Anyone have any tips for anxiety/obsessive-based insomnia? Aka worrying so much about not sleeping that you end up not sleeping, and the cycle continues. Lots of lying in bed in a hyper-charged, anxious, wired state. How to break the cycle and change my mentality?
I've struggled here and there with insomnia for the last decade, but a recent bad spell caught me off guard. In the past CBT-I helped, maybe I pick that up again, but I dunno. This time feels different.
What do I worry about now? I worry about it getting worse. I worry about causing irreparable mental health damage to myself. I worry about not being able to support my family. I even worry about going clinically insane from lack of sleep. None of this has happened, but I worry about it spiraling into that. It's all rooted in self-perpetuating worrying. I'm really good at obsessive and cyclic worrying. :)
So what am I working on now? Meeting my situation with acceptance. Trying to "let go". Trying to "stop trying". It's a little abstract. If I can let go of control, and accept and face my fears, I think my worries will subside. And I think this will all slowly fade. The best sleepers I know? They just don't think about any of this. I need to be the same, just relax and chill and whatever happens happens, dude. I read a few Reddit and blog posts that advocated this approach, it resonated with me. And yeah, I know that even posting this post is kinda breaking my own rule here, on a meta level.
But ya, it's hard. Looking for more tips and healthy mental frameworks. Or magic bullets... although I know those don't exist. :P
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Anyone have any tips for anxiety/obsessive-based insomnia? Aka worrying so much about not sleeping that you end up not sleeping, and the cycle continues. Lots of lying in bed in a hyper-charged, anxious, wired state. How to break the cycle and change my mentality?
I've struggled here and there with insomnia for the last decade, but a recent bad spell caught me off guard. In the past CBT-I helped, maybe I pick that up again, but I dunno. This time feels different.
What do I worry about now? I worry about it getting worse. I worry about causing irreparable mental health damage to myself. I worry about not being able to support my family. I even worry about going clinically insane from lack of sleep. None of this has happened, but I worry about it spiraling into that. It's all rooted in self-perpetuating worrying. I'm really good at obsessive and cyclic worrying. :)
So what am I working on now? Meeting my situation with acceptance. Trying to "let go". Trying to "stop trying". It's a little abstract. If I can let go of control, and accept and face my fears, I think my worries will subside. And I think this will all slowly fade. The best sleepers I know? They just don't think about any of this. I need to be the same, just relax and chill and whatever happens happens, dude. I read a few Reddit and blog posts that advocated this approach, it resonated with me. And yeah, I know that even posting this post is kinda breaking my own rule here, on a meta level.
But ya, it's hard. Looking for more tips and healthy mental frameworks. Or magic bullets... although I know those don't exist. :P
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