Cortisol levels and night time panic attacks

[Lady Penelope]

I am still have panic attacks in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. I wake up with a start and off it goes. I have been much worse in the last week but I am on day 8 of taking fluoxetine so I am sure that is not helping. I have DiaziPam as well so have tried taking one before bedtime but it does not seem to make any difference. On one of my a& e visits in April the doc mentioned might be worth doing an early morning cortisol test. Just wondered if anyone has experience of this? And how can I lower my cortisol if this is a problem?

When I wake now I am trying various things - I have taken a Diazipam one time but it leaves me feeling awful the next day. I am doing the breathing excercises and listening to this which one of the forum members kindly sent me to talk through a panic attack

https://www.excelatlife.com/mobile.htm#assistanceaudios

It's awful in the middle of the night and is making me worried about going to bed.

[SLA]

I would recommend beta blockers in this situation, as they helped me reduce panic at night.

But it sounds like the fluoxetine is not helping things. Were you initially prescribed it for panic and anxiety?

[Mermaid16]

When I first stated getting anxiety and panic attacks again, I had exactly the same thing. Waking in the night with heart racing and sweating like crazy. I would usually get up and take my blood pressure (I think making sure that everything was within normal ranges reassured me that it was just a panic attack). The act of actually doing this distracted me from the physical symptoms as well. I was usually able to get back to sleep after this. I also had the early morning anxiety, I found that getting up and getting going made it disappear a lot quicker. The longer I lay in bed the longer it lasted. I do believe that it is the distraction that helps to ease it quicker. I did put a post on under generalised anxiety about the DARE book that is free to download from kindle on the 15th and 16th. It is about reducing panic attacks and anxiety. You may find it helpful. Tracy

[Lady Penelope]

Thank you Sla. I am on beta blockers - Bisoprolol 2.5 to reduce blood pressure but I know there are different types - I have a GP appointment on Monday so I will ask if there is something else that would be better. The fluoxetine has been prescribed for anxiety. I have resisted it for 9 months as I thought I could manage on my own but finally decided to give it a try. I do understand it can make things worse before they get better.

Tracy thank you - I have a kindle so will download the book.
When I first started getting these attacks in January I had not suffered from anxiety and thought I was having a heart attack. I ended up in A & E twice by ambulance. They have eased off a bit and I was on,y getting them once or twice a week but now seem to be every night since I started on fluoxetine.
Has anyone mentioned cortisol levels to you before?

[Miznuvem0412]

I'm a.test my cortisol Levels through a saliva tests where check your levels in the morning and also at night for adrenal fatigue ( i suspect my cortisol levels are high at night since I have issues sleeping . I have terrible sleeping problems . So might as well have myself tested to see if my cortisol levels are really high at night .

If that the issue I want to take a different route to fix the issues than be using xanax or antidepressant to fix the issue

[js1803]

I read that eating spinach can lower cortisol levels.