Does anyone feel more anxious or just out of sorts in the morning?

It seems as though after the noon hour, I'm doing great. The anxiety is gone, the palps are gone, I just feel really good. However, when I wake-up in the morning, I'm feeling anxious for absolutely no reason at all. Can anyone else relate to this?

Thanks again!!!
Karen

OH GOD, YES!!!! I'm at the tail end of things and after recently going through 4-5 months of no periods (and mostly feeling *even*), my period came back and brought back the nasty anxiety symptoms with it. The last couple of mornings when I have woken up, I get the adrenaline rush, heart racing a million miles an hour, sweating and shaking. My morning shower phobia is back. The only differnece now is I KNOW these symptoms will abate as longer stretches of no periods happen.

I do hope you feel better. This just plain s*cks.

I'm right there with ya!!! I used to be such a morning person - popping out of bed, full of energy and feeling good at 6 a.m. Now, it's a struggle to drag my butt out of bed, and I wake up with the palps and rushes and soaking wet. So, I can relate to what you are going through, and it's no fun at all. I have been taking chromium, which helps regulate blood sugar, for a while now, and, at first, it seemed to help the anxious feelings in the morning, which I attributed to low blood sugar. But now, even with the chromium, the queasies and adrenelaine rushes are there. I hope it settles down soon, for both of us. I just keep telling myself it is my hormones, and so I don't get as worried, but it's still hard.

Take care.

Thanks Gia and Ally, I was hoping I wasn't the only one having some rough mornings.
Gia, I'm sorry it has come back though you have the comfort of knowing that it's only a matter of time before it goes again. The dreaded shower, now I thought I was the only one that feared the morning showers! Isnt that so strange how your life can change just like that. I used to LOVE morning showers, now I can't wait to get out of there. And Ally, I used to love my mornings as well, now I can't wait for the middle of the day. Yes, I get the adrenalline rushes, sweating and palps, it's so crazy.
Why in the mornings though? Does something happen to our bodies over night?

Well here's to some good Sunday night television, and hopefully a better morning for all of us!

K~

I seem to be just the opposite. My anxiety comes almost like clockwork at around eight in the evening. I have noticed that if I drink any caffiene besides my AM cup of tea that it gets worse. My period which is terrilby irregular now seems to trigger it too. I'm only 47 and I have many more years that I have to work and let me tell you, it is getting harder and harder to make it through the work week. I get so tired so easily and I used to have a ton of energy. The good news is when peri ends I heard that things get a lot better, hope thats true.

Gosh, I totally relate to this morning anxiety. I'm only 45 and have years more to work. It's such a struggle for me now. If I don't work, I wouldn't be able to afford all these expensive treatments for my symptoms of heart palps, irregular periods, cramps with phantom periods, migraines, fatigue, etc...LOL. I had 2 depression episodes during a 10-year period. So all the docs think it's just depression. In the evening, I get anxiety too if I have to go out & socialize with people.

My ob-gyn did a FSH test & rudely ruled out peri or menopause. A psych is pushing me to be on celexa as I took it 3 yrs back for so-called depression & it worked. I take a small dose of ativan in the morning to help me get through. but the anxiety, fatigue, funny feeling in the head like i'm going crazy is hard to cope with. i'm trying to use breathing exercises but it is not working - as yet.

I know what you mean about it getting harder to get through the work week. Until 2 years ago, it wasn't unusual for me to work 10 or 12 hour days and still have energy to work out and socialize regularly. And, I love my job - always have, but I am just so darn tired all the time, in spite of cutting down on my working hours and getting to bed at a relatively decent hour. I'm hoping the estrogen will help return me to my normal state. I miss me :-(



It is so frustrating to go to doctors and be treated like that. I'm sorry you are having to deal with unsympathetic and, obviously, uneducated doctors (in terms of women's health issues). I know this sounds bitter, but if a man went to the doctor about heart palps, fatigue, crushing headaches, the doctor would run all kinds of tests before even considering depression or anxiety. It's so sad that women continue to be treated in a second-rate manner. In the past two years, I have been subjected to about 8 antidepressant trials, all of which made me feel worse and did nothing to help my symptoms. It wasn't until I found my current doctor that it was finally acknowledged that I did NOT have depression, and that my problems were hormonal. He has been a godsend.

