Panic at night

[Acacia7]

So I've been terrified of *v for at least 12 years now. It's beyond a joke! Life ruling if anything. Anyway The worst time is at night if I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and that dizzy panic sick feeling comes across. How do other people cope with feeling this way? I often think about how it's completly inevitable to *v. This really gets me down and upset. What am I scated of! This is such a curse to feel this way. The only thing I take comfort in is knowing I can jump on this site and know im not alone.

[Afdpt]

Waking up in the middle of the night is one of my biggest triggers of panic. For me I try to focus on my body and what I'm feeling. I focus on my stomach and 99% of the time that feels fine, and I try to reassure myself that nothing I'm feeling indicates sickness. If that doesn't work or if my stomach is actually upset I try to get into my most relaxed/comforting position (usually tight fetal position hugging a pillow for me) and do some deep breathing to help relax - I often fall back asleep like this. If it's really bad then I stop trying to force myself back to sleep, get up and walk around, maybe go sit on the couch and make myself comfortable. Then I'll often fall asleep on the couch. If not I just watch TV or do something else distracting until I'm tired or feel better.

[EmetophobicTeenager98]

That is a big trigger for me. In most of my experiences with having a SV, I've woken up in the middle of the night and proceeded to vomit. So every time I wake up in the middle of the night, I assume its a SV. Sometimes it just happens naturally because of that thought. What helps me if it happens is I set a timer on my phone to 10 minutes in the bathroom near a toilet and if I don't vomit in that 10 minutes, I know I don't have a SV. Hope I helped!

[emmalinda]

Yes nights are always worse for me. A major part of my panic attacks is the flight response. I will literally get in my car and leave in the middle of the night. Ive even walked around the block because I didnt want to worry people leaving in the middle of the night with the garage. Im trying not to do that now because its a bad habit. What works best for me is meditation. I keep headphones next to my bed and i put some mediatative music on repeat and then do deep breathing as I listen to the music. Counting backwards in your head is a good distractive technique. I normally start from 99.

[CharlieCat666]

In the future, I recommend leaving your bedroom and sitting down somewhere with a book for a little while. While your symptoms may not be entirely psychosomatic, anxiety does cause dizziness, stomach upset, and N*, which is likely why your symptoms do not subside right away. A common cause (and often a symptom) of panic and anxiety is a phenomenon known as "spiraling thoughts" which basically means, you get into a sort of loop (for example, "I feel sick, I might V, I hope I don't V, I can't feel better, what if I V, I don't want to V") and by not doing anything to change the situation, the anxiety only builds.

This is partly why I recommend reading specifically. It is almost impossible to read while actively thinking about something else and so once you are able to "lock in" to reading, your anxiety will quickly dissipate. It is important to read regularly outside of these panic incidents, though; just like a physical skill, reading requires some level of familiarity, especially reading under stressful circumstances.

The change in scenery will also help. Another thing to try is turning on the light and possibly opening/closing the closet door before your leave your room, that way when you do calm down, you aren't walking into the exact same space where you were previously in a state of panic.

[RIV]

So I've been terrified of *v for at least 12 years now. It's beyond a joke! Life ruling if anything. Anyway The worst time is at night if I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and that dizzy panic sick feeling comes across. How do other people cope with feeling this way? I often think about how it's completly inevitable to *v. This really gets me down and upset. What am I scated of! This is such a curse to feel this way. The only thing I take comfort in is knowing I can jump on this site and know im not alone.

Hey Acacia,

Don't fear this happens to us a lot. Nausea is a symptom of anxiety, as you/we all know. Anxiety and stress can also affect us whilst we sleep. This for me is a trigger as both times I had SV was in the middle of the night.

I take precautions to ensure I sleep better and wake up less. These work so well for me, just try to do different things each night though, avoid OCD complications.

1. Exercise - the most amazing thing for anxiety, tire yourself to oblivion.
2. Food - fuel your body during the evening with good foods, a scrumptious dinner four hours before bed and a light snack, like a ginger tea and a buiscuit or banana, bananas are brilliant, google why bananas are good - you will be amazed.
3. When you go to your bedroom, don't hop directly in bed, sit in a chair in your room, or even on the floor and read a book, or a magazine and think about the positives of today. Even if you had a bad day, find something positive, we always excel at something, every day.
4. If you do wake up, roll onto your back and deep breathe, sometimes we wake and feel ill because of too much pressure on our stomachs or intestines (stomach and size sleepers) and also if we become too hot.

Some other points about how you feel its inevitable to v..
1. Emetophobes have amazing resilience, on often occasions we will not v when we have a terrible virus that would have others v numerous times.
2. Take a probiotic, if we do become ill a healthy stomach will make it not as bad as an unhealthy stomach.
3. Be gentle on your hands, healthy skin produces a barrier of GOOD bacteria that stops virus' and bad bacteria from gripping or multiplying, making it easier to wash the badies down the sink - use nice soaps (soap free nourishing ect).
4. Acknowledge that you are not your anxiety, you are a person, whom is individual and brilliant, us with this fear tend to be so cruel to ourselves. We are just as great as everyone and we need to identify ourselves as oneself, not the person that "is emetophobic".

Take care, message if you ever need. You are not alone.

RIV