I am 38 years old and 6 months pregnant. Since 15 days I am having anxiety issues. And I am not able to sleep since 10 days for even 1 min. I have tried many home and natural remedy for sleep for nothing works. So now I have started taking zolpidem 10 mg at bedtime since 4 days after consulting gynaec. I am worried about side effects of medicine on fetus and for how many days I have to take medicine. Will my problem be cured or not?

Dr. Saranya DevanathanPsychiatrist50yrs exp

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Dear lybrate-user. Shilpi, sleeplessness can be due to many causes. It needs to be found out and treated appropriately. Pregnancy itself causes sleeplessness. Is it your first pregnancy at 38 years? If so, anxiety about the foetus has to resolved with specific ultrasound and blood tests. Many medicines have not been tested in pregnancy. That does not mean that they harm the foetus. Usually we don't take the trial of testing. When zolpidem has to be avoided, there is no question of how long to take. If the cause is pregnancy, your sleep will be normal after the head of your baby gets fixed into the pelvis.  

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Ms. Rachna MishraPsychologist9yrs exp

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Managing anxiety 1. Yoga and meditation can help cope with anxiety. Simultaneously learn deep breathing techniques. You might think these techniques are ?old school? or ?uncool? but please practise these techniques regularly and with discipline, and we assure you it will help you significantly. 2. Mindfulness - mindfulness is the practise of being present in the moment. It is the practise of observing what your feelings are and accepting them without judgement. For example, when you are feeling anxious - mindfulness is the process of noticing and accepting the anxiousness. Make this a habit and it will help you relax. 3. Getting involved in social work is helpful as it connects you to people, helps you to develop self-esteem and breaks the chain of stressful thoughts. It will also help you get more perspective and realise how fortunate you are - it will help you feel more positive and help you get rid of negativity. 4. Soothing music can also help lower anxiety levels, and so can watching comedy shows. 5. While social media helps you connect with people, late nights spent on social media deprive you of sleep which may raise anxiety levels. Constantly checking social media for ?likes? or for ?last seen? can also have a significant effect on anxiety. So ensure that you are disciplined enough to keep a watch on the same. 6. Train your mind to cope with unnecessary anxiety. Develop a positive attitude and accept that your achievements will at times lag behind your ambitions. 7. Work to get quick wins - look to improve on yourself 1% a day, everyday and while there will be ups and downs in the journey - you will soon be a much better and confident version of yourself. 8. Find your calling - find your passion and your calling and be completely invested in it - you are much more likely to find excellence and then success will come calling (a very powerful quote from our favourite rancho from 3 idiots). You will feel much happier and confident when you are the best and the most successful version of you. 9. Getting regular and sound sleep, eating a balanced diet, connecting with people (as opposed to staying isolated) can help in managing anxiety. 10. Adding supplements to your diet can help reduce anxiety. Some useful supplements are green tea, chamomile tea, kava kava, ashwagandha, vitamin b6, omega-3, iron. Reduction of alcohol and caffeine consumption is also helpful. 11. If nothing else works well enough, consult a doctor for counselling / medications. But medications can cause serious side effects ? use them only for short term. 

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Dr. Deepti BhandariPsychologist19yrs exp

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Plz take all the advices in reference to your pregnancy. Meaning whether a particular thing is allowed in pregnancy or not. It is possible that anxiety has occured due to some emotional-physicalchanges-mentalwellbeing combination within you & around you. First thing is to diagnose the root cause of this anxiety & then to deal with it. I wud rather recommend a psychological help along with homeopathy help. If homeopathy is not able to help, then you can shift to psychiatry. please connect with me in a private window to go further. Some tools that has been certified to heal anxiety (though the root /cause needs to be resolved) I am sharing with you- pmr - url Be/iho02wuzgkc when done regularly twice a day, this exercise gradually alleviates the anxiety and is a sure shot method to relieve anxiety. But should be done religiously. Make a self rating scale of 0 to 10 where 0 = absence of anxiety, 10 = highest level of anxiety experienced. Each time you set yourself to do this exercise - note your anxiety level on 0 to 10 scale in a copy. Do the rating before exercise and after the exercise. Twice daily. Thus in a day you get 4 readings. Tai chi - url Be/ceos2zoyqw4 tai chi is a form of exercise specifically to direct your hyper energies to slow down and channelize your anxious and stress energy to love energy. It is a tested and tried exercise to alleviate stress and anxiety\ om jaap is one such mantra which allows your vibrations to become positive and aligns you to cosmic rhythm itself for ease in life.  

