Anxiety symptoms worse in the morning

[Alde]

Hi all,

My symptoms always seem to wear off or be less bothersome in the evening! In the morning and during the day it’s almost unbearable with the weird vision and skipped heart beats but it seems to settle down and I get calmer from 5-6pm onwards!

Does anyone else get calmer during the evening and/or have any idea why this happens?

Cheers,

Al

[Graceski]

Are you normally at home from 5-6pm onwards? It could be that whilst you know you have things to do during the day or you're doing the things like work or something, that your feeling anxious and when you're done and home for the day it goes away. Home can become a bit of a comfort zone which is why it can fade.

[Alde]

Are you normally at home from 5-6pm onwards? It could be that whilst you know you have things to do during the day or you're doing the things like work or something, that your feeling anxious and when you're done and home for the day it goes away. Home can become a bit of a comfort zone which is why it can fade.

Hi Graceski,

I understand completely what you’re saying but I’m home all day at the moment, not been feeling well enough to do anything during the day! But maybe it is something like knowing that I don’t have anything left to do but look forward to getting into bed...

Cheers,

Al

[kath138]

Hi Alde,

I know exactly how you feel I am at the worst in the morning and only can eat or feel anything like normal round 6pm.

I've been on antidepressants for 3 months and not much change so I'm waiting for the doctor to ring me for advice as I am feeling desperate.

I hope you speak to your doctor and get the help he can offer.

:hugs:

[MyNameIsTerry]

This is something I've posted in a few threads about this:


Yep, the typical, cortisol pattern looks like this:

https://alpineintegratedmedicineblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/cortisol-graph.png

That cortisol spike is meant to wake us up ready for the day. I think the trouble is we have elevated cortisol levels anyway but we also react badly to what we perceive as symptoms and our subconscious has learned to associate them with fear too so it sends all that warning "data" to make us react.

The trouble is, some people find it worse at other periods hence it's not a guaranteed rule in anxiety.

I've always struggled most with the mornings but what I have realised by moving my sleep patterns around a lot is that it's les about mornings and more about waking.

My anxiety has always been at it's worst in the morning. What I have founds is that the worse your overall anxiety is, or the stage you are at, the worse the morning anxiety is. I have also found it's not so much morning anxiety as waking anxiety (my sleep patterns often haven't matched that diagram yet the effect was the same and if I slept in split shifts I would still awake like it). And getting up and moving, getting food & drink and some light exercise helps to encourage it to reduce which is inline with the above and how the body metabolises excess levels of hormones from one to another e.g. how too much adrenaline is metabolised by light exercise to reduce our anxiety levels.

[StressedEric]

Is the morning spike is the reason why people like myself who suffering with depersonalisation that its much stronger when waking up in morning than other times of the day due to the rush of cortisol. Out of curiously, is there a simple blood test for cortisol levels?

[CarmR]

Thanks for posting this Terry, I know about Cortisol levels etc, but never actually saw it on a graph, lol..
Really interesting to see, Thanks again...

[TRISTAN]

That is so me , my anxiety starts as soon as I wake up , really bad , but like you it seems to calm down about 5/6 ish and by that time I’m so worn out all I want to do is go to bed but I know this means waking up again , been like this for most of this year and lost my job due to morning anxiety

[Ruby77]

That is really interesting and fascinating to see. My anxiety is always worse in the morning and I wake up early feeling sick and panicky.

[Dan Wales]

My anxiety seems to be at a calmer level during the evening, I believe it’s because you are in your comfort zone and that your body is calming down before bed time. During the day my anxiety is so high.

[Midnight-mouse]

I have an hour every morning that I need to be quiet and alone for after I wake. I always wake up feeling panicked and sick. Over the hour I will calm and feel much better, but if I’m not able to have that time I’ll be panicky all day.


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