Help.."mini" panic attacks as i fall asleep

[curranimal]

Hi, i am a 23 year old man whose had bad anxiety and panic attacks for a while now. I found a method that has pretty much eliminated my panic attacks, every once and a while ill have a panic attack but lately ive been having these what i call mini panic attacks almost right after falling asleep. literally a couple minutes after. its almost the same feeling as a panic attack  normally would be with the drop in the stomach and adrenalin rush then the rapid heartbeat. sometimes they happen once and sometimes they happen multiple times in the same night. I rarely(only once or twice) have waken up in the middle of the night with them, only right after i kind of drift off it hits me like a frieght-train. I have had my anxiety and panic attacks under control for a while now but these new sleep feelings are drivin me crazy and bringing up some of those feelings i thought id kind of left behind... =(  any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

[nursegirl6572]

Hello there!

You've tacked your reply onto a very old thread, and usually those are passed up by most people.

Please start your own thread (link below) so we can help you out!

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/new_with_new_subject?forum_id=71

[Ragnarous]

I know it's been a long time but i am having those anxiety attacks for no reason just when i am about to sleep. When my mind goes into that dizzy mode i immidiately get full concentrate to what my eyes can see(black)and all my senses are back again. If this continues then panic attacks start to occure making sleeping almost impossible. I had insomnia in the past months but then it was no sleep at all, now i know i can sleep i just can't due to these stupid panic attacks. What can we do? :(

[Angelfire1959]

Unfortunately, this is exactly why I went to my doctor and was put on xanax. I had great success with it but am now off the medication and am back to the panic attacks and lack of sleep. I hate to say it, but, if I  
must I will go back to low doses of xanax to stop this. It is destroying quality of life for many and can, if left unchecked, create more health problems in the long run than the medication for it.

[rachel1961]

I have read through these comments and am afraid to say that I am 52 and this has been happening to me for the last year or so.  I am just about to doze off and it hits.  I get a racing heart, my muscles jerk and I have trouble breathing.  I am not afraid to fall asleep - if anything I can't wait to fall asleep.  When it happens I get up walk around for a minute or so and shake it off, go back to bed, throw off the covers because they feel like they are pinning my down and it goes away.  It happens every night.  I don't go to bed thinking about it, it just hits me.  I realize all of you think the common thread is your young age, but sorry it hits us middle agers as well

[Angelfire1959]

Yeah, it does...I am 58. I have been want to get into lucid dreaming but I can't even get to sleep. lol
Truly this stuff is scary at times, but rest assured, it gets more irritating that scary after a while.

[Paxiled]

You sound like you want very much to have a discussion about this.  Again, most of the people on this thread are no longer on this site.  It's very old.  If you make a new post, you will have a better chance of getting some feedback.  

[TroubledRaven]

Exact same problem. I know how it feels dude.

[TroubledRaven]

How are we not brothers...I have the EXACT same fear as you do, the fear of dying in or not in my sleep. I'm just a teenager and I worry about this. Everytime I close my eyes, I feel like my head is in a different world and spinning, and my anxiety starts kicking in even more. When will this go away???

[hafserr94]

This is happening right now.. I'm so scared .. It makes me feel sick..so so worried. Doesn't help when doctors don't know what they are