What Are Some Common Antidepressant Medicines For Anxiety
Two types of antidepressant medicines are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors . Some common SSRIs are escitalopram and sertraline. Some common SNRIs are duloxetine and venlafaxine, extended-release.
Possible side effects of antidepressant medicines include: feeling nervous, feeling tired or trouble sleeping, nausea, weight changes, headache, and sexual problems.
Antidepressants can help with sleep and anxiety. However, talk with your doctor if your difficulty sleeping worsens.
How To Respond To Sleeping Panic Attacks
Sleeping panic attacks are harder to control than daytime panic attacks because there is no warning. You can’t take what you’ve learned and apply it to stop your panic attack from happening, nor can you distract yourself or prepare yourself so that the panic attack is less severe. Sleeping panic attacks hit you by complete surprise, and often occur at a point in your sleep when your disorientation prevents you from thinking critically about what’s happening.
The good news is that since many panic attacks that occur while sleeping have an underlying issue that can be addressed, you can first start combating these issues and see if it improves your long term outlook with nighttime panic disorder. For example:
Since these anxiety attacks occur at night and are generally not in your control, they are not easily preventable through a focus on identifying and avoiding triggers, which is how day-time panic attacks are often managed. Nevertheless, the above tips should help you improve your ability to control panic attacks while you look for a treatment that deals with anxiety more generally.
Types Of Anxiety Dreams: Causes + Meaning
We dont have much control over what we dream about. Dreams are the minds way of processing emotions, and when were under stress, our dreams can turn into anxiety dreams. Anxiety dreams are unpleasant dreams that cause distress. They can be more off-putting than nightmares and can result in you waking up panicked or nervous. These feelings of angst tend to remain in your mind throughout the next day. In order to take a peek under the sheets and learn more about what these dreams really mean, we tapped the minds of a few sleep experts to uncover what causes anxiety dreams and whether or not they mean anything. To get the low-down on what exactly common anxiety dreams mean, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, a professional dream analyst, weighs in. Specifics matter! she says. Ask yourself: What exactly am I trying to do in this dream? What is my exact, specific emotion? Then, apply all of that to your real life. Like magic, the dots will suddenly connect. Yes, stress and anxiety are the main causes of anxiety dreams, but what in your life is causing you to feel stressed out? Negative or worrisome thoughts can influence the types of dreams you have. If youve been worrying about that work project all day, odds are your dreams will reflect that. To help uncover the hidden meaning behind your dreams, we cover some of the most common anxiety dreams and what they mean below.
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Cant Find Your Class/locker
Not being able to find your classroom or locker can represent a feeling of being lost in your personal or professional life. According to Loewenberg, being unable to find your class or locker can mean you are feeling that you are not where you belong. Perhaps youre not feeling fulfilled in your current career or are not as successful as youd like to be at this stage in your life. If youre feeling stagnant or inadequate in your career or a personal endeavor, it may be time to make a change.
How You Manage Daytime Panic Attacks Might Help You At Night
Dr. Bea says the stress management techniques that you rely on during the day can help you recover from sleep panic attacks. While theres no surefire method, he says that normalizing the experience regardless of when it occurs can make a huge difference. The purpose of this is to get to a place where you no longer feel threatened or disturbed by the panic attack.
Thinking about how you feel after a stressful event is an observational strategy that keeps you from trying to fix the experience. When you dont try to fix things, the sensations in your body are going to pass pretty quickly.
If youre driving in your car and someone cuts you off, youre going to jerk the wheel to avoid the collision. Your brain and body are going to be activated very quickly so even though youve avoided danger, youre still going to feel on edge, he says.
But if you continue to drive and simply notice the sensations in your body, theyll dissipate on their own. The same strategy can be used in the midst of a panic episode. Simply noticing the sensations, perhaps rating the discomfort then noticing the remaining sensations can be much more useful than taking any steps to fix the panicky feeling.
