Hello. I am not sure if you can help me with this, but I have a huge problem when going to bed at night. Every little noise has me looking out the window and tossing and turning. I am so scared that someone is going to break into our house while we are sleeping and murder one, if not all of us. This “anxiety” problem started to get a lot worse after my daughter was born 2 years ago. It is starting to take a toll on me. I worry all the time about something happening to me or my husband or worse, even both of us and my daughter not being able to get to have the family she loves so much. My real father was shot 2 months before I was born, do you think this could be related?
A: Yes, I think it is related. You know from your own experience that parents can be taken away from their children. Like any good mom, you want to protect your daughter from whatever feelings of confusion, loss, and missing out on having a parent that you had as a child. Your rational self knows that it is highly unlikely that history will repeat itself. But feelings like these aren’t rational. Once a worry has become full blown anxiety, it takes more than giving yourself a pep talk to relax. You would probably benefit from a combination of some anti-anxiety medication and some talk therapy to work through your feelings. I hope you will make an appointment with a behavioral health clinic right away. Your daughter needs and deserves a relaxed and rested mom. You need and deserve to be free of these fears.
I wish you well.
Dr. Marie
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Sep 2007
Hartwell-Walker, D. (2007). Too scared to go to sleep. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 14, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/ask-the-therapist/2007/09/10/too-scared-to-go-to-sleep/
