Why are all of my severe anxiety attacks at night?
1 Answers
Moderated by Sarah Robb, LISW-S (Licensed Independent Social Worker, Supervisor Designation) and LICDC (Licenced Chemical Dependency Counselor)
Updated: Jun 15, 2019
Anonymous
on
Jun 15, 2019
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Hey! There could be multiple reasons why your worst anxiety attacks occur at night. Often, anxiety attacks have one or more triggers. This could be pretty much anything. I therefore recommend to people who don't know their triggers to keep a diary with the following information. When did my anxiety attack occur? Where was I when it occured? What was I doing at the moment the attack occured? What did I do in the hour before the attack occured? Who was I with when the attack occured? How severe was my attack? |
Keeping track of this might help you to discover certain patterns in your anxiety attacks. For example, you know that the severe anxiety attacks happen at night. But keeping a diary might give you more insights. For example, you might discover that they occur right after you're alone for the first time in the night. Or they might occur when you start to reflect back on the day. When you turn off the lights... Each pattern you might discover can be valuable to you and a (present or future) counselor or therapist. Not discovering a pattern is fine as well, that can be valuable information too.
In addition, did you know that sleep deprivation works as a catalysator for anxiety attacks? If you're very tired, your anxiety attacks could and will most likely be worse than when you're well rested. It might be a reason why the night attacks are worse as well.
I can't give you a definite answer as to why your severe attacks are occuring at night, since I don't know you nor the conditions of your attacks, but I hope that this answer has given you some insights that you can work with. I wish you all the best.
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