Night Anxiety - really bad!

Lately I have been getting nighttime anxiety and it really sucks. It's effecting my sleep pattern so much and I feel exhausted all the time which has made me avoid exercise or doing anything all day. I work from home but I find I am hardly able to even focus on that.

I'm 21, female, (somewhat physically healthy).

I've been staying up until 5am every day because I just can't get to sleep. Every time I try to go to bed sooner, as I'm lying in bed, my heart starts racing, I get palpitations, my hands and mouth go numb and I feel nautious. It's really weird. I try my best to ignore it and eventually I fall asleep, but then I wake up and I still have chest soreness and fatigue. I also get these "kicks" right before I fall asleep, where I keep abrubtly waking up as soon as I'm drifting off. It's such a pain.

Additionally (This is long so far and hard to explain, sorry), my heartrate is much faster than normal. I think it has always been this way, and last year I took a bunch of tests like an EKG, chest x-ray, ultrasound, and wore a 24-hour holster monitor AND did a stress test, and after all that, found out nothing was wrong. All my chest pain and palpitations seemed to be caused by anxiety, and I was able to go home somewhat reassured. Despite some doctors being like "whoa" when my heart rate shot up whenever I stood.
But to this day, my heart rate, when I'm just sitting or relaxing, is 100bpm or over. I have a hard time believing that anxiety does this... So I don't know what else to do for myself.

I also don't know how such a young person could have heart problems. But I recently got my BP and heartrate checked when I went to the orthodontist (getting my wisdom teeth out soon), and he remarked that they were both high and I should get it checked out.
So this sparked a lot of anxiety for me. I'm going to the doc very soon but until then I'm kind of preoccupied with these thoughts.
Do I have some kind of condition that maybe hasn't been caught yet? Or is my anxiety once again playing awful tricks on me :/ Idk if it's even possible for anxiety to just always cause my heart to be beating quickly even if I don't feel anxious.

Post Edited (Lyrium) : 4/20/2014 9:28:32 PM (GMT-6)

Hey Bernie, I'm sorry you have to deal with that too. I'm actually not on any medication, I know it sounds silly but I get nervous about any kind of medication and usually stay away from it unless it's absolutely required. I don't take meds for my anxiety though I probably should. I try to deal with it on my own.
I hope everything goes okay for you and that your stress tests turns out normally! It's relieving to find out that it's just anxiety and not heart issues, but at the same time it's frustrating to know that anxiety can cause such awful symptoms that usually come back and make you worry all over again.

Yep, I get chest and arm pains as well, pretty frequently.

Well, I first started experiencing symptoms of GAD when I was only 12. I worried a lot more and I was always a lot more anxious than other kids my age and it really effected my performance at school, and I had to go see my family doctor about it. I told him what I felt and he pretty much just told me I was displaying a lot of anxiety symptoms. That's pretty much all you have to do. It's kind of obvious when you ahve it. Everyone experiences anxiety, but when it gets to the point where its overwhelming and takes over your life, then that's kind of a sign that you experience chronic anxiety or GAD. Usually taking an online test can help!

Just a quick reminder folks....

Nothing can take the place of your doctor, and having a real-live, hands-on visit and examination with him in person when it comes to determining what you may or may not have.

Too many so-called online surveys can convince people who may already be scared to bits that they've got some rare form of Indonesian bug bite or something else along those lines.

Make an appointment with your doctor, get examined, get tests done if he feels they're necessary, and please stay off Dr. Google (he's sent more people our way out of sheer panic, NOT out of information). Rely on and trust your doctor.....start from there.







M.