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Mornings are the worst..any advice??

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Dani223

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I’m a nurse and lately my PTSD is out of control. I’ve noticed mornings are the worst...any advice is welcome. On my days off I wake up at 6:30 and I feel sick to my stomach. My chest is pounding and my breathing is shallow and I’m scared to get up. I have the recurring thought of “what’s the point. I’m sick of feeling this way...I’m so tired.” I do think about suicide because that feeling in the morning is terrible. I see a psychiatrist, a therapist, I’ve been hospitalized before....and I’m even in the middle of TMS...but this feeling in the morning is so intense.
I guess my question is, am I alone? What do I need to do to get through the morning fear.......I try to go back to sleep...but they are scary dreams. I’m relying heavily on my Xanax, and even that doesn’t get rid of the morning fear.
 
Hiya @Dani223 ,.your not alone. As soon as I wake up i have extreme anxiety. Sometimes going back to sleep helps but other times gettin up and drinking coffee is the only answer. It's better to be conscious and be dealing with everything than in bed just worrying about everything when you can't get back to sleep. What's TMS?
 
Hiya @Dani223 ,.your not alone. As soon as I wake up i have extreme anxiety. Sometimes going back to sleep helps but other times gettin up and drinking coffee is the only answer. It's better to be conscious and be dealing with everything than in bed just worrying about everything when you can't get back to sleep. What's TMS?
hey thank you for replying. TMS is trans magnetic stimulation. It’s covered by my insurance. It is an outpatient procedure that provides magnetic stimulation to the area of the brain responsible for depression. The research looks promising...but I’m in the middle of it and still having severe symptoms.

How do you force yourself up out of bed? It’s the hardest battle of my day.

***Hey do you go through phases? In the moment it feels like it will never go away.
 
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Sometimes it doesn't go away. Be kind to yourself. I can't say anymore at the moment because I'm struggling with it myself.
 
The research looks promising...but I’m in the middle of it and still having severe symptoms.
Hey there - just wanted to share, I've done a few courses of TMS over the last 6 years. Try and remember that generally, the helpful results don't happen right away. Do you mind if I ask whether you're doing Brainsway or Neurostar? My response was different to each of those, and I've read some other reports of that....
 
I don't know if this helps at all but I try to do something in the morning that makes me look forward to getting up, maybe I get to read a chapter or write a page or recently I've been journaling and meditating in the mornings with my coffee. Or I'll buy special creamer for my coffee, or syrup to make lattes. Sometimes coffee is the only thing I care about LOL so maybe that's not a big help. Recently (well, past four years) I wake up aching, terrible pain either from depression or my undiagnosed pain condition. I start with one step at a time. I have a little tracker for my morning habits that help. Make my bed because it makes my room feel better, journal, meditate. However I'm not as struggling with it as I used to.

But you're not alone. I used to have that feeling every morning from probably 15-19. I hope you can find something that helps and it can ease up, and I know that with your profession right now it must be even more difficult. My thoughts and hopes go out to you!!
 
Hi there @Dani223
Sorry that you’re dealing with these things but glad you’ve found this place, you will find lots of support.
I regularly find mornings tough, and someone recommended exercise to me. I found swimming was most helpful (with covid that has been out on hold), but getting active and forcing my body to focus on something else has made mornings much more bearable - getting out of the bedroom has been a big part of this too.
I hope you find some peace in the coming days.
 
Hey there - just wanted to share, I've done a few courses of TMS over the last 6 years. Try and remember that generally, the helpful results don't happen right away. Do you mind if I ask whether you're doing Brainsway or Neurostar? My response was different to each of those, and I've read some other reports of that....
Hey, thank you for responding. I’m doing Nuerostar. Do you feel like it helped? I told them I feel like it’s not working...in fact it feels like it’s getting worse. So they are remapping me tomorrow. I don’t know. Everything is a struggle right now.
 
Do you feel like it helped?
Yes. With the neurostar (I don't know if they told you this) it's not typical to notice much (or any) improvement, through the first 15 treatments - especially if the depression is bad/has been around a long time. I started having some relief around the 17th treatment. It wasn't really my mood lifting - but my suicidal thinking significantly lessened, and getting things done day-to-day just seemed more possible. Also, I get slowed speech/cognition as a depression symptom, and that got better a little earlier, around the 12th-15th treatments.
So they are remapping me tomorrow.
How'd that go?

It's helpful to try and do some kind of cognitive work as a complement to the process...whether that's big CBT stuff or just little things (for me, it was noting 3 things per day I was grateful for, and doing 10 min a day of guided meditation - I was also in therapy working on stuff). And, I think my confidence in the doctor and the nurse helped me in the process.
 
I’m a nurse and lately my PTSD is out of control. I’ve noticed mornings are the worst...any advice is welcome. On my days off I wake up at 6:30 and I feel sick to my stomach. My chest is pounding and my breathing is shallow and I’m scared to get up. I have the recurring thought of “what’s the point. I’m sick of feeling this way...I’m so tired.” I do think about suicide because that feeling in the morning is terrible. I see a psychiatrist, a therapist, I’ve been hospitalized before....and I’m even in the middle of TMS...but this feeling in the morning is so intense.
I guess my question is, am I alone? What do I need to do to get through the morning fear.......I try to go back to sleep...but they are scary dreams. I’m relying heavily on my Xanax, and even that doesn’t get rid of the morning fear.
Would antidepressants help?
 
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