"Waves" of anxiety?

[bandar1113]

I've just been describing these waves of anxiety to my sister, I think anyone who has experienced them with their anxiety knows exactly what you are talking about and I'm sure it's connected to your anxiety - it's like your tummy turns over, like a wave crashing.

+1, these "waves" used to happen to me all the time, I know exactly what you mean. The tingling sensation, the dread, the increased heart-rate, the nausea and dizziness, the itchy heat, i understand it. after about 6 months or so I was just so used to having these waves of panic attacks that I was somewhat able to control them a little bit.

After a while, even while you're in the psychological trap during an anxiety attack, thinking there's something wrong with you, you can grasp the fact that there's nothing wrong with you and that you're just having an anxiety attack.

Knowing there's nothing wrong with me has helped me infinite times when on the verge of insanity.

[Nat45]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies. You have helped me a lot.
I had a better night, last night. I felt the onset of the waves, and rode them! LOL! It wasn`t pleasant, but got to sleep within half an hour of going to bed, which is a massive improvement.

[june]

when this happens at night it is always 10 times worse.
In the daytime you can distract your self BUT at night!!!!!!!!
take a calm book or get up and have a cup of tea even repeat times tables - anything that will stop the horrid thoughts from getting worse (major panic)
It seems that panic / anxiety strike when we are relaxing - our bodies do not understand relaxation so sends up the warning tingles.
Hope this helps
june

[Nat45]

thanks June.

[tulip123]

This happens to me. Electric shock treatment when on the verge of sleep when not obviously anxious about anything. There seemed to be no pattern so after years of research it turned out I had a hiatus hernia and acute indigestion that was doing it. A muscle in my stomach sort of twangs when I am about to sleep, I get a burning sensation which sets up the fight or flight system - all very quick. I go with out sleep causing tiredness - ramping up anxierty - vicious circle. If I am careful with my diet I find that I get a better nights sleep. The stomach is worth considering when in this position. There is plenty of advice on acid reflux.

Tulip123

[justbananas]

this is crazy - i never even thought these through but YES that is exactly what happens - waves is the perfect way to explain it. for me it's not like electric shocks i don't think .. it is literally just waves of panic. like i can feel a physical force whooshing through my body.

it often starts in my head or my chest .. a weird chest tightness OR a head rush/light headedness and soon swoops into this up and down motion. in the moments between the waves (the moments increase as time passes and anxiety settles.. IF it settles) - i feel somewhat fine in those moments. but then a wave hits again and it's what i imagine a labor contraction to be like. not in the realm of pain but just the way it comes and goes and has time in between each one. if i get REALLY worked up, there's almost no time between each one and it's wave after wave after wave.. luckily my general PAs have been dwindling and now i'm mostly only dealing with solid HA so i'm feeling less of the waves and dizziness. i think mostly because once i accepted it as anxiety, it lessened over time. now just need to shake this freaking HA, which is the root of all my anxiety!! how interesting, thank you for starting this thread.

[Veronica H]

As Andrea said this is a rush of adrenalin. The great Dr weekes talks about this as the same feeling you would get if someone told you that you had won a million pounds. Unfortunately in anxiety sufferers this is usually caused by an anxious thought or build up of adrenalin from many anxious thoughts which keeps sqeezing the adrenalin in and sensitises our nerves. The important thing to remember here is that although it is unpleasant it cannot harm you.

Veronica

[manana987]

Hey, I too experience these waves. So know that you are not alone. The best way I have come to describe them is kind of like if someone comes up behind you and scares you, you kind of gasp a little and hold your chest) ( they arent usually this bad, but along the same line) anyway, i've developed insomnia from this and find myself constantly worrying all day afraid to fall asleep ( because that's when it happens, as soon as i close my eyes to sleep) The feeling is AWFUL and its causing me to have a lot of depression and worry. Anyway, I would love to talk to you more, anyone for that matter I would love to talk to on here. No one understands what I'm going through and it would be nice to talk with someone that understands.
Tisha

[Frank6107]

I started getting these recently .I get them maybe everyfew days,mostly at night just before bed.it kind of feels weird in my chest area and it affects my breathing .Its weird because i am 30 years old and ive never had this problem until recently.Had to get up and watch tv and smoke weed then it eased up after about an hour or so

[Osiris]

I do get these too , I feel them all over my body , I can even " hear " those waves mincing my flesh . I did call them waves before I see the name on here . My flesh gets feelings of spasms , it's simply horrifying . Also , my mind is always racing I mean ALWAYS , in another , always scary level of irrational thoughts , even thinking of my own voice while I speak , or thinking of my own thoughts while they are forced onto me to scare me even more with some real insane thoughts !!!! I found that eating something sweet ( if you could through those rock shredding waves ) , can reduce them remarkably .