is it anxiety?

[april_123]

About 10 months ago somebody tried to break into my house. They didn't actually get inside but I feel very traumatised by the event because I was home alone. I know it's normal to be bothered by these kinds of things, but ever since I have been having vivid nightmares just about every single night since the event. I can't sleep at night and have been relying upon Stilnox to get me to sleep otherwise I am just too jumpy and nervous and wake up every 2 minutes. Even when I am awake at home I can't relax for 5 minutes. I am literally driving myself insane and this has been going on for 10 months now and I can't see it coming to an end. Basically what I want to know is this normal or is this some form of anxiety that I can get treated for? In the past I have been treated with depression and anxiety but that was before this happened. Thanks for your help.

[Jacko777]

Hi April 123,

Welcome to the Beyond Blue forums, I am glad you have posted. I am sorry to hear you have been through this traumatic event, I am not surprised that you are anxious.

This has been going on for a while, you need a break, I think you should get some advice from a pro, do you have a counselor? Or you could ring the BB phone service, they are there to help.

I am very glad obviously that these people didn't get in your house, is it because your house is secure? If your house is secure then you could shift your focus to that whenever you feel anxious, remind yourself that no one can get in if you don't let them, you are safe. It takes practice but you can shift your mindset back to a place of trust and calmness.

I could suggest security devices, motion detectors, even a dog, things that are deterrents to opportunistic thieves and security blankets for the mind.

You can speak to your dreamworld...before you go to sleep tell your mind that you would like a night off from the nightmares, you would like a break thanks, you are listening to the messages but tonight you need some sleep. I also check my dreams meaning (dreamdictionary.com is a good one), if I get the meaning then maybe we can move on to the next message. Some dreams of course come from an anxious and stressed mind.

Breakins are pretty rare, chances of this happening again are low I would think. I hope you can post again.

Jacko

[Neil_1]

Hi there April

Welcome to Beyond Blue and thank you for providing your post.

The awful event of someone trying to break into your house is something very horrible and really can be quite terrifying also, so I can fully understand what’s been happening to you since that time.

You said at the time, you were home alone – does that mean that there are others who you live with?  Are there still times when you might be home alone and this causes you anxiety, or was that like a one off experience??   If there are times when you are, is it possible that you can go and visit a friend or relative, until you know that there’ll be others at home?    We’ve been robbed man years ago and we did two things, installed an alarm system and got ourselves a dog (not the terror that you see in my profile pic).

My main thought here though is that as it’s been 10 months, I would be strongly considering a trip to your gp to discuss this.  Also, to have that kind of sleeping tablet, I believe you need a gp’s script for it, so it sounds like you may have been visiting your gp fairly recently?   I used that for years and years way back, but have now been off it for a long time now – but it was me going to a new gp that helped me get off it – it works very well, but is also extremely addictive also.

Anyway, I hope that I’ve said something that was of use to you and I do hope you can write back again.

Kind regards

Neil