Have you thought of going through the Patient Empowerment Program and trying some bio-identicals to help relieve your symptoms? I read a brief article recently (it was probably old, but it was something that I found on the net) by a doctor who said, if I am remembering correctly, that it is probably better to treat the types of symptoms we are having with NHRT in perimenopause rather than waiting for full menopause. Also, there are studies (although small) that suggest women in perimenopause who experience onset of depression or worsening of depression benefit from estrogen. So, why the heck don't doctors pull their heads out of their butts and start treating us with what has the potential to work instead of making us feel worse than we already do.

Sorry for the rant.

Here's an example of what my anxiety ridden morning is like:

Waking up:

- Open eyes and realize I have to go pee.
- I swing my legs over the bed and get up.
- Once I've walked three steps, I feel like the air gets s*cked out of me (weird, I know) thenI get an adrenaline whoosh, then the heart zooms. I can hear my heart thumping away at a fast rate in my ear.
- Heart thumping in my ear causes more anxiety, which cause the heart to beat more.
- About this time I break out into a sweat.
- I take deep breaths and I'm back to normal within minutes.

Shower Doom:

- Get in shower
- I feel like I can't breath
- I want to run, but have soap in my hair/or on body
- I tell myself to take deep breaths while I'm frantically trying to rinse off, cause god knows I need to bolt out of the shower at any moment. To where I would bolt to is a mystery.

Now, I've done a google search and found lots and lots of women and articles about the adrenaline rush and racing/thumping heart. It's apparently a big time menopause thing. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of dealing with this stuff, which seems to come in clusters by the way.

I haven't had a period in years but this summer the morning anxiety about did me in. I would wake up and my heart would be pounding, my hands shaking, and horrible thoughts would race thru my mind. Sometimes I would have to put an ice pack on my neck and lie down before I could muster the strength to get dressed. A couple of times while driving to work I thought I was going to have to stop the car and get out and run away....I didn't know where I was going to run to I just knew that I was in flight mode. Then I would get to work, sit at my desk and pray that I didn't faint from all the adrenaline racing thru my body.

I still don't understand why it is that morning brings such anxiety. What happens to our body during the night that makes us so crazy in the morning....

I'm taking klonopin every morning and it helps and I've also started on Zoloft.

I hope if there is such a thing as reincarnation I come back as a man the next time - I don't think I could go thru menopause again.

I don't know why this is more common in the morning, but it really is. I used to pace around the house from about 5:00 a.m. to about 9:00 a.m. every day for a while. It drove me nuts. I really sympathize with you all, but trust me, it does go away!

I really don't know why mornings are so tough for us. I believe there are some prior threads on this subject here. I think the lack of estrogen at certain times causes the spikes in anxiety, racy/pounding hearts and other things. Also our bodies are more sensitive in the morning with cortisol being pumped out at a high rate to wake us up.

Isn't amazing how we're one big vat of hormones?

Oh how I can relate to this problem! I had a nasty return of the anxiety monster starting in late summer. I am on a low dose pill, but went off Lexapro almost a year ago and I think the combination of the 2 was keeping the anxiety away. Anyway, it came back with a vengeance and the morning anxiety and those darn adrenaline rushes almost drove me crazy again. I went back on the Lexapro and my doctor had me take .50 mg of ativan each morning as soon as I woke up until the lexapro fully kicked in. It really prevented the morning anxiety - but you can't take it forever.

I read somewhere that the hormone cortisol is higher in the morning when you wake and that it can cause anxiety in some people.

I hope you all get relief from this - it is really no way to start the day!

mauras