Please help me with my night time anxiety

[SlipperySteps]

Hi all,

I’m posting this in hopes someone can help me. I’m 16 weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with anxiety many years ago. I worry about things that haven’t even happened which in turn keeps me up. For example, I woke up at 2am, 4am and 6am yesterday worried about the glucose test I had to take that day. The test wasn’t pleasant and I managed to get it done. However due to the stress of waking up constantly during the night in a state of panic, I’ve now created a unsafe space in our bedroom. Moving forward to tonight and I woke at 1am in a panicked state. I don’t even know why I woke up feeling so panicked and anxious. The test is over. I don’t have to deal with it again for another 10 weeks. But now I’ve created a monster that isn’t letting me sleep. I keep trying to get to sleep but I start worrying about not being able to sleep and having to go to work tomorrow. Thus the vicious cycle starts. Try to going back to sleep, can’t doze off, panic that I’m not sleeping, heart starts beating incredibly fast, have to remove myself from the situation to calm down (the bedroom) walk around the house. Try going back to sleep. Repeat. If anyone has any tips I’d really appreciate hearing them. I’ve tried sleeping on the couch and in the spare room to no avail.

[white knight]

Hi, welcome

For 32 years I've been doing muscle tension exercises prior to sleeping.

Being pregnant seek a GP approval for any action you take.

www.anxietycanada.com/articles/how-to-do-progressive-muscle-relaxation/

Also Google

Anxiety, how I eliminated it

TonyWK

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi SlipperySteps,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for joining us. I'm glad that you wrote in and guessing you must be really tired right now! Other than posting here, who else have you reached out to?

I think the bedroom can absolutely turn back into a safe space, and I know setting up routines was part of that for me- how can you make your bedroom more calming before you try and fall asleep? Candles, incense, plants, photos..?

When you're thinking about crawling into bed or before you start to worry - what happens? Is it the thought 'here we go again?'. You did mention you were diagnosed with anxiety many years ago, so it could be worth thinking about what some of the strategies were to implement.

I'll also share the PANDA forum with you which is just for parents with depression and/or anxiety - https://panda.saneforums.org/t5/Lived-Experience-Forum/ct-p/lived-experience-forum

rt

[Lalunia82]

Hello SlipperySteps’s

Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy. I have exactly same problem when pregnant 1,5 year ago. Prior becoming pregnant I suffered from severe anxiety and depression and during the remission of the illness I got pregnant. Unfortunately I have the returns of the anxiety in the first and second trimester which mostly occurred at night. I know exactly what you go through. Even though the trigger of your worries is arleady gone, your anxious feeling remains. You worry about not being able to sleep and then not being able to function at work next morning.
Firstly - this will go away, trust me. It always does.
for temporarily relief of your issues I would suggest to contact your GP. There are safe antihistamine tablets you can take during pregnancy - they will knock you down and you will sleep like a baby. I know that we not meant to discuss medication here therefore I cannot provide you with the brand name but your GP will know what to recommend. You can also call mother safe (this is where I got recommendation for these tablets as they are classified as category B for pregnancy).
If you really feel at the edge and cannot stop the vicious circle, this is the option. My doctor said that taking this fairly safe medication during pregnancy has much smaller risk than long term consequences of stress and lack of sleep on your body and pregnancy.

Everything will be ok, you got it mumma!