anxiety and WED

[YCantISleep]

In my pre-WED days, I lived by the mantra,"Why waste a good worry"? I would ask myself one question: Can I do anything about this? If yes, stop worrying and fix it. If no, why worry? I can't fix it, so just move on. I still understand this, but I just can't make it work anymore. When the anxiety kicks in I sometimes feel like running away from myself, like I want to crawl out of my own skin! I have meds for it, but only take them if it gets really bad. Would I be better off taking the minimum dose on a regular basis, or the max dose when things get rough?

[ViewsAskew]

In my pre-WED days, I lived by the mantra,"Why waste a good worry"? I would ask myself one question: Can I do anything about this? If yes, stop worrying and fix it. If no, why worry? I can't fix it, so just move on. I still understand this, but I just can't make it work anymore. When the anxiety kicks in I sometimes feel like running away from myself, like I want to crawl out of my own skin! I have meds for it, but only take them if it gets really bad. Would I be better off taking the minimum dose on a regular basis, or the max dose when things get rough?

It's really hard to do, I think.

I find that having good WED meds it 98% of it. If my WD meds work, I feel this way on the rare occasion. When the WED meds aren't working well - I feel this way all the time.

I guess I'd want to experiment and find out if it's separate from the WED or part of it. If you are having any WED, this anxiety may be the WED, not separate anxiety.

[Gabby]

Boy can I relate to you. I've had panic/anxiety attacks for almost 30 years. I've learned many tools for nothing getting into a full blown "panic" attack but it took alot of hard work

[peanut1]

Also keep in mind some of what MIGHT have helped the WED is the HRT patch I'm on so it may not be ALL anxiety. Hard to tell with this damn thing. I agree that telling yourself to stop worrying about something usually is fruitless--at least for me.
My WED meds don't really help the anxiety... well they do in that they help me get to sleep so I don't have to worry about THAT on top of everything else. But then it's like I have to keep taking more and more meds to tame the anxiety. For me the anxiety can be hard to detect. You know your worried or concerned about something, but you don't think it's that bad. However I know it significantly impacts the WED. For example, I had 2 interviews for another job and suddenly the WED practically disappeared and I didn't need to take the meds. Then I realized that I needed to get a roommate due to financial issues and that I can't pretend to postpone it any longer. Suddenly (the day I knew that) the WED was rearing it's ugly head again. And every time I think about getting a roommate I felt a lot of worry in the pit of my stomach. Yes, getting rid of the anxiety is easier said than done. I'm reading John Kabit Zinn on Full Catastrophe living and trying to apply his meditation techniques for anxiety in lieu of pain. although you can use it with that too with the WED. I still need to take meds when the WED is bad (which is most of the time) because it's a balancing act. I'm also trying to do something about the other although it's not easy and there are no easy answers out there with this-- I will be persistent. And I've noticed (at least for now) that I don't need as many meds as before.

[ViewsAskew]

Another non-drug method that may work for some people is EFT - the Emotional Freedom Technique. I was extremely skeptical, but it works very well for me. I haven't a clue why, but I'll take it. It may be all placebo effect - excellent!

It's not hard to do and once you master it, you can do it just about anywhere. Sure, you might look a bit weird tapping your eyebrow, under eye, under nose, and etc areas, or talking out loud, but hey, if you feel better? That's what counts.

They say that you should feel better immediately. I often am not sure I feel different. It's 10 to 30 minutes later when I realize I've completely stopped worrying that I realize, hey, it worked again!

There are some videos here that can help you learn it (by the way, different places give different instructions - I've had luck with the modified method and do not use the full method).

http://www.emofree.com/eft-tutorial/eft ... orial.html

and here
http://www.eftuniverse.com/tutorial/free-videos

[peanut1]

Yes EFT is good I have done that before. I have also done other techniques to help quell the anxiety and I think that might be helping with all of this too.
But I have noticed a dramatic effect in taming the anxiety with the WED. It's like I start to feel the WED go away (so whatever technique works) For me, I have to work on not the anxiety will I go to sleep or the WED pain or anxiety in general, I have to pinpoint what it is I'm actually anxious about and then it takes care of the WED. So that takes an art in itself and some of those other techniques have helped me pin that down.

We all don't know what kicks this thing into high gear making it unmanageable, but I believe for myself living in a panic attack practically my whole life set whatever that is off. Like a lot of things with WED, it's HIGHLY possible that I will be screaming in a few weeks about how bad my WED is even without anxiety, but I really believe this will help me manage this a lot better.

We also know that since we don't know what kicks this thing into high gear, that it can be many different things for many different people.

But last week I only took meds ONE NIGHT OUT OF THE WEEK!!!!!!!

