Pamela I HAVE NOT HEAED FROM YOU IN A WHILE. i REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT POSITIVE THINKING. i HAVE BEEN ABLE TO REDUCE MY MEDICATION BY 10 MILLIGRAMS. i WILL BE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL IN ABOUT A WEEK . sO i AM PROGRESSING.

newgal, I would suggest taking the zoloft in the morning. I was taking 100mgs of zoloft( I recently was able to lower it to 50mgs) and my doctor told me that one of the side effects can be either drowsiness or sleeplessness, if you get the drowsiness take it at night and if it interferes with your ability to sleep you should take it in the morning. As for stopping the panic before it snowballs into what others on here have posted about. I found while going thru therapy that those of us who suffer from these disorders are negative thinkers. We basically think ourselves into anxiety, panic and depression. You have control over what you think. What if you began to think more positive? For instance now you're thinking oh no I may not be able to sleep at all and I could end up in the hospital, I may become delusional from lack of sleep and start having scary obessessive thoughts. On the other hand you could say to yourself, it's ok if I don't sleep, when my body gets tired it will sleep. So what if i only slept 3 hours last night. there's alot of people in the world that sleep 3 or 4 hours a night all the time. Lack of sleep won't hurt me it's how I react to it that hurts me. So stop fearing it and once you're able to take the fear out of it, you'll sleep. Remember always make the what ifs positive, write down what you're thinking that scares you and next to it write down the positive outcome.

Hi Peace, I too have alot of difficulty sleeping lately. I wake up many times a night and my mind just races. Its like I cant keep one single thought in my head, all my thoughts jumble together. It drives me crazy. I too take Zoloft 100mg and have been taking it at night before bed. I wonder if thats why I sleep so poorly and have more anxiety during the day? I will have to ask my doctor about taking it in the morning, maybe that will work for me too. I've only been on the 100mg less than a week so I'm experiencing some of the side effects, trouble sleeping being the worst. Why is it with most medications you have to feel worse before you feel better? Glad to hear your sleeping well lately, wish I could say the same. My anxiety is really bad today, not sure why. Anyone with any ideas as to how I can calm myself down before my anxiety snowballs into panic?

I've just read your message about sleep because I don't think I have slept properly now for nearly 3 months. First of all the sleep disturbance was because I was withdrawing from Celexa. Then my doctor put me on a very small dose of Prozac and I started having sleepless nights again. I'm now absolutely desperate because like you when I do fall asleep I wake early hours of the morning and start obsessing to the extent that I too can feel my heart rate increasing and anxiety overwhelming. My thoughts all seem irrational and one night I even hear a voice in my head asking me why I hadn't done something that I don't want to repeat here. It really scared me because I too started to think that I was scizophrenic. This morning my thoughts were getting so weird that I obsessed that I was getting early dementia and then got in a state about that. The thing is that I think I am sensible enough to realise that all of this is because of lack of sleep. I went to another doctor who refused to give me anything to help even though I only wanted something to get me back into a sleep habit. He suggested that none of this was to do with the tablets and that I probably suffer with a very serious form of depression. That alone was scary because I originally went on Celexa for panic attacks. I don't think I've ever had the sort of depression I seem to be getting now which is due to the fact that I'm obsessing about getting to sleep. I'm interested to know if you were actually hospitalised because of your lack of sleep and what your psych meant about you becoming psychotic because of lack of sleep ie what were your symptoms to make her think that.

I am so happy you are getting through the nights now. I read through your two posts and really feel for you. I too have a hard time sleeping and wake up at odd hours. I take Ativan, from time to time, to releive the anxiety and get sleep. You are really brave to go through all of this and still persevere and I know you will end up on top !!! :)

