Poppy had an irrational fear of dying when falling asleep, this anxiety issue involves all sorts of catastrophic thoughts for Poppy. Poppy attended 7 sessions of CBT with Psychologist Dr. Daniela Rossi in order to tackle and overcome her fear. In this video Poppy explains her issues behind her irrational fear of dying when falling asleep, before coming in for the initial assessments.
Hi I’m poppy I’m going to talk to you about my anxiety so I usually get anxiety attacks or panic attacks when I’m just about to go to sleep so it’s the point in which I’m lying in bed and I start to kind of overthink everything and think oh gosh well my brain is going at like a million miles an hour but it’s not actually that specific point but it’s leading up to the point in which I’m about to go to sleep but going from awake to sleep as you slip into sleep I feel like that is me dying which sounds so silly but it really feels like my body is kind of giving up and I’m dying so I am sure you can imagine that being awful because every single time I go to sleep I feel like that’s my body dying. So I get shortness of breath I start to panic and get very dizzy and disorientated and my heart starts beating irregularly and heart publications and feels like it’s coming out of my chest.
And when I’m really tired up it’s really difficult because I’m so exhausted but every time I slip into sleep I kind of jolt myself awake to try and like kickstart my heart if that makes sense it sounds so rational and I realise it is so irrational but the physical symptoms are so real so I’m just thinking maybe “I am dying” and then I panic and jump out of bed to try and kick start a system that and I think I have any control over
But it was quite funny because my my friend said to me this afternoon when I was telling her about it because I haven’t seen her for a while she, was saying how it was quite sweet that I thought that I had any say in my death which was quite funny and I’m quite glad that she said that because it just makes you think “what am I talking about” but it is just very complicated because I know it’s so silly but because the physical symptoms are so obvious I cannot breathe I feel like my body’s dying, I feel like I’m about heart-attack I just finding it very difficult to go to sleep because every time I go to sleep I jolt myself awake so it’s like a drop off and then just jolt myself awake again so I think I need to stop my head going at a million miles an hour and to think that really I don’t have a say in my own death quite frankly
But I would really like some help if possible in trying to cope with that anxiety and cope with the irrational fear that I’m going to die every time I go to sleep because I’m really tired.
Please help me, I hope that’s what you needed to know because yeah that’s it, irrational fear of death in my sleep, please help me thank you.
Who can I speak to if I have an irrational fear of dying when falling asleep?
If you would like more information about how to cope with an irrational fear of dying when falling asleep, you can contact one of our therapists at the Private Therapy Clinic for a free initial chat.