[peanut1]

After a month of sleeping well just with meditation (and an occasional med) the RLS has reared it's ugly head again which I knew it would at some point. However, I'm still working on the anxiety because I really believe that can help me manage it better. Night before last was horrible and I ended up taking 3 different sleeping pills. The next day, I was checking in with myself to see where I was anxious and I was able to pinpoint it better (generalized anxiety takes a while to find out where it's coming from.) I used some of the meditation techniques on the particular anxiety I had and noticed a difference. Still had trouble sleeping and had to take a pill, but the RLS was definitely better than the night before. It was just enough to keep me awake, but not as severe with the pain and the thrashing.

[NellieK]

I do believe there is a connection between anxiety and RLS (or WED). It seems as though when my mind is racing, my legs feel worse. When I feel calm, I am less likely to have RLS that night.

[badnights]

Having chronically poor sleep for weeks or months places us in a continual state of sympathetic-nervous-system arousal (i.e. fight or flight), which is supposed to be a temporary state and wreaks havoc with all body systems when it becomes continual. It can easily cause anxiety and depression, to be constantly on high alert physiologically.

It stands to reason that anything we do to stand down the sympathetic nervous system and activate the parasympathetic NS will reduce the anxiety and depression. Meditation, pinpointing the source of anxiety, mindful living, tai chi, yin yoga, walking the dog ....these types of things should be a part of our daily lives. We should regard them as part of our treatment plan, and not skip them, like we wouldn't skip a dose of medication.

We should do these activities that activate the parasympathetic NS daily, until we find the ultimate cause of our bodies being in a continual state of fight-or-flight; then we can simply address that cause. (Simply - hahah)

I know this - now why can't I DO it?

[Hopeful]

Oh this makes so much sense to me. These days my WED is growing worse quickly. I have doubled my dose of requip and it just makes me tired in the evenings, so I have to go to bed without spending quality time with my husband and daughter. Neither one of them understand that I'm so tired I don't even feel like I have a choice about it- they just feel hurt that I'm not spending time with them. I'm the first one awake in the morning because the WED gets me out of bed earlier than everyone else. Every night I debate/question/second guess the amount of requip to take for the night. I am scared of augmentation, so every night I try to keep it to a minimum with not much success. Many nights I try to go to bed on a lower dose, then have to take more in the night...so the debate in my mind continues throughout the night.

The stress of this is killing me. Both the stress of deciding once again every night how much meds to take, and also just the relentlessness and awareness of dealing with it every night. I think it would be helpful if I could just accept the amount of requip to take and not try to reduce it every night, but my fear of augmentation makes it nearly impossible to do. I'm sure that my nervous system is in a total state of alarm and tiredness all the time.

[Polar Bear]

I sleep very little and for the last few nights have been getting 2/3 hours.
I wonder how the body continues to function - of course it's the flight or fight as discussed by badnights.
Last night I sorted 1400 photographs on my computer, deleting lots and putting others into folders.
This pattern is now my way of life.
Fortunately I am awake with my husband until bedtime, I just disappear after a while when he is asleep.

Hopeful - is it possible to tweak your medication dosage, has this early evening tiredness happened more so just since you increased your requip.
Could you split your new dose of requip. Take the original dose that will let you stay up during the evening and then add the remainder of the dose when you go to bed.

We are all pretty much aware of the possibilities of augmentation.

[ViewsAskew]

Hopeful, you may have said so in another place....how much ropinerole are you taking?

[badnights]

I know this might seem like a silly question but when you wake up at night, have you tried accepting that you will be up for a while, then doing squats, or leg lifts, or whatever intense exercise will subdue the symptoms without endangering you (because you might be half asleep still)? Sometimes I can get back to sleep in a surprisingly short amount of time by doing that. If you're augmenting, though, it won't be so easy, and also because WED is so variable from person to person and time to time in a person's life, it might not work the same for you. I only mention this because I sometimes forget to try it, and it works often enough that I shouldn't.

Also - as views asked, how much ropinirole are you taking?

Another silly question - have you actually asked your husband and daughter how they feel and been told they're hurt, or are you really just intensely worried that they must be feeling hurt? They might have more understanding than you expect. Of course, if they've said they're hurt, then a different sort of discussion is needed. In either case, you need to make them aware of how bad you feel that you can't spend time with them, and find a way of describing what chronic sleep loss does to people, so that they understand that's what's happening to you.

[peanut1]

I am currently getting treated for complex PTSD with acupuncture and they believe this has affected the sleep. However, I only believe this is one component since there are times I can sleep with the flashbacks.

[peanut1]

But I do think one interacts with the other ie the ptsd interacts with the wed, making it worse