abnormal psychology

Treating Anxiety

by nicola

Sleep Panic Attacks

Behind sleep panic attacks is some form of anxiety disorder. As I’ve said in other posts, understanding anxiety is an important part of conquering panic attacks.

Anxiety disorders affect millions of people across the world and include disorders like social phobia, specific phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. The first step if you think that you are suffering from an anxiety disorder, is to see you doctor right away.

Its worth bearing in mind that there are a number of symptoms associated with anxiety disorders that can also be caused by other medical conditions. Its easy just to focus on the “mental health” aspects of panic attacks and anxiety. Ensure you get a full physical check up.

Talk Therapy – Counselling

There are then a number of treatment options that are utilised to overcome anxiety disorders. Talk therapy, normally called counselling but also known as psychotherapy, is quite common in the UK.

The term counselling is often tossed around with some contempt by the media, but can be very useful for some people. I will come back to it in future, but it involves the counsellor using a reflective style of talking to help you explore issues in your life (both current and past). They don’t tell you the answers, but help you find them yourself.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behaviour therapy, or CBT, has become increasingly more available and favoured for treating both depression and anxiety.  Rather than help you explore issues, as in counselling, it tries to look at your unhelpful thinking patterns that trigger your behaviour. Again this warrants a more in depth exploration in future.

Medication

Medications can be a step in the right direction for treating anxiety disorders. Meditation can help to block certain over-active inhibitors in the brain that may be causing your anxiety disorder. They can also treat the symptoms that you find unbearable.

Unfortunately the minor tranquillizers that used to be commonly used to treat anxiety proved highly addictive. Coming off these medications caused awful symptoms themselves, and in any case the effectiveness wears off over time. But in extreme cases they may still be used on a short term basis.

More common today are the modern anti depressants.  Often there may be an overlap between symptoms of anxiety and depression. People suffering from depression may have associated anxiety or agitation (not always). Some anti depressants are better than others at treating anxiety symptoms.

Its worth stressing that, in my opinion, medication is seldom the answer for sleep panic attacks. And if, like me, you get prescribed sleep medication then your doctor is missing the point.  We don’t have problems getting to sleep!

Alternatives

Many also try non-traditional forms of treatment for you anxiety disorders. Some people can control their bodies simply by learning meditation and doing yoga. Others go for acupuncture or hypnosis. I cannot speak from experience on any of these, but I do recompensed looking at your lifestyle in general to see how much stress you are absorbing in your day to day activities.

Anxiety Causes Insomnia

by nicola

Sleep Panic Attacks – Anxiety?

What comes first – sleep panic attacks or sleep problems with stress or  anxiety at their root.  Whilst this blog focusses on panic attacks, it is worth considering how frequently stress triggers sleep problems in general.

For example, you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, all the while you are up your mind is racing, filled with “what if” thinking. Just in the few minutes that it takes for you to walk to the bathroom you may have already had as many as ten different thoughts.

As you climb back into bed, the thinking has filled your head so much that you can not fall back to sleep again. As you lay there wondering and worrying about things that are likely not even in your control, you watch the minutes that turn into hours just tick away. If this sounds like you, then you are suffering from insomnia that is likely caused from anxiety.

Research has found a very strong link between insomnia and anxiety as when a person suffers from one it is likely that they will suffer from both. As you are lying in bed, filled with anxiety, this will actually build up causing your brain to become even more active, which makes it even more impossible to sleep. This condition would not be defined as something that happens occasionally but rather frequently. Sometimes doing something as simple as turning the TV on in your room with a low volume but so you can still hear it and putting on something that is funny will really help. You will eventually fall asleep and what you are hearing on the TV will divert your thoughts.

Stress related insomnia falls under a few different categories such as transient insomnia which is usually associated with situational stress. In other words, perhaps you have an upcoming job, a presentation, an exam, or a move.

Short term insomnia lasts for six months or less that are generally related to a death, an illness, or maybe environmental factors. Finally, there is chronic insomnia which can be contributed to a variety of factors that may require a medical or psychological evaluation to determine the exact cause.

Sleep Panic Attacks

There can be many stages of insomnia which can range from short term to long term insomnia. Insomnia can then increase anxiety which can lead to many other conditions later on. The mere frustration of sleep deprivation alone can manifest into many other serious conditions.

Do you find yourself finding at least one particular event to dwell on and by nighttime that thought or thoughts have completely taken over your train of thought? When this happens it could be that your mind is racing so quickly thinking of what you will do, what you could have done differently, what you could say if given another chance, and so on. These things will prohibit sleep faster than anything will.

Untreated this can easily lead to panic disorder which is why you should be seen by a doctor right away and remember that there are so many new and very friendly medications available today to treat anxiety; you will be so grateful that you went. If you have anxiety related insomnia there is no reason to suffer with it for another day because there is help available.

Sleep Panic Attacks – Cure Panic Attacks in the Night

Below is another guest article.  I will seek out any I find that have something original to say.  This, has an interesting take on when sleep panic attacks occur:- …  occur during the early stage of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and hence it is not triggered by dream as dreams occur in much later stage [...]

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Sleep Panic Attacks Why?

Panicky feelings when you are half asleep are particularly unpleasant – everything seems magnified in the night. However like all anxiety symptoms they run their course and move on. Just make bedtime as relaxed as you can. We have a very limited understanding as to what causes a panic attack at night. It could well [...]

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Sleep Panic Attacks and Anxiety

Sleep Panic Attacks The article below is by Barry Joe McDonagh, creator of the Panic Away system. It gives a lot more depth into why we get sleep panic attacks, and anxiety attacks in general. I hope you find it useful:- Causes of Panic Attacks The short and obvious answer: panic attacks are caused by [...]

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Anxiety Panic Attack Symptoms part 2

In the last post we touched on some of the symptoms experienced by panic attack sufferers, and why we suffer from anxiety in the first place. Remember, the root of anxiety symptoms is the fight or flight response. Heart & Breathing So in anticipation of increased exertion, the heart beats faster to pump blood – [...]

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Anxiety Panic Attack Symptoms

The phrases “panic attack” and “anxiety attack” are virtually interchangeable. Whilst the word panic sums up more vividly what people experience, the word anxiety is a more accurate reflection of what is happening to our body. Unfortunately, as everyone get anxious at times, to say you’re having an anxiety attack isn’t going to get much sympathy! [...]

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Sleep Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are frightening. Those of you lucky enough never to have suffered cannot imaging the unpredictable bouts of terror that grip people when they suffer a panic attack.  Sleep panic attacks are when the attacks start when you are asleep Symptoms can vary but most common are a pounding heart, churning stomach, breath coming in short [...]

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