Help with Anxiety/Stress/Sleeplessness

I should be sleeping now....

The past couple of months I've started only getting about 3 hours of sleep a night. I go to bed around 10-11 and wake up around 2-3 and cannot get back to sleep. My mind is constantly thinking about something, even if it's just wierd random things, I can't seem to fall back alseep.

The stress is so built up in me that my neck and shoulders are constantly hurting me.

On top of that, I had an anxiety attack (which I've never had before) the other morning.

My 2 major stressors in life are my job and Tama. I deal with a lot of bull crap at my job and I have a boss that watches my every move, I feel like I cannot even be a minute late, like he's timing me. I tiptoe around my cube to go to lunch, I don't want him to hear me coming and going. Tama is another story for another time, let's just say it involves a ton of cleanup morning, noon and night...sigh.

On the weekends I tend to be able to sleep a little better, but I'm so exhausted that I don't even want to do anything fun, all I want to do is sleep.

I can't take this much more and was wondering if anyone else has this sort of problem and what they do about it. I was thinking about going to the doctor, and I'm sure he will prescribe me something. I just don't want to be drugged up on sleeping pills.

I just want to be able to function correctly.... :(

When I have been in that situation, before going to sleep at all, I would take a pen and notebook and make a list of everything that was worrying me. Somehow getting it down on paper meant my mind could let go of it enough to sleep. I mean, I could always reread the paper in the morning and recommence worrying if necessary, right?

Have you been avoiding caffeine?

I don't drink anything with caffeine in it...

thing is, is that I think of the most random things. For instance, I couldn't get the image of my outlook calendar out of my head, then I had this song stuck in my head...even when I'm awake, I'm constantly thinking about a million things. I don't know what it's like to just relax.

I have many problems with Sleeplessness. I suffer from Insomnia all the time, cause my mind is just constantly churning. The best thing I did was to start taking Melatonin an hour before bed time. It is purchased at any Drug store, and is a Natural Supplement. Melatonin, is Naturally Created by your brain, to promotes tiredness, adn sleep, but sometimes our brains are too active, and do not creat enough. Melatonin, simply helps your brain. I love it! It works! I went through 3 months of Insomnia, getting roughly 2-3 hours of sleep a night, after taking Melatonin the first night, I immediately slept for 8 hours. I highly reccomend it.

Melatonin always worked for me, too, for a while. I think I must have built up a tolerance for it, even though it's naturally produced by our brains. It's worth a try in your case, though. You don't feel drugged or out of it. It does what one commercial touts for its product: it doesn't make you sleep, it lets you sleep. You can buy it at any pharmacy over the counter for just a few dollars.

A cup of herb tea with milk and honey before bed can help. Choose something like Sleepytime or Tension Tamer.

I think some investigation into the BC Gov't Labour dept...some provincial governments have employment counselling available so you can find the right place for YOU. Maybe same job, smaller company.

Suggest: Immediate short-term counselling to deal with the stress from your boss(believe me, I know all about that! May get counselling for the aftershocks of 3+ years of verbal abuse, as it affects my wonderful job now).

Second - start job hunting. With the Olympics just around the corner, there should be other opportunities. Even if it's not the perfect job, if it is a great environment, go for it.

HUGS and put your health first. You can also get the drugs - but slip them in your boss's coffee instead of taking them! ;)

I am sorry you are going through this. It's not fun. :(
I was going to suggest Melatonin as well, but Maggie beat me to it. I was taking it EVERY night for a while, but made myself stop because I didn't want to become "addicted" to it. Now I take it as needed. Even when I take it I do not sleep ALL through the night. I don't think I'll ever sleep through the night, EVER. Even when I was taking cough syrup with Codeine I woke up at least two times during the night.
I went through a few months of bad insomnia. To the point that I'd lie awake and just cry. Even the crying didn't help me sleep.

Maybe try to have a massage once a week to relieve some tension that is built up in your body. I wish I could afford that. :)

Good luck to you.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I went out and bought some Melatonin so I will try it tonight and see how it goes.

I'd love to have tea, but I can't really drink any liquids past around 8 (I know, I sound like I'm 90!!) Otherwise I'll be up all night going to the bathroom.... :p

Work was stressful today, but I went and got my hair done tonight and it was so relaxing!

I'm really hoping the melatonin helps- I don't plan on taking it constantly as I do manage to get a few more hours of sleep on the weekends, but I really need it during the workweek. Today I could barely move by the afternoon, I'm just physically and mentally exhausted.

Again, thanks for your replies and helpful insights. I have no one to talk to about this stuff, so it means a lot to me to have you all trying to help :)

I might add that the anxiety attack comes from exhaustion. When you are tired you tend to think of worse case scenarios and panic. I've been an insomniac forever but quit a stressful job 2 years ago. Now I just accept that I am part cat and need naps..LOL..Not possible during the week but if I'm sleepy I go to bed and take advantage! Some days I get home from work and take a nap before I fix dinner. When I'm up at two I just accept it and do something useful. I don't add to it by stressing out about not sleeping! It's a vicious cycle, I know :(

How about getting out of that place and getting another job? Have you started looking just to see what's out there?

I don't know how big your company is, but is there anything like an HR department that could get you a transfer within the company? Or an EAP for some counselling.

Melatonin is wonderful, as are all the other suggestions...I just believe that at some point you are going to have to change the cause of this stress, or more of your off-work time will be revolving around ways to not get stressed out by your boss.

JMO.

I hope you get some more sleep soon!

{{hugs}}

I had a job that caused me anxiety attacks and I often thought about quitting it but that was back when Mama was dying and I was to close to home to change boats at the time. I wanted to be near enough to be able to get home QUICK! In my mind, I HAD to stay there so I went to the doctor and she put me on medication. That was the worst time of my life. Only take medication as a last resort! It took me YEARS to get off of it due to withdrawls. All I needed at the time was something like Zannex (? spelling?), something temporary to take but those other things like paxil and SSRI's are long term. I couldn't talk to anybody about it because it upset me to much and throw me into another panic attack. I knew all I needed was something temporary and TIME.

What I learned from that part of my life is NO job is worth your health, happiness and life and NOBODY will ever treat me like that again. I refused to go back to that boat and because of that, and with the sick leave I took, I was off of work for right at a year. I rebulit in me what that boat tore down and I am a lot stronger now and NOBODY will tear me down like that again and believe me, they have tried.

FIND ANOTHER JOB! YOU are more important that that job! No job is worth that and neither is no amount of pay if your well being is being harmed. Stress causes all sorts of problems with your health and it DOES effect your health. They are finding it a lot bigger factor in your health than they had thought.

A lot of good suggestions here.

When I can't sleep when I have a lot on my mind, I too, like Karen said, write everything down that I am afraid I will forget to do. It helps a lot.

A couple Tylanol PM's work too and some Chamomile tea, even if you drink it with dinner. It will relax you.

A warm bath or shower helps.

A cool room (temperature wise) helps. People sleep better when it's cool.

Sometimes reading a few pages of a book before bed gets me thinking about the book so it's easier to fall asleep.

Last thing, for your sore neck and shoulders, try a thermacare wrap overnight. It helps me a lot when I have sore shoulders.