anxiety

[margene]

I wake up every morning with a lot of anxiety. Once I'm up and doing things it's better. Anyone know why this would be? I do have a lot of stress right now.

[SteveinMN]

I wake up every morning with a lot of anxiety. Once I'm up and doing things it's better. Anyone know why this would be? I do have a lot of stress right now.
There's your answer -- stress.

I find the times I feel the most anxious are the times I am not actively "working" on something -- whether it's one of the things I'm stressed about or even the mechanics of making eggs for breakfast. Your mind has time to wander and it starts thinking about the way things could work out (and not always for the best). If the anxiety is not manifesting itself as panic attacks, I think you can try to ignore them and just go about business as usual. It would help, though, to sit down (maybe with someone you trust) and figure out what's causing this level of anxiety: time commitments that need to be reprioritized, loose ends brought on by not having a to-do list (or one that just doesn't work for you), visual clutter that needs to be reduced/eliminated, whatever. That may point to how you can reduce your anxiety level more quickly.

[razz]

I am finding that the motto "life happens" helps me. Whether I get anxious or not, life will happen so I focus on being prepared as best I can and then let it go. Most of the time, what I am anxious about does not end up being a problem at all.
That may help you as a suggestion.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Quite possibly is low blood sugar as has been discussed before, and I've experienced it. Watch the impacts of food on your body if you don't already. Overloading with sugar or large amounts of carbs at the end of the day may overwhelm (some may be ok, if well balanced, but you will know what overwhelm is - it's not an intellectual belief about "carbs being bad" but a very definite felt physical sensation where you know you've overdone it for your particular body). Then low blood sugar gets so bad that you wake up afraid.

Watch caffeine, it definitely generates anxiety although that anxiety usually peaks several hours after ingestion, may want to consider quitting it altogether as it is an anxiety amplifier, hard to be relaxed when your body is drugged up for stress. Eat real foods of course, the chemical stuff will definitely mess with emotional equilibrium.

If it's not the physical stuff mentioned above: if your life circumstances are such that would stress anyone out (and some life circumstances will stress most anyone out: people you love getting sick, losing a job, even just chronic crazy deadlines at work) then it's not surprising if they stress you out as well! Obviously the best fix is to change the circumstances when possible but if that doesn't work you could try relaxation methods (I'd recommend easy stuff like progressive relaxation (I do it without the tensing part) over meditation because the latter is quite difficult but hey if you are disciplined ...).

[Gardenarian]

Hi margene - sorry you're suffering this. I just hate that feeling of waking up feeling like there is an elephant on my chest.

I googled "morning anxiety" and a lot of things came up - mostly about getting quality sleep.

Have you talked to a doctor about this? Just to rule out any physical cause.

[shadowmoss]

I read a child psychology article once that talked about how some children don't do transitions easily. It is difficult to change from one activity or environment to another. Think getting ready to leave the house, or leave a friends house where they have been playing. They don't want to stop what they are doing. After thinking about it I realized I don't do transitions easily, either. If I am driving from point A to point B, I will get a late start. Once I'm driving I really don't like to stop. I make a bad tourist. Interstates are my friend. I feel the same issues in the mornings. I don't want to transition from bed to being up. Once I'm up, I'm fine. I may then not want to get into the shower and find little things to 'straighten up' to postpone it. Then once in I enjoy the warm water and don't want to get out of the shower. I go through the day like this, then don't want to go to bed, to be back where I started in the mornings. I feel some level of this pretty much all the time. Stress makes it worse. Just realizing what is going on helps me a lot. Maybe you can look at your situation with these thoughts in mind, and if it is the transition that is the issue, at least you can focus on working with that.

[pinkytoe]

If you're female and approaching or in peri-menopause, then that is most likely contributing. At 45ish, I had the exact same thing happen. I would wake up feeling extremely anxious. It was entirely hormonal in my case.

[puglogic]

If you're female and approaching or in peri-menopause, then that is most likely contributing. At 45ish, I had the exact same thing happen. I would wake up feeling extremely anxious. It was entirely hormonal in my case.

The same is true for me. Now, at 50ish, I wake up in the middle of the night with it, especially if I've consumed a lot of sodium the day before.

Stress kills -- what can you do to reduce your stress?

[Aqua Blue]

When I was in the middle of a divorce and lots of other bad things were happening I would get really anxious. I started a little mind game, that while not a cure all helped me. It was what is the worse that could happen? When I decided what was the worse that could happen I would think then what would I do? I kept doing this until the answer was so absurd that I found it funny. Don't know if that would help, but I try to remember that I don't have to believe everything I think.

[Spartana]

I wake up every morning with a lot of anxiety. Once I'm up and doing things it's better. Anyone know why this would be? I do have a lot of stress right now.
Once you're up and doing stuff you are generally moving. When I move, do things, work out, focus my attention elsewhere I find any anxiety I have just leaves. Try going for a walk first thing in the morning and most things that cause anxiety just slip away - or they become clearer and seem much less daunting. Exercise doesn't just help the body, but it's one of the best things to relieve stress and anxiety there is.