New Anxiety Symptoms????

[Carnation]

Just when you get to grips with the common Symptoms of Anxiety, new ones appear.
Lately I have been feeling a dull pain down the right-hand side of my face, bouts of sneezing, bloated feeling in the stomach, but at the same time a hunger feeling; even though I have already eaten. Slowness in speaking and jumbled up conversation. Memory loss of people's names and numbers. And extreme tiredness; keep dropping off to sleep during the day.
Is this another phase of Anxiety? Because I have been doing so well up to now and considered myself 80 percent back on track, but now I feel I have gone backwards to about 60 percent. Maybe I am trying to do too much too soon, but it's really difficult to judge how much or how little you should progress back in to normal Life again.
Has anyone else experienced anything else like this?:shrug:

[MyNameIsTerry]

I've had some of this Carnation.

I've had the right side face pain which turned out to be grinding my teeth in my sleep. My dentist spotted evidence in a check up. I had it 6 months in total, then it went and I've never had it again since.

The dentist told me to do this exercise before going to sleep and it did help:

1. Open mouth wide.
2. Touch tongue to roof of mouth and hold for a few seconds.
3. Repeat a few times.

It's basically a relaxation technique for the jaw muscles.

I found this and taking paracetamol before bedtime got rid of it in the end but it took months for me but it was much better for most of that time.

It's very common with tension. You can also get headaches & neck ache with it. When you clench, you move other muscles too, such as the ones near the temple.

[Carnation]

Thanks Terry, I seem to be very stressed and tensed up at the moment. It might be because of Mum over the Christmas and I had got it in to my head that I was going to lose Mum as well. I am very agitated, I don't want to go to bed, I have to keep occupied all of the time, which results in my nodding off during the day.
Do you know, I was fine on Holiday, felt really normal again, so it must be the stresses of Life that does this to you!?!?:shrug:
How are you doing?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Its like they say "sometimes a change is as good as a rest". I know I have experienced some of my worst times at home and I think this is part of why I feel better out and feel it more coming home. Distraction is involved as well. The area of the brain that acts as the fear centre is a storage that makes associations between events/memories, feelings, sensations and emotions. This makes sense when they say panic attacks can come out of the blue when being in situations where they occurred before.

I'm ok, just tired a lot and frustrated with the sleep routine thing.

[Carnation]

Yes me too, I am going to attempt going to bed an hour earlier tonight, because my mornings are wasted with lying in from being up late and feeling like I have been out on the tiles all night, when I surely haven't.
I think I stay up late for a number of reasons.

1. Habit.

2. I Hate the thought of lying there trying to get to sleep or waking up in the middle
of the night anxious.

3. I get more frightened at night and by being so tired when I go to bed, it seems a lot easier.

I never get 7 hours sleep and I think the lack of sleep builds up and drains your energy resources. Like you say, it is more difficult in the Winter months; the body needs more sleep. I've never been like normal. I've always crept around the house in the early hours of the morning and when I was a Pub Landlady, my normal time for bed was never before 2am. Everyone I know; apart from here go to bed between 10pm-11pm and that's when I am wide awake! It's very lonely. :sad:

[MyNameIsTerry]

Same here Carnation.

My sleep issues started with my insomnia getting to sleep, getting enough to not feel rough the next day and the one that got me the worst... waking an hour or two earlier knowing I would feel rough if I couldn't get back to sleep then panicking. About 8 days straight off that was the final trigger in my relapse.

I rarely feel like I've slept who though, even though I may pull myself through it later.

Over the past year or two I have notice a change in my attitude towards this and I now function much better despite having less sleep. This is an improvement. But it seems to have become an obsession and its not that I can't sleep but don't want to try although I know its stopping me recovering!

I now live at night and can't do daytime stuff anymore so its very limiting.

[Carnation]

Yes, I have gone to bed at 4am and got up at 9am and felt good. The next day not so good. But, I hate it when you wake and then go back to sleep. (That's the 'Dreaming period'. Your first sleep is more productive. Dreaming can be exhausting.
I don't think I will ever be like normal people, but if I can adjust my pattern so I am not so exhausted in the morning, I will be happy.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah, some dreams mean you wake in a similar fashion to nightmares so can make you anxious for a while, sometimes most of the day.

I can feel better on 7 hours sleep but with my routine issues I'm now hovering around 5 hours. I'm concerned this is doing some damage because of the foggy heads, extra physical problems (about 7-8 months of sciatica), lack of stamina, lack of drive, etc.

[Carnation]

Well, I did go to bed an hour earlier last night. It took longer to get to sleep and I was of course very anxious. I woke at the same time, so I gained an extra hour.
I definitely felt more energy, but the Anxiety symptoms were just the same level.
I look just as tired as normal, but I will try and do the same tonight. I do not want to increase with another hour tonight, that may be to severe. I will try to keep this up and see if it has made any difference by the week-end.
My average is also about 5 hours and I do worry like yourself about the possible damage it could cause over a long term.
It sounds ridiculous, but if I could, I would stay up all night long and sleep all of the first half of the day. (If that makes any sense?). :shrug:

[MyNameIsTerry]

That makes sense to me Carnation, I stay up all night & morning then sleep in the afternoon. I never wanted to, Its something that just got of of hand but originally it was a result of working slightly later shifts eg 10 am.

Its sensible to do it by an hour and gradual. I find 30 minutes is too little and you easily find yourself falling back into bad habits.