My new fear...need advice

[The_Anxiety_War]

Hello everyone...if anyone has followed me on here they know that I was battling anxious thoughts about my eyesight or going/already being blind when my vision is perfect. I have finally begun to accept those thoughts, as in living day to day not really caring if those thoughts were there or not..ive been doing good for almost a week and a half with anxiety related ocd thoughts...they would pop up, I'd be scared, then id accept and they would lose power and go away...this one tho..heh...this one takes the cake...starting last night I've grown a fear of going to sleep..the reason being is im afraid that I'll die in my sleep or just never wake up..the fear with it is that there is nothing physically wrong with me. I'm in good shape, eat well, and usually have normal sleeping patterns...but now that I'm aware of this thought of going to sleep and dying/never waking up, I'm afraid that psychologically I could die from it..as in I could trick my brain and I'll never wake up/die...it sounds silly I know but it scared me enough to force me to pass out last night and only getting 4 Maybe 5 hours of sleep...so I ask..is it possible to never wake up or die in your sleep from something psychological? This thought also kept me up last night thinking to myself.."how do we wake up?" "What if I have to force my body to wake up manually?" "How can I do this if once I'm asleep it's out of my control?" Just need some advice and reassurance or something...thank you

[MrMannering]

No ... You cannot think yourself to death in fact quite the opposite. Your body has an incredible mechanism in that if for example there was someone very wrong with you your body will shutdown most things leaving you unconscious in order to preserve the vital activities your body controls automatically in order to keep you alive. You cant think yourself to death no more than you can think yourself to fly. 🖒

[The_Anxiety_War in reply to MrMannering]

Thank you..i just hate it how anxiety can throw all logic out the window

[Jeff1943]

You don't have to force yourself to wake up, this is a function of the involuntary nervous system that also keeps us breathing without having to think about it.

You know in your heart of hearts all these fears are false fears just like the fear of going blind was a false fear. People who are fit and healthy never die in their sleep specially at your age. Dying in your sleep is something reserved for the really elderly who are in bad physical shape and for whom it is a welcome release. So you're going to have to wait at least 60 years for that one.

[The_Anxiety_War in reply to Jeff1943]

Thank you Jeff, your always helpful to me on here

[Jeff1943 in reply to The_Anxiety_War]

You have used the word 'accept' twice in your main post, this is the direction in which recovery lies. Accept everything, all the strange thoughts, accept them all. Let them come knowing they are just caused by glitches in your nervous system which for reasons known only to you have become over sensitised and maintained in that condition by the fear hormones you regularly flood them with.

Accept everything calmly and without the need for fear and accept long enough and your nerves will recover and you will feel normal once more. So I say divert your gaze away from the fake figments of your imagination, the scary thoughts, and focus on the cause of all these bad thoughts which is to say your anxiety and those sensitised nerves which with your help must return to normality.