Why Do I Get So Exhausted After An Episode Of Anxiety.

[surviving_it_all]

I just wonder wh anxiety drains your body so much. Without PTSD, I think I had normal sleeping patterns. The last few years everything is so bad. Since November, the time PTSD really took over my life, my sleep patterns are so bad. It can't be normal to awake in utter fear with cold sweats. I feel like a good sleep schedule would help me so much.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

You're probably right in that a good sleep schedule would help you so much. I know that it helped me! One of my past therapists told me that insomnia, poor sleep, constant waking, etc was an amplifier to existing issues. Without sleep issues your problems may be at a level 5, but add sleep problems on top of that, and they can rocket to a 8+, for example.

Aside from sleep, whenever I have a bad anxiety attack or flashback or what I call "episodes", I am exhausted afterward and oftentimes just want to pass out. I'm not sure if it's due to the adrenaline rush and subsequent "crash", or what...I'm not up on the physiology of it all!

 

[surviving_it_all]

The crash of if is so bad.

 

[Shellbell]

I am feeling pretty exhausted all the time as well and have increased levels of anxiety. I'm sure there is some physiological explanation regarding the brain and the effects on the body. Plus sleep problems magnify it all as Scaredoflonely said.

I don't sleep well and my therapist recently explained the reason why I wake regularly at 3am, is due to the brain processing the anxiety and stress plus the memories and trauma, so the brain processes this as danger and wakes me up. Then, my brain hasn't has the 8 hours necessary sleep to process all the anxiety etc, and I wake up with a load of anxiety that's not been processed, then anxiety builds throughout the day with good and bad stress, anxiety etc and it just keeps going - like a viscious circle. And high level anxiety issues like a flashback are then just so much harder for our brain to deal with, causes sheer exhaustion as a result.

Have you seen the PTSD Cup Theory on here, it explaines the good, bad and PTSD stress. My therapist liked the theory and agreed with it when I told her about it.

 

[Philippa]

I have heard that anxiety is energy unexpressed or pent up. It would make sense then that after you have had an attack of anxiety that you woul dfeel tired, as it is an emotionally draining experience of releasing energy in an alternative way to using energy in a productive way...which is why so many actors use that anxiety they feel before a performance to excell.