Nightly Panic Attacks

[missd84]

Nearly seven months ago, I was raped and four months later, I was finally diagnosed with PTSD. I have been taking anxiety meds since then but I still have panic attacks pretty frequently. My dose was gradually doubled from 10 to 20 mg but I'm not sure this is enough. It takes me about 2-3 hours before I fall asleep. (I was taking Trazadone and Vistaril for sleep but neither one seems to work). When I lay down in my bed, my hands and most of my body go numb and racing heart beat and all the signs of a panic attack. Sometimes, I shake and cry. I haven't slept in my bed for quite some time. I am beginning to think laying alone in bed is a trigger for me. Idk what to do to overcome it. I'm not in counseling anymore because I lost my insurance and I only have 2 months left on my Lexapro. Anyone else have this problem? How do you deal?

 

[Gamereign555]

Yeah for a long time laying down would be a trigger for me, even sitting. Therapy helped to talk me into pushing myself to be strong. Once you start healing through therapy it should get easier, sleeping is something we all have to do and you should get used to it more and more, at least that is how it worked for me. I too also had trouble sleeping in my own bed, I would only sleep in the living room on a futon, sometimes with the tv on.

Of course it was worse when I didn't really have a doctor or therapist, having these things gives me peace of mind as does the medications I have at my disposal, some of them are only as needed like the Ativan, but just having it and knowing its there in case I do have another panic attack is worth a lot to me. I also have meds to help me sleep if I need it.

And I hear you about the trazadone and vistaril, thing is they are both pretty good for inducing sleep but they don't do anything to alleviate anxiety, and sometimes anxiety is the only thing keeping you awake. Vistaril is sometimes prescribed for stress, but its only for a very certain kind of stress. I think it is used for general anxiety disorder for treating stress caused by allergies or something, I dont know why they toss that stuff out like candy, it never works but only to cause drowsiness.

 

[missd84]

Thank you gamereign555 for your response. I'm hoping that I will find a job that offers insurance so that I can get back in counseling because it's definitely gotten worse since I had to stop. I just found a support group that meets once a week so hopefully that will help. Sleeping on the couch with the tv on really is getting old.

With the Ativan, do you have a "hangover" the next day when you wake up? I'm just curious because I want something stronger but still allows me to function relatively normal.

 

[Gamereign555]

Well if you fall under low income, you should try to visit human resources, mental health branch. They should have an option for low income, I pay 10$ per session. If you are in the states anyway, I don't know how it goes anywhere else.

Yeah with Ativan I don't recall having hangover effects. I think some people take it with ambien and have worse hangover than without Ativan. The thing about Ativan though in my experience it's good to prevent or stop a panic attack but you will feel the anxiety sometimes come back in an hour or so. I have used it for sleep, but only because I had nothing else around that would work. I would tend to wake up with the anxiety in about 2 hours and have issues getting back to sleep. Ativan is more my emergency pill. Valium is better in that it can cut your anxiety in half and lasts a lot longer than Ativan, which will leave you craving another pill within an hour. For sleep they gave me Restoril (another benzodiazapine) but they can also give Xanax for the same purpose if the Restoril isn't enough to relieve the stress.

These drugs (benzodiazapines) are strong though and dangerous because they are highly addictive, not just that but they also can hit you back with the same anxiety you are trying to ease, also known as rebound effect and thats where they are addictive, taking more will prevent rebound. Withdrawals from high amounts of benzos in your system have been known to be just as evil as alcohol withdrawl syndrome and can include seisures. So keeping a healthy mindset of how much of these drugs you take is a good idea. The idea being to get well enough to not have to take them or as little amounts of them as possible. I see shows where people take handfuls of these pills because their addiction spiraled out of control and they are in serious trouble.

It's really hard but I had to feel more pain and practically get used to it before things got better.
These drugs just help you so you don't have to feel it all at once.