Will I ever get better?

Hi everyone. I've recently been diagnosed with anxiety/depression. I have been waking up tired everyday now for about 10 weeks. I am on anti-depressants and have just started seeing a councillor.

The anxiety about feeling tired seems to feed its self. I wake up tired, I'm constantly thinking about this, the more I think about it the more anxious I get and so the tiredness continues. I have moments of massive tiredness where I could almost fall asleep stood up, yet at other times the tiredness isn't so bad. I also feel physically ill with it sometimes. I've had blood tested and everything is normal

I've tried exercising, adjusting diet anything that might help but nothing does. I'm now off work with this thing and I just can't see an end to it. I wake up scared and frustrated every morning. Oh and it's worth mentioning it doesn't matter how much sleep I get, the sleepiness is almost always with me. What can I do, it feels like this will be with me forever!?

How about waking up making yourself believe that you're not tired. And even if you feel tired don't let it register into your mind and do things that will keep your blood and body alive and somehow make yourself distracted from thinking about it. Just like you said the more you think about it the more anxious you get and so the tiredness continues. What you can do is break the cycle. It's hard to do and it takes time to practice. If we're talking about sleepiness you might want to get it checked out thoroughly to rule out any serious health condition related to it. Being tired is different from being sleepy, do you get them both at the same time?


From what I read there is also more than one reason for feeling tired from anxiety. The most common reasons include:

Crash – The main reason has to do with the crash you feel after your adrenaline runs out. Anxiety is like being on high alert. Your body is preparing you as though you're about to get ready for a fight, and so it floods with energy in order to get you ready to attack and run from anything coming at you. Of course, nothing comes at you, and when that adrenaline runs out your body goes through a crash that can cause severe fatigue and tiredness.

Post Muscle Tension – There's a relaxation exercise known as "progressive muscle relaxation." The goal is to tense each muscle as hard as you can individually one at a time until you've tensed every muscle in your body. The tension is so draining that the muscles end up losing their energy an relaxing. Anxiety causes profound muscle tension all throughout the day, and often this causes a similar "drained" feeling that makes your body tired.

Mental Tiredness – Some of that tiredness is entirely mental, simply because your brain – like a muscle – can also run out of strength. Anxiety can cause a host of rapid, stressful thoughts. When it does, your brain is incredibly active. So it should come as no surprise that all that hard work makes it tired to the point where it wants you to rest.

Coping – Becoming tired is sometimes a coping mechanism that your body uses to prevent you from experiencing severe stress. Tiredness allows you to rest in a way that stress doesn't, so some people's bodies are tired on purpose in order to make sure the anxiety doesn't get too overwhelming.

Relaxation Habits – Do you often try to go home and take a nap? You may be developing a tiredness habit. Your body still start to crave the nap more each and every day in order to make sure it gets that much needed break from anxiety.

Sleep Issues – Many people with severe stress and anxiety also develop very serious problems sleeping. They may even wake up in the middle of the night without realizing it. All of this contributes to an overall lack of sleep, which causes natural tiredness.

Depression – Finally, anxiety can cause temporary or fully depression, especially after an anxiety attack. That depression creates a complete loss of energy, and that loss of energy makes it very hard to stay active throughout the day.

It sounds as if perhaps you are still depressed? Seeking to escape from unpleasant or empty feelings is not uncommon with depression.

It could also be that you are simply wrung out from combating the anxiety? How are you feeeling...what is your gut feeling?

Sometimes it helps to ask yourself some questions to get the answers that you seek.

Maybe you could ask yourself:

Am I feeling empty/hopeless about my current situation and/or the future?

Do I feel that my current treatment is effective?

Have I made progress/improvement from where I started?

Keeping an open dialogue with your doctor is going to be essential. Keep talking with us too. You will get to where you want to be...it just takes some time and trial and error with treatment options...try to hang in there!

S.C.

Wanting to go to sleep is somehow connected to depression. I remember being depressed since my dad found another woman that broke my mom's heart big time. They lived together so many years but ended up being apart. I lived 17 years of my life having the perfect family then all of a sudden it was torn apart. I remember WANTING to go to sleep most of the time as I felt empty inside and purposeless. I lost interest on most things that made me just WANT to sleep or FELT sleepy most of the time. Also making my life more miserable will only bring burden to those people who truly cares and loves me. So I have to move on with my life. Now my problem is, now that I've gotten over my past and once again found joy in my life, I had anxiety. I wanted to live long and became so health conscious. I think having an unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle before for so long is making a toll on me that causes me to think that I'm in a bad shape or serious health condition.