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Panic Disorder And Agoraphobia
The essential features of panic disorder are recurrent. attacks of severe anxiety , which are not, restricted to any particular situation or set of circumstances and are therefore unpredictable. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria of panic disorder, unexpected panic attacks have to be followed by at. least 1 month of persistent concern about, having another panic attack. The dominant, symptoms of a panic attack vary from individual to individual. Typically, it includes autonomic symptoms with marked psychic anxiety. The most, prominent autonomic symptoms are palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest, pain, nausea, and paresthesias. There is almost always a secondary fear of dying, losing control, or going mad. Most individual attacks last only for a. few minutes, but. a. common complication is the development, of anticipator}’ fear of helplessness or loss of control during a panic attack, so that, the individual may progressively develop avoidant, behavior leading to agoraphobia or specific phobias. In this respect, most, if not all, patients with agoraphobia also have a current diagnosis of panic disorder. Accordingly, sleep disturbances of panic disorder and agoraphobia are discussed in the same section.
Falling Asleep With Anxiety
Worries keeping you up at night? Anxiety and sleep problems can feed off each other, but practicing relaxation and sound sleep habits can stop the cycle.
Does your mind race as soon your head hits the pillow? Does anxiety over work, money, or relationships keep you from going to sleep?
Its normal to be anxious from time to time. But when anxiety and emotional problems routinely get in the way of a good nights sleep, its time to take action before a potentially dangerous cycle begins.
Its really like a circular pattern — emotional problems can affect sleep, and lack of sleep can affect peoples emotions, said David Neubauer, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine and associate director at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center in Baltimore, Md. There is quite a bit of overlap between symptoms of insomnia and anxiety and other mood disorders.
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Blueprint For Better Livinga Guide To Better Sleep
Anxiety piles up at night because anxious preoccupation is avoidable when a person is actively using their brain and body to carry them through the day, says Dr. Kate Cummins, a licensed clinical psychologist. When you have a list of to-dos or business meetings to participate in, your thought process is geared towards frontal cortex functioning, which is the judgment, planning and reasoning areas of your brain. Once you are finding yourself at the end of your day, your frontal cortex has the ability to relax a bit, shifting gears into things you enjoy or pieces of you that are not connected to higher level functioning, mainly in your emotions and limbic system. When your thoughts start connecting to the emotional part of your cognitive functioning, especially at night, the anxious thoughts or anxious emotion that has been lying dormant all day has a place to go, and becomes the forefront of your thinking patterns.
How do we stop this vicious cycle? Weve compiled a list of helpful tips in two parts: things you can do while in the grips of anxious thoughts, and things you can do to prevent them, before you go to bed.
What Are The Symptoms Of Sleep Anxiety
When you cant sleep due to anxiety, you may experience behavioral changes, including:
- Feelings of being overwhelmed.
- Tense muscles.
- Trembling.
Some people also have nocturnal panic attacks. A panic attack is a sudden, intense burst of extreme fear. Nocturnal panic attacks only happen at night, and often wake you from sleep.
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What Causes Anxiety Dreams
According to Claudia Luiz, Psychoanalyst and Author of The Making of a Psychoanalyst, anxiety dreams are generated as a result of unprocessed negative stimuli the brain is trying to process through the regulatory process of sleep. Dreams are your unconscious minds way of educating you on your thoughts. In other words: our dreams are often illustrations of our daytime experiences. Anxiety dreams can be caused by internal or external stressors. Internal stressors can be anything from angry emotions to impulses. External stressors can be anything from past trauma to a bad day at work, or maybe a global pandemic. Some other causes of anxiety dreams include excessive alcohol before bed, drinking caffeine past 2:00 PM, or not getting enough sleep. According to Loewenberg, frequent and recurring anxiety dreams are often a bi-product of varying anxiety disorders. That this doesnt necessarily mean that everyone with an anxiety disorder will have anxiety dreams, but its often more common. She states that those of us without an anxiety disorder can still get anxiety dreams, simply because from time to time we are faced with a difficult issue in life that causes some level of anxiety. When we are faced with difficult times, our dreams express what we may be going through.
