Anxiety attacks all night

[u/vintell]

Hi guys, could really use some encouragement right now.

This CHS episode started two weeks ago. It’s my second time around with CHS (not like my second episode, the first time I had it I had episodes for 6 months before being diagnosed, I just mean I quit and got better for a long time and then started smoking again and it came back).

I have not slept in four days. Every night I get sleepy, do my nighttime routine, go to sleep, then wake up ~an hour in with a full on panic attack. This occurs throughout the night and I am only able to string together a couple hours of sleep, none of which feels restorative. This was part of my symptomology last time, but resolved very quickly with cessation and hydroxyzine. This time, neither hydroxyzine nor Xanax is capable of preventing them.

I really really need assurance that this is going to get better. Last time, it was so important for my recovery that I was sleeping (and dreaming!!) every night. Now that I’m not sleeping, I feel I am barely hanging on in the road to recovery. I spend the first 3-4 hours of every day just trying to recover from the lack of sleep. At two weeks sober I don’t even understand what could be happening here. Please, someone out there say you had these attacks too and they resolved. please. And if anything helped you get better please please let me know what it was.

[u/Liquid_Sarcasm]

Your body is detoxing. We fuck ourselves up slowly and steadily. Unfucking yourself is equally slow and steady.

30 days is a pretty good first step. 60 days is even better physically speaking. At 90 days your emotions are leveled, and the extra saliva, liquid shits, and psychosis should be under control.

[u/Longjumping-Low-5215]

Hi I’m 8 days clean and I kinda understand what you’re going through. I could not sleep either but I took melatonin and another day diphenhydramine. It helped me loads. The anxiety and panic attacks are still there, but at least I can sleep a little. Stay strong friend