My life living with Anxiety the last 7 months.

[Son70]

Hi all ,

First time writing a blog but here goes . I suffer from morning anxiety and have done for the last 7 months this I know has been brought about by a hell of a lot of stress that I have had to deal with over the last 10 years of my life.

My day pans out like this as soon as I open my eyes my thought process starts and bam my heart races , my stomach starts churning over and I feel so sick . I take a beta blocker to help the physical symptoms . As I get up and moving around it might ease skittle as I'm busy getting my young daughter ready for school.

All the while I'm going about my morning routine my thoughts go like this . Why me , here we go again , when will I ever wake up and feel normal again , How will I get through the day , and will I ever be free to get back to work and be happy again without theses automatic negative thoughts . I know by thinking theses things I'm making my physical symptoms worse but the adrenalin is that high I crnt stop it .

I have had respite for about 2 weeks when my anxiety just disappeared but then cruelly reappeared just as quick as it went .

I am at a loss as CBT didn't help and I'm on a waiting list for councilling and my go in the process of reducing my citalopram as tbh it makes me feel worse and does not work for me anymore .

Swimming has been my saviour over the last 3 months while I have been away from work as it helps rid all the extra adrenalin.

Has anyone else experienced morning anxiety and how did you cope with it .

Sonia

[Kaz12345]

Hi Sonia, my anxiety is worse in the morning on waking. I find I have to get up as soon as possible, and like you have children, so can busy myself with their breakfast and the usual morning household stuff. I find keeping busy works best for me, it's still there, but I work through it as best I can. I think dog walking, for me, is your swimming! I love going to the local woods, and find a kind of peace in the surroundings there and the changing seasons. My anxiety dissipates as I become involved in things and I find the worst thing is too much time to think or too much time on my own. probably doesn't help you at all, but you are not alone with the morning stuff!

[Megan21]

Hi, I'm also much worse in the morning, nausea, headaches and dodgy stomach. I'm on citalopram too and take it first thing then after a few hours I start to feel better as if it's kicking in by then. I find that I wake early then can't get back to sleep as all sorts of thoughts are going through my head. I agree with Kaz that being busy helps as it takes my mind off things. You're definitely not alone though xxx

[Son70]

Thanks for the replies , it helps to know I'm

Not alone and others can identify with how I'm feeling in the mornings . Don't want to go to bed at night cause I know I'm going to feel so rough the minute my alarm goes off. I think some of how I feel has become a learned behaviour also as in I'm expecting to feel this way so I do . My children , my friends , and my pets plus music gets me through the rough days .

[Hidden]

I also understand what you are going through and especially in the morning I feel shaky, anxious and full iof fear. I do think I'm worse after having just one glass of wine the night before, I'm okay on a lager. I have 30mg Mirtazapine and think that does help but of course its makes one sleep and the alcohol probably increases that effect. You are not alone but I know that doesn't always help. I'm trying the Healing codes now, hope all the time. Love and hugs cotonroad

[Jeff1943]

Anxiety is often worse in the morning when cortisol levels peak at 8am, normally this isn't a problem but if you're stressed your body senses 'fight or flight' and produces even more cortisol which isn't needed and produces strong feelings of anxiety. Many people find that a cup of Green Tea first thing reduces cortisol levels because of the thianine it contains (however in my experience Green Tea tablets or Thianine tablets don't work for some reason, only brewed Green Tea).

Anxiety can be a vicious circle, it produces more nervous symptoms which produce even more anxiety which produce even more nervous symptoms. Eventually the nervous system becomes sensitised - to desensitise it you have to break the vicious circle by learning to Accept the symptoms (temporarily) and just carry on as normal even though you're feeling s**t which you'll find you can do. After practicing Acceptance for a while you lose fear of the strange symptoms (but it must be utter utter Acceptance) and you become less worried by your symptoms, your nervous system desensitises and you recover and feel normal. Claire Weekes' book 'Self help with your nerves' gives you the full method and even though it was written in the 1960s is still available from Amazon because it continues to work for tens of thousands of people.

Her book also provides welcome reassurance: that pounding heart isn't going to give you a heart attack, you're not going to go crazy or lose control, depression which is a form of depletion will pass and you're certainly not going to start vomiting and make a fool of yourself in public. The nervous system does not have the power to do that.

In the meantime, remember natures's tranquilliser when you're feeling anxious: take a slow deep breath, hold it for a couple of seconds, breathe very slowly out, hold it for a second, then another deep slow breathe from the pit of your stomach, repeat several times, it's not an old wives tale it has been medically verified to work.

Good luck and remember, all troubles pass, just stop frightening yourself to death.