Youre Short Of Breath
Your blood circulates oxygen around your body. When your stress response boosts how quickly youre sending blood around your bodythanks to your heart racingyour breathing might increase to provide you with more oxygen.
If you breathe too quickly , you can actually enhance a lot of the physical anxiety symptoms on this list because your oxygencarbon dioxide balance gets out of whack, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Thats why we often talk about belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, says Dr. Potter. This is essentially breathing slowly and deeply by really using your diaphragm. By slowing down how quickly youre breathing, you have more of a chance to get the oxygen you need, Dr. Potter explains.
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What Causes Anxiety Disorders
The exact cause of anxiety is unknown. In fact, researchers believe that there is not one single cause but rather an interplay of factors that include a persons genetics, family history, and exposure to negative life events. Some health problems and drugs can also contribute to symptoms of anxiety.
Gerd Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
Acid reflux disease, also known as GERD, has also been linked to sleeping panic attacks. GERD itself is an irritating but fairly benign disorder. But it can affect you in your sleep, especially if you ate too soon before going to bed. Lying down after eating increases GERD symptoms considerably, and each of these symptoms represents a potential trigger for panic attacks:
- Chest pains
- Night sweats
- Hyperventilation
Some people also have trouble breathing, sore throats, and other issues that can become panic attack triggers. Many of those with nighttime GERD do not notice that they have any symptoms at night unless they wake up, and even if they wake up they simply deal with the discomfort and go back to sleep.
But others with tendencies toward anxiety are not so lucky, and it’s possible that their anxiety and GERD combine to increase the likelihood of nocturnal panic attacks.
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Write Down Your Worries On Paper
According to Juanita Wells, director of clinical development at New Method Wellness, putting your thoughts down on paper can help us remain accountable to ourselves, our feelings, our purpose, and plan.
Instead of letting thoughts and to-dos swirl around in your brain, write them down so that your brain has a game plan for the following day. Wells says that writing down your anxious feelings, especially through stream-of-consciousness journaling , can help ease anxiety before bed.
In addition to calming pre-bedtime anxiety, research shows that journaling can also help you fall asleep more quickly. To get started journaling, just snuggle up with your notebook and some cozy pillows and let your thoughts take it away.
Physical Symptoms Of Anxiety Because Its Not All Mental
Youre probably familiar with some of the physical symptoms of anxietyyouve felt your heart race before a first date or gotten a case of the nervous sweats. But you might be less familiar with how anxiety manifests physically in an anxiety disorder, and not just day-to-day anxiousness. Which, understandable. When it comes to anxiety disorders, we tend to focus less on the physical and more on mental overwhelming worry and fear.
All told, its important to recognize these physical symptoms for what they are because if you dont know what youre dealing with, it is difficult to seek out the treatment you need to feel better.
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Why Do Nocturnal Panic Attacks Occur
It’s “multifactorial,” says Dr. Magavi, and it differs from person to person, based on underlying conditions, medical disorders, and psychiatric and family history. Nighttime rumination and stress, as well as anticipatory anxiety about what’s to come tomorrow, can all contribute to and may precipitate a nighttime attack, she notes.
“If you leave stress and anxiety unaddressed or unmanaged because there is a physiological component to our flight or fight response, your body adjusts to living in hypervigilance and high alert mode,” explains clinical psychologist Alfiee Breland-Noble, Ph.D. Your fight-or-flight responses aka when your body’s flooded with hormones in response to a perceived threat aren’t limited to our waking hours, she adds. If you turn on this response before sleep it can end up impacting your heart rate, breathing, sweating, and, yes, sleep. You might think of it as your body getting “stuck in overdrive,” and that “the symptoms and triggers that you ignore or fail to respond to during the day can potentially begin to impact you at night,” says Breland-Noble.