[Wdlarsen]

Couple weeks ago, and still somewhat continuing, had a nervous breakdown at work. Lots of stress both inside and out of the office. Never suffered from anxiety or panic in my life and out of nowhere this all hit me like a ton a bricks. Doc perscribed meds, used couple a days, scared me, dont want to be on drugs, so stopped them. Long story short, looks like im naturally beating this stuff during the day, but sleepings a different story. Im dead tired at the end of the day, lay down, soon as my brain goes to check out, BAM! Its like somone plugs my brain into an electric outlet and i get this energy/scary/panicky surge though my brain and body, hence no sleep. The cycle has become perpetual, and effecting my life in a bad way…   Any help?

[Deb]

Welcome to the club. You’ve got insomnia like the rest of us here. It may take some time to turn it around. Pills are not the answer. Here’s two books to read, each with a different approach to healing insomnia, which will not go away by itself.

“The Effortless Sleep Method” by Sasha Stephens

“The Sleep Book” by Dr. Guy Meadows

Read them and see which approach appeals to you. Or hire Martin, the founder of this website.

[Deb]

I thought about you some more and I was wondering if since you’ve only had your insomnia for a couple weeks, then it might be easier for you to nip it in the bud than for others who’ve had it for months or even years (like many of us on this forum).

If there’s anyway you can do this, try letting go of the struggle to fall asleep. This is what creates insomnia – our worry and desperate attempts to fix it through drugs or whatever we think might work. The second book I mentioned is based on this idea. If we stopped worrying about the insomnia, it would naturally go away. Our worry and anxiety about it, feeds it. Our mind gets in the way. But when our mind gets out of the way by letting go of the struggle and stops worrying about it, then our body takes over and does what it’s been doing for all of our lives – helping us to fall asleep naturally.

[Wdlarsen]

You are awesome! Thank you for your great advice. So… update. I took ur advice and went to barnes and nobles yesterday. They didnt have either book!! Arrgh. But i did buy two books on anxiety. Ones a journal to basically expel all your garbage, and the other is called controlling your anxiety before it controls you. I started reading it last night and the biggest thing i took away from it is to not make everything a “must” as in i must go to sleep. When we make things “must” in our lives we put so much emphasis on it that it makes us anxious. Then we get anxious about our anxiety and, welp there goes any chance at getting to sleep. I do have a success story to share. Last night I SLEPT, no tremors or crazy jolts, OUT LIKE A LIGHT. I did a couple things. One, i made sleep a preference and not a must. If i slept bad, i wasnt going do die, so ill be ok. That alone calmed my anxiousness. Two, i read an article on food that calms you down and lessens anxiety. fatty fish, almond, kiwis, tart cherry juice. Vwalahhh! I think the vitamin c in the kiwi gave me a little energy, so it kept me up longer then i wanted, but after about what seemed like an hour and a half i was out. N i just woke up well rested this morn!!! Yay, no tremors, no electric energy scary freeky shocky type stuff. Thank you for your support, now i gotta string another win together tonight, but hey, if i dont, no biggie, im not gonna die 😉

[Deb]

Sounds like you’re doing good. That’s the best attitude to have – if you don’t sleep, no big deal. Then you’ll have a more relaxed attitude about it and sleep will start to come naturally, like it always has.

I ordered my books on Amazon. You know you can find anything and everything there. I recommend The Sleep Book first because it deals directly with calming our anxiety, which feeds insomnia.

[Author]

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