Extreme Night time anxiety

[Karendeena]

Hi my lovely friends and support network.

Thank you all for responding to my posy about excessive urination.

Here's another one for you...

Since my last afib episode earlier this week which went on for 33 hours before reverting to NSR I have been suffering from extreme anxiety. I sm eaking in the night eith nocturnal panic attacks with this awful feeling of fear and sensations in my upper abdomen. I am absolutely paranoid I am going to go into sn other afib episode and find myself taking my pulse in the middle of the night...and yes it starts racing because of the panic.

I am dealing with very stressful situations at the moment with looking after mum at 94 and a relationship that is going very wrong.

I am going to try hypnotherapy next week. Does anyone else get these feelings and if so can you help/advise me please!

[Ppiman]

I have had anxiety over half my life but now, it seems, these might well have been arrythmia induced. So, I might not be an "anxious sort", after all! That's interesting as I have always coped entirely well and better than most with even the most awful life events despite being labelled as "anxious personality" by my GP.

I have very little time for alternative therapies as I have tried so many at great cost and all have failed. Unless things have changed since I looked a few years back, hypnotherapy (or at least the idea of a hypnotic trance and suggestion), has very little worthwhile scientific evidence, if any at all - and yet it seems it can help in some cases, so might be worth a couple of sessions; similarly with acupuncture - some do respond.

What can help, for sure, is controlled breathing. There's a cheap device called a DoDow that I bought from Amazon, I'd try it if I were you. In truth, you don't need it to do the breathing, but it's a useful distraction as it shines pulses of blue light at the ceiling - and it most certainly helps. I have also read that the Apple iPhone has a free relaxation app that is similar, causing the phone to buzz rhythmically and glow. I'm going to look into that.

Other than that, I would absolutely buy a copy of a wonderful book on relaxing the anxious mind. Search Amazon for Dr Claire Weekes. Her books are quite old now but none the worse for that. She's a wonderful writer.

Finally, keep in mind that you absolutely won't die during or from AF, even though it will make you feel like you might. That's the brain responding as it does when the heart wobbles a bit - and is an entirely normal and unavoidable physiological reaction. It's true that many cope well with this and can put it to the back of their mind, but the anxiety itself is a natural phenomenon and so it doesn't make you a weak-minded person or whatever. That thinking is wrong as Dr Weekes's books will show you; indeed, the opposite is true,

Steve

[ETHEL103]

Morning.Im very similar to you .I have found it extremely helpful to connect with 2 members on here and to talk to someone going through the same thing is so helpful .It shows you are not alone and as they say ,A trouble shared is a trouble halved.Very best of luck.