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Mr. Saul PereiraPsychologist50yrs exp

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You definitely need to deal with the anxiety. Why has it come now? Pregnancy can be stressful for some. Please see as counselor and attend tot he anxiety, which is exaggerated fear. Anxiety has all to do with fear and your inability (or so you would tend to think) to handle the same. Fear is based on looking too much into the future and imagining things that usually do not tend to happen (usually 90% of your fears will not happen). You need to change your perception of the fearful stimulus then you can change your response to the fear. The first one is the best and will preempt the need for the second. If you are already far gone into the reaction mode, then you need both responses to counter the attack. The way we see things in life (like half empty or half full glass) is very dependent on our attitude. Attitude may have developed over many years but fortunately can change in a matter of sustained choices made and acted up on now. Sometimes, fear may have originated in childhood and your body, more than you brain, remembers the emotion and will react with heightened fear even for the slightest provocation or stimulus. Sometimes, you may not even need a stimulus! these matters can ideally be resolved in therapy only, and exclusively. Accordingly, you choose to see things as either threatening or as an opportunity. The opportunist will be positive and work with the situation to make good out of it. The individual who sees it as threatening, will, out of fear, try to avoid/run away from the situation or react with anxiety. Yes, self-belief does impact it too, but you can see that prior to that, perception will tarnish the belief system too. Here, you can see that all the resolution lies in just changing your perception/attitude, even if it is against odds. Changing your response, despite the perception, is building up of your reserves and resources to handle any contingency that life throws up at you. And life throws up situations quite regularly and heavily. For this you need to develop a fit mind and body: the former, by meditation and mind exercises; and the later, by exercises and proper diet. You need good sleep too. Included in the development of the mind is the handling of emotions, in your case, fear. These changes will give you a handle on life and your perceptions and responses. Prayer is really powerful, if you are a spiritual person. Repeat some personally framed affirmations that are geared to calming you down and building confidence. Do a personality development course too. Anything that develops you personally will be of great assistance in building resilience. The lack of sleep, i.e. Sleep for less than 6 hours per night, is directly linked to about 86 diseases! so let us first focus on that. In your case particularly, do not sleep during the day; don?t even lie down. Go for regular exercise (breathing through your nostrils only) at a fixed time (at about 6 am) every day, whether you sleep or not. You must develop this habit of sleeping by 10 pm latest every night and wake up at a uniform time by 6 am every morning, even if you do not get sleep. If you do not get sleep, just lie down and if you have a bed lamp (or you could get one) lie down and read something light but not exciting. Your eyes will tire and you will fall asleep. If you like you may also put on light and soft music with the sleep function on. Depending on whether you are a visual or auditory person, you may watch tv in a lying down position until you feel sleepy. Have a warm bath before going to bed (for some people a cold bath at night seems to induce sleep! if you are one of them, please do so). Place the head side of your bed in a north-south position. The room must be as dark as possible and there should be no electronic items that give off even a light led glow. There must be ample ventilation in the room. Avoid strong odors, except lavender, on your body or in the room, or on your sheets and clothes. There should not be any live plants in your bedroom. Sleep with the lightest of clothes or without any clothing. When lying down to sleep, lie down on your left ear as much as possible. Do not sleep directly under an overhead fan. You must eat a good breakfast, a fairly light lunch, and an early dinner, which should be a very light meal. Whatever you eat in the other meals, have only a pure carbohydrate meal at night with any vegetables, and preferably before 8 pm. Do not drink much liquids after or near about dinner time. If you know emotional freedom technique or eft (check this out either on youtube or google), then please practice this too for sleep induction. Self-hypnosis and slow relaxation techniques, at night will be tremendously useful. Acupuncture or acupressure will both be very useful too. You can also try the 4-7-8 breathing pattern, which is to breathe in for four counts, hold your breath for 7 counts and exhale with a whoosh sound for 8 counts. This is to be done four times at a time first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and any number of times during the day. While doing this exercise place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The effects will be seen after a few days. Pray last thing at night before you sleep.  

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