Is this normal with anxiety? /:

[Savvy_Darling]

I have a question,,

When I've felt particularly stressed out or anxious like when my health anxiety flares up bad and I think there's something wrong with me ...

I seem to loose interest in cleaning or doing anything
I just wanna lay in bed all day or sleep a lot.
I love sleeping. I'm having bad sleeping patterns at the moment though- sleeping most the day.

I really find it worse when I'm in the height of all my anxiety. I've been anxious since last Tuesday night and yesterday it got bad again.

Is it normal to wanna sleep all the time and loosing interest to clean and do things?

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this before.

I get worried when I sleep too much because I'm afraid it's fatigue like a symptom of cancer or bad diesease which in turn makes me more anxious and wanting to sleep more. ;(

Anyone else? Would feel good to know I'm not alone!

21 btw and 6 monthes of bad anxiety.

Not sure is this belongs in this forum. /: I'm usually in the health anxiety but thought it be better here?

[Chocolateface]

Yes when I am anxious I lose interest in things, my problem is I can't sleep, like now I am feeling anxious but have woken up early even though I have work today and need my rest

[Savvy_Darling]

Yea I know what you mean.. I can't sleep when I'm anxious but once I fall asleep I wanna sleep all day . But I also enjoy naps.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Sleep is heavily affected by anxiety and depression. It's either insomnia or the opposite.

You have to remember that being anxious means being on alert more. This isn't just a mental thing, it's a physical thing too. Your body is working harder, more chemicals like neurotransmitters are being used up & created.

You will often hear how a period of panic or high anxiety is followed by a "washed out" period where you just want to sleep although it's more exhaustion than sleep.

Fatigue is just being very tired yet sleep doesn't seem to refresh you. It's very common in these disorders. I've been struggling with fatigue issues for over a year now. I suspect my sleep pattern has contributed to this because I can remember how this happened when my sleep pattern had slipped enough to mean winter was all darkness to me as I wouldn't be awake during daylight hours anymore.

It can help to get up and get on with things. Exercise can help to get your body moving out of tiredness but after a period of higher anxiety, this doesn't always work and the body is saying it wants to rest & recuperate. Part of this will be replenishing those neurotransmitters like Serotonin.

Don't make a link to cancer. There are so many possible anxiety & depression symptoms linked to cancer and often this is because cancer makes being anxious & depressed, not that they are red flags to a doctor to think of cancer. There are so many non cancer disorders that have fatigue as a symptom too. Fatigue overlaps into tons of things.

There are definitely plenty of threads on here about fatigue and other members who sleep a lot.

[Savvy_Darling]

I wonder what should search for? I searched things like sleeping too much or oversleep and it brought up results of lack of sleep... Maybe I should try searching fatigue .

Thanks terry, I definitely have had good days and bad days and I guess with all this stress the past week my body is fed up. Like if I get myself in a state like yesterday I was so freaked out that my body knocked me out in the form of a nap.. Which was nice. Guess I should take that as a message saying "you need to relax"

When this bump goes away I'll be able to totally relax but until it does I will still have some instrusive thoughts to battle.

On the bright side, it's gonna be the weekend so I'll probably be getting out a lil more.
Boyfriend is getting a new tattoo maybe I'll go and watch lol.. I've been wanting to get one too so I guess it'll be good to watch the experience. I never went with him before,

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah, go and watch. Don't jump in if you are unsure, have a think about a design.

Is he having an enormous monster truck done on his back? :biggrin:

Long term it's about being able to still relax whilst a bump is there but you have plenty of time to work on your anxiety to get to that stage, but it will come. Intrusive thoughts can be tackling, I got rid of mine. You will see us talking about them a lot on the OCD board.

[Savvy_Darling]

Haha no :p something on his hand. Oh and yeah I won't jump into anything without plenty of thinking. Plus what I was thinking is small on the wrist area.


Anyway, yes that's something I remember before my anxiety got bad.. For example if this was a year or so ago and I felt a bump like that I would probably take note and forget about it honestly. But now it's like so much mental energy is spent on worrying about what it is and when it will go down or away instead of just putting it on the back burner for awhile. It has to be the top priority in the anxious mind. Seeing a bruise now I don't remember how I got it will freak me out but before all this mess if I saw a bruise I just thought it was a bruise...nothing more . I wish so bad to be able to be like that again but you're right it's gonna take work.
I know exactly what caused my anxiety and it was from that time that my mind started thinking more bad things will happen to me and I can't help but obsess over anything going wrong or hurting me again. My mind was changed from being normal to fearful of things that could happen. Even though I know this I can't help but think the worst and stay very focused on it and doubting any less catastrophic reasoning it could be. And I'm very easily triggered.. Anything in the media , like on the Internet or on the news or on commercials about anything scary like diesease and illness or people dying from it sends me to a very uncomfortable panic. So I have to change the channel or hide on my newsfeed anything that freaks me out. Before I could just disregard it. I went through a pretty traumatic experience which lead to depression which lead to anxiety & insecurity and now since about August a lot of health anxiety . It's seems to be something every month. This whole bump is something I can feel so it's hard for me to forget about. I wanna keep touching to see if it's improved or got worse so very obsessive. I hate it but I can only hope it will go away and this will be another cancer fear in the past. And I wish to stop any in the future.
But..
I think I'm gonna go make some camomile tea and think positive thoughts. :)

[GingerFish]

what you described seems spot on to what it feels like to go through a highly anxious or depressive phase. When my anxiety and OCD especially flares up, my depression goes through the roof and I experience everything you described. Anxiety, especially when high and constant, really wipes us out physically and mentally so its no surprise we feel tired, have no interest (in anything other than what we are stressed about of course!), our eating habits change etc. What you describe sounds absolutely normal under the circumstances so I wouldn't even worry about having cancer but I do know its easier said than done, I've been there maaaaaaaany times.

[Savvy_Darling]

Thanks gingerfish :)
It definitely makes sense that anxiety/depression can cause exhaustion. Really happy to hear it from someone else that they've been through it though.

[Blinkyrocket]

I think I don't just love sleeping to avoid being awake, I sleep because my dreams are the only part of my life I enjoy. Probably is a product of no real human contact, I had a dream last night about embracing another person, I didn't wanna wake up, it was the best feeling ever. Crazy how lost one can become if they isolate themselves so deeply.

The rat park experiments are a testament to the effect of a social life, they found that morphine and other "addictive" substances aren't really abuse reinforcing, but that rats only compulsively self administrate morphing if they are isolated in a cage. Coinicdentally, all studies that test the abuse liability of drugs use isolated rats.

Unfortunately, because humans in this culture are all false, you can't expect to just go talk to someone and not still be isolated.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Unfortunately, because humans in this culture are all false, you can't expect to just go talk to someone and not still be isolated.

I'm glad to say I haven't experienced this to the level that it has affected you. Hopefully you will get people in your life to change this view, which you deserve.

Life is full of false people, but it is also full of good people too. If not, we wouldn't be living in the world we are. There are many people who work themselves to the bone for others and ask for nothing in return.