Scared of FFI and SFI again. Please help.

Hi Emily,

You've actually provided your own words of reassurance by saying you know in your rational mind that you don't have any terrible disease, and this is all down to your anxiety. You're certainly not going to die.

I can't advise on the psych ward as I'm not in the US. Here in Europe there's no way you can just get yourself admitted into psychiatric care unless you're very wealthy and can afford the fees of a private clinic. Here, we need a doctor's referral, and this would in any case be unlikely in the extreme in the case of someone suffering from anxiety.

Take your doctor's advice and up the dose of citalopram. It will tide you over till your therapy appointment in a week's time. You just need to calm down a bit. Lack of sleep can make you feel rough - I know, I've been there - but it never killed anyone.

If you want go to fb and add me, karri fisher hankins, and we can talk about it.

But dont go to a psych ward. Go to the ER/ED and tell them youre having extreme anxiety and panic attacks, they will help you. You can also request to speak with social services while youre there. ✌

You don't have it. For the same reasons that were given a couple of months ago. 

Find a way to get your anxiety under control and the sleep will follow.  I'd suggest the therapy sessions each week. Exercise daily. Do some deep breathing exercises and just feel yourself relaxing on each out breath. Learn that feeling and remember it when you start to feel anxious. If you replace the anxious feelings with that calmness every time then you will gradually become a more calm person and that calm will bleed over into your sleep. 

Also, you have to stop being completely destroyed when you don't sleep well.  While it is true that you don't feel well after not sleeping, there is no reason you can't go out into the world and continue your life even if you are only at 75% of your best. This will give you more confidence and put less pressure on your sleep.  If you aren't afraid of not sleeping anymore, it will lead to less anxiety and in turn, better sleep. As it stands right now, it doesn't sound like you are involved in many activities (to your comment about work/school) and you are probably hanging around a lot and continuously thinking about how bad your life is because of your poor sleep. I cannot tell you how bad this is for your mental health and sleep. Go back to school or get a job and stay active. It will help you get out of those repetitive thought patterns that contribute to your anxiety.

I don't say any of this to preach to you.  I have just been there and tried everything. I quit a great job when my sleep was at it's worst and it was a terrible decision. A lot of down time to ruminate about your problems only makes things worse. Acceptance of the way things are and deciding to live your life anyway is key to putting it back together. You can do it.

emily im sorry you are going through this i have been there and its terrible. firstly you dont want to go to the pysch ward unless you are truly suicidal or pyschotic. it sounds like what you are describing is extreme anxiety and panic and being in the pysch ward is likely to increase your anxiety. you described some health challenges you are facing and i think it sounds like you could be experiencing some extreme anxiety about that combined with high anxiety about sleep. sleep anxiety js very real and ita a horrible cycle. you can sleep. you have to learn how to ingnore and juat observe the obessive thoughts u have about your health and sleep and not attach any emotion to them. u are workinf yourself up into a panic which makes it impossible to sleep. i recommend the book the effortless sleep method by sasha stephens it is excellent and will get you sleeping better if you follow it. i think health and sleep anxiety is a form of ocd and i know that cognitive behavioral therapy is often the best for that. i agree with the above poster that quitting school and not doing anything is the wrong way to go. it makes it seem to your subconcious like you have a life alterinf health issue when u actually dont u just have built yourself up into a highly anxious state about sleep. do some meditativw breathing before bed. read the book i suggested. trust in your bodies natural ability to sleep. it is def still there. best of luck! u will be oaky

5 hours sleep per night is not that bad. My sister has 2 kids that wake up a few times a night and disturb her. Most nights she gets about 3 hours sleep because of them but she walks to and from school with them, cooks, cleans, does the washing etc. You can get by in the world on 5 hours sleep. The whole 8 hour rule just fuels peoples anxieties that if they are not getting 8 hours they will die or have a condition that affects about 2 people on the whole planet per year.

What you need to do is get a grip on your anxiety which in itself can cause you to be tired during the daytime. Anxiety can cause adrenal fatigue and then fatigue in general.