health anxiety question.

[Sam Winter]

hey guys, so let me first start off by saying, merry christmas! <3 and on with my fairly stupid question(s)
first off, can health anxiety cause insomnia? i always used to be able to sleep but after developing possible health anxiety and losing the ability to eat, insomnia soon followed, and also as well as thinking i have every medical problem in the book do you worry about others? like, i usually get a pain and instantly think its a problem that could lead to death but when someone else says they have a pain i assume, death! and i was wondering if thats something others do,
i'm new to anxiety as although i've had it three years i've only recently been diagnosed so i'm trying to find stuff out and i'm asking a lot of questions so i apologize for constantly bugging everyone lol

~Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.~

[laura442]

I would say that is really common for health anxiety, well for me anyway. It's all lies though, anxiety is a BIG FAT LIAR.
Every little pain/change in my body I think that.
I found a spot on my back today and was panicking about that for about an hour.
Hope this helps x

[Sam Winter]

yes it has helped significantly thanks!
and tell me about it I just got outta bed to cover the dog up and felt a sharp pain in my left ribcage and then started panicking lol x

[shirlp]

I panic about feelings in my head, feels like my head is going to explode. Mostly pops up at bedtime so I can't sleep. Its really annoying. Had other symptoms in the past but since this horrible feeling started in my head I can't shift it however I try to

[MyNameIsTerry]

No. It's not something experienced in HA. Why? It's experienced across threw entire range of anxiety disorder. So, ok it is experienced in HA :D

Think about it logically. What happens when you are anxious? Everything speeds up, you are more alert, you think more, etc and this is all because of fight or flight. Higher levels of neurotransmitters are produced and a lot of these, the greater amount anyway, will be excitory ones. For instance, your Glutamate levels will increase hence a lot more thinking takes place and then the opposing inhibitory one will attempt to balance it again, typically GABA. Also you have all the physical side and this is due to other neurotransmitters, norepinephrine & epinephrine (the adrenaline).

If this is going on in your body, how can you sleep? This is why you have to have good sleep hygiene in order to lower it. Your brain will make Melatonin to make you sleep but it won't oppose those excitory neurotransmitters.

Diet is important so you give your brain the raw materials to make them too.

The one thing you will hear about insomnia is how it is a vicious circle. The more you worry about it, the more you stay awake. So, on top of reducing your anxiety (hence reducing overactivity of those excitory neurotransmitters) you need to not make sleep an obsession and put negative focus on it. Learn not to care and say "fine then, I won't sleep" and you will find yourself dropping off.

[Randara]

I have been through this, it got to a point where I was too scared to sleep because I associated sleep with death (which sounds ridiculous I know!). The less I slept the worse I felt.

What helped me was going to integrative counselling, going to cbt and changing the things that were stressing me out (job and living arrangements). I have been told by many different people that mindfulness is a really good thing to practice as it helps you acknowledge the weird twinges and feelings you get but to not focus on them too much. i believe you can get apps on your phone and also prescription from doctor for CDs from the library for this.

I hope this is helpful in some way! :) x

[Sam Winter]

thanks guys! I was trying to work out if my insomnia was down to my anxiety so I could work on fixing it the funny thing is I stay up for so long but end up going to sleep because when I have a problem I think about it and then sleep it off its weird lol also I was wondering if I had health anxiety because silly old me wants to find out exactly what's wrong with me lol xx

[Traceypo]

It's not silly to want to find out what's wrong, as long as you're using the information constructively.
For example, when my anxiety started, I spiralled using Google and had many serious conditions, this then added to my anxiety so the symptoms progressed and were made worse.
I had long periods of sleeplessness, chest pains, sweats etc.
I struggled to believe this was anxiety. 8 years on, I'm a pro, I now fully believe it's anxiety, I've researched anxiety for hours and hours and recognise myself in all of this research. I don't have the full panic attacks, I just run on high alert when my anxiety is bad.
If you're tempted to use Google, put in symptom with anxiety, you'll be amazed what is actually an anxiety symptom. My weirdest was a tingling nose, but when the anxiety goes so does the weird tingling nose.
Information gives you power over it.
Xxx

[Sam Winter]

yeah another thing that frustrated me was i haven't been diagnosed with a specific anxiety as i got high on all of them on a test and it kinda annoys me that i can't find the exact thing that ruined my life lol maybe i'm weird x