How Esther starved insomnia of its power and influence in the presence of generalized anxiety disorder (#65)

When Esther stopped taking a medication for generalized anxiety disorder, sleep became a struggle. New medication helped with her anxiety symptoms but a phobia of insomnia remained, no matter what she tried to do to get her sleep back on track. When we started working together, Esther began to make some changes to deal with her insomnia phobia in a different way. Instead of trying to control sleep, Esther refocused on controlling her actions. She explored and committed to new habits such as going to bed later at night, doing something more pleasant whenever she found herself struggling at night, doing things that mattered independently of sleep, and acknowledging her thoughts and feelings rather than battling with them. This new approach gave Esther more options. Options that helped her reduce the pressure she was putting on herself to make sleep happen and break free of the vicious cycle of more trying to sleep and more difficulty with sleep. As a result, insomnia lost the power and influence it once had over her. Watch/listen to this episode