Hello everyone, I did try the Ambien. I guess I was in such a bad state that it didn't even work. It only gave me two hours of deep sleep and then I woke up even worse than I went to sleep. I finally got in to see the psych doc. who said that the three weeks I had without sleep, had made me psychotic. My PCF was the one who gave me the Ambien just to get through the week to get to my appointment with the other doc. I was serious enough to be hospitalized. I didn't know that anxiety disorder could get so out of control that my brain wouldn't stop thinking even in my sleep, so I wasn't getting the deep sleep that I needed. I was getting more anxiety because of he things I was hearing and the things I was seeing when my eyes were closed. When I got to the doc. I kept saying Iam afraid I had turned skitzophrenic. But the voices where in my head and not outside my head, she said that I was delerious from all the adrenaline, the heart racing, the vomitting, the passing out, and from physical pain (PTSD), and then not sleeping. I told her that I thought I was going to die, or at least totally go crazy and never come back. She said that very rarely psychosis come with sever panic and anxiety. I am happy to report that I have slept 9-10 hours almost every night for the past week and a half. I no long hear or see things. Because of getting sleep, I have been able to keep food down and have gained 3 pounds out of the total 13 that I lost, my pulse rate and blood pressure have returned to normal and am able to leave my house to go to DBT and anxiety groups and to counselling for the first time in two months. I was already on Klonopin and Zoloft. I remain on it, but the amount and times I take it are changed. Instead of 1/2 mg in the morning and 1/2 mg of Klonopin at night...I was changed to 1 mg. upon bedtime, at which she said should be no later than 10:00, no matter if I am tired or not. Then upon awakening, even if it is 4:00 am I was to take another 1 mg. It was odd, as everyday I did this, I started awakening an hour later and the extra Klonopin kept me groggy enough to stop my over active brain, and even if I did wake up, I was able to ignore my body and brain and go back to sleep. I learned something new about Zoloft, it should never be ta

Hi Peace...I used to have the same problem you describe. I would be tired, go to sleep - and sometimes I would fall asleep immediately, other times, I would start to spin thoughts and in no time, I would be so anxious that I'd have to get up and pace around until I calmed down. Other times, I would wake up in the middle of the night due to severe panic. My sleeplessness was not caused by depression, but by extreme anxiety. Sometimes, I would get up early and spend the day in an anxious state because of lack of sleep. My high anxiety would make me feel like it would happen again. I think I became agoraphic about sleeping...:). I took comfort in practicing calming self-talk during the day...practicing muscle relaxation, and visualizing my self falling asleep and resting well. Deep breathing also helped a lot...but I found I needed to develop the skill when my anxiety was low, so I could use it when the anxiety was high It took a bit of time to get results, but they did come. With regards to medication, if you're doctor prescribed it, and is aware of your situation, I think you're safe to take it. It gives you that little help while you develop coping skills

Peace, I have the same problem. I wake up early in the morning either already in the middle of panic attack or my anxiety level rises very rapdily when I realise I am awake. I also have the spinning thoughts. It certainly increases my anxiety when sleep time comes araond the night after an attack. Initially I got out of bed and paced around the house (sometimes for hours). I now realise this is just avoidance behaviour and although it gave me some short term relief, increased the anxiety every time I attempted to get back to sleep again. I did take meds at one stage to try and help with sleep but I found I built up a tolerance quite quickly and had bad withdrawl symptons when I stopped taking them. Lately, when I wake up in a panic, I just stay in bed, slow down my breathing, and used isometric relaxation to relax my leg and arm muscles. After a few minutes, I calm down and the spinning thoughts go as well. Then I just tell myself that I am getting a rest even if I do not go back to sleep. Not focussing on getting back to sleep actually seems to send me off to sleep. I found relaxing myself very hard at first as I found the panic could come in waves so I might need to calm down several times in the one night. It is worth perservering with though. It does work.

I too have sleep problems. I fall asleep quickly but wake up after 4 or 5 hours usually feeling very anxious. I am taking paxil for panic, depression, and ptsd. I also take xanax for my panic disorder. My doctor also prescribed ambien and it does work and I do not feel groggy in the morning. When I wake up I usually come downstairs and get on this site to either post a message or just read through the posts...it helps me to know I am not alone in this madness.

They say if you have chemical depression, you can either have trouble falling asleep, or wake up too early, like 4:30 in the morning, or experience waking up throughout the night, and too early. I have experienced this also. My last few years, I have experienced falling asleep quickly, but waking up at 4 or 4:30, so I went to the doctor again, and started treatment for depression and anxiety. If I just take anti-depression medicine alone, I cannot sleep well either; so I must take an increased dose of anxiety medications for the time being, and now I am getting a normal sleep and feel very rested in the morning. Tell your doctor, and see what happens...