Insomnia For 2 weeks straight?? can't fall asleep without pills!!!!

[sebastien]

To start off
I think i have had anxiety for like 10 years + untreated........
Maybe because i don't work / go to school
I get income by selling stuff over the internet , and sell hobby stuff i make Ect ect ,
so im suposed to have 0 stress.....
but instead this last year im getting more & more effects of this anxiety
Shortness of breath , heart palpitation , losing control , can't ride a car without me driving it or i want to get out as soon as possible ,
trouble eating new stuff , scared of chocking , scared of getting allergys wich i dont even have supossely !? WTF, I get also compulsive on buying stuff , searching stuff on the internet
im always anticipating stuff , bad or worse , im pessimist aswell....
Im always scared of catching someone's cold , flu , with the swine flu outbreak forget it im freaking paranoied
most recently
This week to be more precise
this is my main issue now....
I have been put on celexa & for my panic attacks Xanax 20mg ..... i didn't take them yet...

I was used to sleep , at 2am , 3 am ,
my girlfriend comes to sleep every now & then so sometimes i try to sleep earlier....
but this time boy i will remember this one time

I went to bed at 12:00 pm , my eyes didn't close until 3 am + woke up several time
this is where it all began
Insomnia
Since 2 week now
I can't fall aswell on my own .... at ALL
im always hyper even without sleep
i tried the xanax.... worked the first 2 3 shots....
for 2-3 hrs sleep...
then i tried sleep aid pills (benadryl ingredient) worked for 7 hrs sleep...
I tried last night to sleep at 1am when i was drained out after a movie , couldn't sleep , too more xanax
i might have caught 1 or 2 hrs tops (because i dont recall seeing the whole night ....)
I dunno what to do im going paranoid , My head is always running when i go to bed ,
I dunno if all that is normal or it's a serious issue going on
Every night this past 2 weeks i try to sleep without the sleep AIDS! but each night i find myself tossing turning anxiety and no sleep without them!
But each time i take them
the day after

[NoPoet]

Hi, your main problem seems to be anxiety, as it is affecting every aspect of your life.

It's likely that anxiety is simply a "habit" for you after all these years, so in order to recover you've got a lot of work to do.

Changing the way you think and changing the way you interpret things is going to be your first task. You may find cognitive behavioural therapy very useful since this is aimed at teaching you how to interpret things in a non-harmful way. So at the moment when you think of going out you immediately get a feeling of dread then you think "Oh God I'm gonna freak out".

CBT will help you to catch yourself before the negative stuff kicks in. So your interpretation would be a sense of anticipation about seeing your friends again (instead of a formless dread) and your thoughts might be, "Nice, I'm gonna have fun".

This takes some practice and you must stick at it until it becomes a habit.

You can get free online CBT www.livinglifetothefull.com (http://www.livinglifetothefull.com). Ask your doctor to refer you on for CBT and/or anxiety therapy as well.

One very useful step is to write down EVERYTHING you can think of that is negative then challenge each problem with something positive. E.g. "I am afraid of going out" - next to this you could write "I get to see my friends, it gets me out of the house, I get to see a bit of the world, I am doing something that makes me happy, my friends are always pleased to see me". Then "I am scared of not being able to sleep" - next to this you could write "I will not always feel like this, sleep is healthy and peaceful, I enjoy my dreams, I am comfortable in bed, I am safe and warm in my room, I look forward to going to sleep after a busy day".

You can also look at hypnotherapy to help your confidence issues. You sound like you are in real need of a confidence boost. Improving confidence and self-esteem can empower you massively, and that is a significant part of recovering from anxiety.

Try downloading some self-help mp3s such as Paul McKenna's Instant Confidence and Change Your Life. Listen to them at night when you can't sleep. Not only will this fill the silence and interrupt the chatterbox of anxiety in your head, it will teach you over a period of time how to relax and switch off.

Finally, I recommend you read up on inositol. This is superb for beating anxiety and it helps a lot of people (including me) to sleep like a baby.

Good luck, and congratulations for choosing to face up to your problems.