Anxiety
Hi Everyone,
So, this week I wanted to address a point a few people raised in relation to my revelation that I don’t sleep very well. There was some concern that this was caused by my blogging, which might be one of the contributing factors, but in fact it is caused by anxiety. A condition I suspect we have all encountered at one point or another.
I was discussing my sleep patterns with a work colleague and he rolled his eyes and announced alarm anxiety. And for those who don’t know what it is, here’s a convenient definition for you:
Alarm anxiety is the fear of clock failure or the stress of not getting enough sleep before the alarm goes off. This is rooted in classical conditioning, which is when a conditioned stimulus (alarm tone) is preceded by an unconditioned stimulus (wake up).
So, how does alarm anxiety affect me? Well, every night as I go to bed I open up the alarm on my phone, check that it is set, then say out loud, you have to be up in x amount of time. X is usually half an hour before my alarm goes off.
Then, I start waking up from approximately midnight every 15 to 30 minutes to check what the time is, before waking up half an hour before my alarm goes off.
Before you ask I have tried setting my alarm later, but that just seems to exasperate the situation.
Perhaps you’re wondering why I am so worried about my alarm going off, I mean sleeping in never hurt anyone. Well initially I started stressing because my alarm would wake hubby, who did not take it well, then it was because I have so much to do before I head off to work. I now begin waking up from midnight and get out of bed at 3:30am.
So this week I’m asking have you, are someone you’ve known suffered from any type of anxiety and did they implement anything to help overcome it. If so, how?
Looking forward to your advice.
© NopeNotPam
A-DAW Arts 
In Ramadan, I have this anxiety because everyone in the family has to have eaten before fajr prayer time. I counter it by going to sleep as early as possible so that I at least have 4-5 hours of sleep. Sleeping after eating is an option too.
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It must put a lot of pressure on you, you’d need to be very organised
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Oh yes I do need to be very organized. But since it’s only one month out of 12, I can manage.
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As you probably already know, I’m an extremely anxious so it’s probably odd for me to try to give advice, but I find that walking myself through what’s bothering me and visualizing ways to address it can help. So for example, if I’m worried about something at work, I say to myself, I’ll make sure I get to work a little early so I have time to settle in and make my to-do list for the day, and rehearse potential difficult discussions in my head and visualize how to stay calm. I repeat affirmations to myself that I’m strong and I’ll get through it because I’ve always gotten through it. When that fails I remind myself that the clock continues to tick and at some point during the day I have to go home regardless of what’s happening. If that fails too, I remind myself that I’ll walk out if it comes to that! The TL;DR here is: take your time to think things through with ways to counter them.
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Good advice Hetty, I’m very emotional and reactive, but I was proud of myself today. Someone at work was very rude to me, but instead of shutting down I said to myself you don’t know what he’s going through, he doesn’t know what you’re going through. Reacting won’t improve things. Then I went to the toilet and cried.
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Hey that’s a great way to reframe things in your mind. I read a slogan once that said “What other people think is none of my business.” It feels good to let things roll off your back. Cuz really, who knows what people are going through? I feel bad for all the times I’ve snapped at people because I was upset and it had nothing to do with them. And if the guy’s just a plain jerk, well, that’s his problem and whoever he lives with. I get emotional extremely easily too, especially if I’m afraid I’m going to get in trouble. I make a game out of it–every time I make it stoically through something unpleasant, I consider it like “leveling up” in a video game and I feel that much more capable the next time something comes up.
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I still wanted to kick him
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