How do you keep from worrying?

[Blue]

I have chronic insomnia and worry at night when there's nothing to do. When i do sleep it's in weird chunks (slept from 10-12 tonight) and my dreams are depressing and/or stressful. How do you keep from worrying about everything?

edit, darn i'm tired and posted in the introductory forums by mistake. This was meant for general discussion.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Well personally what allowed me to stop thinking and get to sleep was medication - I know that can be a controversial topic - but it worked for me. The one antidepressant I tried didn't work, in fact it made it much worse. But when I tried an antipsychotic it really did the trick.

 

[Professori]

You don't because you are wired that way. Night makes it worse. The only way that I can is to distract myself by focusing on something else, to repeatedly think of something that gives me pleasure, or is interesting.

Not too helpful, but unfortunately some are just worriers.

 

[Gracey]

In some respects I can't think of a better time to think things over. No distractions, relatively still, quiet. It's a time when a mind can wander around undisturbed.

On the flip side of that, we're not getting any necessary sleep and that's the goal.

It's not that I stop my worrying completely, it's more about what I can realistically do about the situation in that moment.

For example, later in the evening, just before bed time or lay in bed it's unlikely I can do anything proactive about a big situation at work. I'd need my work colleagues in bed with me to be able to discuss it with them and that's not likely to happen so I acknowledge that it's unreasonable for me to try to fix the problem in that moment
.
I'm not clairvoyant either and so couldn't possibly predict what may or may not happen or what someone may or may not say so it would be unreasonable for me to spend hours trying to anticipate.
So I have to let it go.

Work things out during daylight.

Empty your head into a notebook? Beside each bullet point, scribble a brief plan of action you can follow up the next day?

 

[pax]

I don’t. I have it down to a fine art.

Actually that's not quite true. Sometimes I worry about the smallest weirdest things, other times I don't care.

I think it helps to try to think of it objectively - like "Is this my problem? Is the problem of my making? Should it be dumped at the feet of the owner to take responsibility for? Can I change it? If not, is worrying going to help anything?"? Also sometimes helps to get someone else's perspective- both on whether it is actually a huge problem or how it can be fixed.

A few weeks ago I had the flu and had some weird, scary, suicidal dreams, and woke up feeling really fragile and horrible. It helped to think if I was really any less of a person than I was yesterday, (and take a lot of aspirin and chicken soup.)

Sometimes just being kind to yourself.

 

[OkRad]

Well personally what allowed me to stop thinking and get to sleep was medication - I know that can be a controversial topic - but it worked for me. The one antidepressant I tried didn't work, in fact it made it much worse. But when I tried an antipsychotic it really did the trick.

Which one , sd?

 

[The Midge]

Meds for me. Combination of AD and sedative that targets anxiety too. I wonder if I'll ever get off them.

 

[LogicalMind]

Listen to songs like the following

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Which one , sd?

Not sure if you're on about the antidepressant or the antipsychotic that helped me. But it was sertraline and risperidone, respectively. I'm off of risperidone now though as I was getting a side effect. I'm now on aripiprazole and I don't get any side effects from that at 10 mg.

 

[Kisa the tea]

I so had this before my anxiety meds. I would wake up like every hour, look at the clock, change positions and go back to sleep.

 

[Blue]

TY all for the replies. Medicine doesn't work for more than a few months for me. I've tried all kinds of anti anxiety/depressants for 2 decades.