Dear Anita,

Thank you. I used to write a lot in the past, but now I feel stuck. I’ve never been able to finish a journal, can you believe it?

“the lying in bed awake… the OCD thoughts of leaving the light on and so forth. And I know the panicky feelings, getting scared of the fear itself and how worse can it get, adding fear to fear.” Exactly. While I was out in the living room, it didn’t bother me at first to be in the dark, I felt too ill. But then that fear crept up on me. I didn’t know what to do except turn on the lights and go to my room as quickly as I could. And that anxiety attack… It was horrible. I felt like I was going to die.

“when you are significantly afraid and the fear is escalating, you become mindful of it, meaning you become aware that not ALL of you is scared, only part of you. You move yourself from being suffocated underneath the fear, freeing yourself that way so that you can position yourself side by side to the fear and observe it. You position yourself so you are no longer one with the fear but you can observe it from another part of your brain.” This sounds like a good thing to do. To observe the situation from another angle.

I will definitely practice the exercise you’ve just showed to me. I’m thinking it will work well with my anxiety attacks. However, will it work well when I am scared of the dark, or having frightening thoughts? Or would it make that worse? I mean, technically they are all fears, I just suppose I am more scared of the dark and the frightening thoughts than the anxiety itself.

Is there anything I can do about my sleeping problems? I don’t like lying down in bed for about 2 hours without being able to fall asleep, sometimes it takes me even longer.