Anxiety is a state characterized by feelings like fear, nervousness or impending doom sensation. The syndrome of anxiety is described frequently as a functional cardiac disturbance due to the several physical symptoms that generally come along with the syndrome: dizziness, chest pain, accelerated heart rate, nausea, etc. That is why the differential diagnosis is very important in order to do an accurate diagnosis.
Anxiety as a cause of insomnia
Both, psychological and physical symptoms interact in the anxiety syndrome. Some authors postulate that physical experience in this syndrome is primary, others believe exactly the opposite. Whichever is primary, what is absolutely clear is that both symptoms caracterize the anxiety syndrome.
As it is very a common human emotion, that is why is so important to know when we are in the presence of a pathological anxiety and when is just an adaptive response. Usually this type of response becomes pathological only when it becomes disabling.
The anxiety syndrome may produce insomnia with high frequency. There are several investigations that relate having trouble in sleeping with some of the most usual anxiety disorders. As this syndrome is caracterized sometimes by the fear of dying, many patients declare that they cannot get asleep because they think they may not awaken anymore. This is just one of the most common situations in wich anxiety disorders often cause insomnia. Generally it depends on what kind of disorder the patient has. The following disorders are part of the large group of syndromes where anxiety is the main symptom.
Anxiety disorders and insomnia treatments
These disorders are frequently described in any well-written psychiatry textbook:
*Agoraphofia
*Acute Stress disorder
*Generalized anxiety disorder,
*Obsessive-compulsive disorder,
*Panic disorder, among others (usually you may find 11 tipes of anxiaty disorders in the most famous psychiatry books).
What is really our matter is this subject is to be able to arrive to an accurate diagnosis. If we can get to the main disorder that is inducing insomnia, then we could be able to treat it correctly. It is very usual to find patients that are being treated in their disorder in the sleeping activity, when actually they are also suffering an anxiety disorder.
This is why, in order to treat sleeping disorders or insomnia the first step is to know what kind of mental or physical disorder is really producing it. Once the diagnosis is clear, is it highly recomended to combine psychotherapy with psychopharmacotherapy . The specific type of medicine and the election of the type of psychotherapy is somethig that depends of the professional´s choice ( psychiatrist and psychologist).
Whenever natural tranquilizers are chosen, insomnia will be prevented. For example, using teas made of Passiflora incarnata (passionaria) or Tilia Americana (basswood in the USA), anxiety will diminish and this will promote sleepiness.