One aspect of the last few months I haven’t shared as much has been anxiety & the inability to get enough sleep. Some of this is connected to EMFs, but it also seems to be par for the course in dealing with mold and detox. Extreme levels of stress can also lead to anxiety and lack of sleep.
Anxiety is something we’ve all experienced from time to time. It’s a top symptom of thyroid disease and many women seem to experience anxiety more often than men. It is something that has come and gone from my life.
When my son was born, I had significant postpartum anxiety. In addition to the difficulties I had with my physical healing from the c-section, my mind needed to be healed as well. I spent too much time inside in the first few months after he was born. I was too scared to go anywhere. I also spent way too much time wasting time online (EMFs, ugh. I try not to live with regrets, I do regret this decision. I regret missing out on so much of my son’s baby years staring at a computer screen. I’ll never get those years back. I met with a therapist for many months who was able to help me move past the anxiety, getting my thyroid back in balance also helped.
Then I had many anxiety-free years until after I got mono. I started noticing anxiety in certain stores, anxiety around certain times of the day and anxiety in certain scenarios. It became progressively worse over the last year. It seemed to come and go and was always better when I was outdoors. My homeopath was able to help me with it and for that I am grateful.
The anxiety has begun creeping in again in the last couple months. It makes sense, I’m under a lot of stress, not sleeping well, detoxing, and around more EMFs than I have been around since we stopped living in an apartment.
My sleep has been awful. This is creating a ripple effect as well. Most nights I’m only sleeping 5-6 hours a night, I feel best with 8-10. I take naps when I can. I’m struggling to be calm enough and to slow my mind down enough that I can actually rest. I have several techniques that help a bit, none of the “tricks” are working quite right. I suspect my thyroid is upset again, and I’m eager to get lab work done next month (I intend to start on some thyroid support if need be, I need to get my body balanced again).
Typically I do yoga every day, I have only done yoga a couple times since we moved. I am looking forward to having my strength back and being out of survival mode so that I can get back into regular yoga practice.
The upside of my lack of sleep has been that I’ve been able to have some rich, meaningful Bible studies in the mornings. It’s been nice to get up before anyone else while the city is still quiet and sleeping and spend some quiet time. I’ve never been a morning person, if I could wake up early in the morning feeling RESTED I would do this every single morning. Unfortunately, I’m waking up so very tired. I am truly enjoying the quiet time to study, pray and rest in God’s presence. My body is not strong enough to do much exercise or yoga right now, I’ve been so stressed and overwhelmed that I struggled to stay focused throughout an entire day to get much work done. God has given me great blessings to be able to get up in the morning and stay focused to spend time with Him. My “brain fog” has been so bad that it’s almost comical, it goes away when I’m doing my Bible study time- thank you God for that gift.
Every morning I wake up and say “one day at a time” and “relax, it’s going to be ok.” The anxiety will subside, I will sleep much better and my days will become peaceful again. I’m clinging to that truth and that promise.
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