my life and I can see signs of it back when I was 15.
Thanks for any help.
Panic While You Sleep
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Guest
Hello jdcass
I am fairly new to the program myself however I can tell you that sleep used to be a wonderful thing for me up until i got my first panic attack close to two years ago. I can tell you that the ideas racing through my head when this continued to happen were so scary. With the first tape and explanation of how your body is able to handle these symptoms I was able to wake up at 4 am -as usual and this time with my heart racing I sat up, and said "you're ok" "a panic attack can't hurt you" and after a while my heart rate slowly returned to normal and I noticed that the other symptoms didn't show up at all. Simply understanding that you're body is doing it's job. It's simply trying to protect you although it is doing so at inappropriate times is something that I try to give my body credit for instead of saying things like "ugh-not again i can't handle this" instead i say something like "thank you for being a good body -i know you are looking out for me but it's ok to be calm now. there's no danger to worry about" May sound silly but it's helped me to be better to myself and that in turn has made a difference.
Motivated me
I am fairly new to the program myself however I can tell you that sleep used to be a wonderful thing for me up until i got my first panic attack close to two years ago. I can tell you that the ideas racing through my head when this continued to happen were so scary. With the first tape and explanation of how your body is able to handle these symptoms I was able to wake up at 4 am -as usual and this time with my heart racing I sat up, and said "you're ok" "a panic attack can't hurt you" and after a while my heart rate slowly returned to normal and I noticed that the other symptoms didn't show up at all. Simply understanding that you're body is doing it's job. It's simply trying to protect you although it is doing so at inappropriate times is something that I try to give my body credit for instead of saying things like "ugh-not again i can't handle this" instead i say something like "thank you for being a good body -i know you are looking out for me but it's ok to be calm now. there's no danger to worry about" May sound silly but it's helped me to be better to myself and that in turn has made a difference.
Motivated me
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Guest
Ugh I thought I was the only one who had panic attacks in my sleep. I'll be dreaming that I'm losing control of my body and am afraid I'm going to be trapped inside my mind and I'll be having a severe panic attack, it usually happens someplace horrifying like back in high school in front of all my class mates. Then when I finally wake up I'm actually having a panic attack - shaking, hyperventilating, heart racing - the whole bit. It's an awful feeling.
Hopefully the program will help alleviate this for us.
Hopefully the program will help alleviate this for us.