How to get to sleep when anxiety strikes?

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I’ve been suffering from chronic insomnia for about 2 months now. I visited a doctor a week ago to discuss that I think anxiety was the cause. He essentially told me ‘you’re too young, just don’t worry’.
When I try to sleep I just toss and turn and drive myself crazy asking ‘what if?’ about everything/jumping to awful conclusions and thinking about things like my uni work.
It makes me break down a lot during the day since i’m anxious and sleep deprived.

Category: Tags: asked October 1, 2014

5 Answers

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accepted
I believe some people are more pre-disposed than others to anxiety, stress, depression or related illnesses/problems. There are alot of factors for these and as a result medical professionals generally need more than one visit to be able to identify symptoms based on descriptions of symptoms by their patients, there is a need for this even if it hampers quick treatment (although wrongful diagnoses are definitely scary to consider so most of them play it safe).

What you can do is write down your difficulties and symptoms on a piece of paper as clearly as you can and explain to your doctor when you're prompted with the "what can i help you wish" question. Sometimes symptoms are not clearly explained to the doctors and doctors may not ask every question possible to prompt the patient -this is an undesirable scenario because when he/she does not get enough symptoms it can be tough to narrow down an illness/problem properly.

That being said, what the doctor told you is quite franky, bullshit. I hope your ability to sleep improves soon, but it's hard to assist you via the internet based on your question. There are many different reasons why people suffer from insomnia, some of the more common ones off the top of my head are what i'll address.

Diet
-too much caffeine/stimulants close to bed time can affect your ability to sleep.
-too much high-glycemic index carbs in your diet, especially close to bed time.
-not enough food through the day, or irregular eating habits
-certain medication (some common pharmaceutical drugs may be the culprit)
-alcohol
High levels of stress (inability to manage an overwhelming workload)
Not keeping to a regular sleeping time can affect your circadian rythm(body clock)
Hormonal Levels
Too much Light keeping you up
Too much warmth (or too cold) in your bed room
Lack of physical exercise
etc.

It'd be good to try and indentify which of these may be affecting your ability to sleep. There are lists of symptoms all around the internet as well, but please do not self-diagnose or self-medicate. Most of these sites will give you somewhat of an idea about what's going on and will help you when you DO meet another qualified medical professional, the clearer and more honest you are, the better they can help you (generally), and don't be afraid to ask questions.
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I hate it when doctors tell you you're 'too young' to feel a specific way. I saw a doctor about my problems when I was 15, I've only just been diagnosed with cyclothymia, I'm 26. My advice is, if you feel that badly, keep pushing for an answer. Don't wait like I did. Ask to see another doctor. Change your doctor if you need to. Mental health is just as important as physical health.On a more pro-active note, what works for me is to imagine each anxiety and worry as an individual object. I then mentally pick up these objects, and imagine how I will tackle that particular object in the morning. All the objects then go into a 'box' marked 'Morning' (which is when I will deal with them). I also remind myself that it's 2am, so even if I wanted to sort something out, I couldn't until morning anyway!
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I suffer from insomnia and anxiety too, though the anxiety has just crept up in the last year or so. One thing that I found was the more tired I got, the more I yawned, the more I yawned, the sicker I felt - but I couldn't sleep. My anxiety kept me awake. I listen to music and watch some TV or DVD's for the mild times, but other times I downloaded a puzzle app. Playing a game - really any sort of game like that, will captured my attention and enabled me to forget about my anxiety and get some sleep. I'm not sure if these tips will help you, but they helped my. For my insomnia, I listened to ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, it causes a pleasant tingling sensation in the head/back/neck. Triggers (made by crinkling paper, typing, or whispering) like these help not only insomnia, but also anxiety or panic attacks. ASMR doesn't work for everyone, but give it a try.
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Thank you all (: I love ASMR videos! those do help to calm me for sure. I will try another doctor soon if it doesn't improve, but thank you all for the advice.
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Sometimes I count (I do this during my panic attacks) and begin to focus more on numbers than everything thats in my head. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but I hope its somewhat helpful.