Anxiety

  Anxiety attacks, a combination of emotions including worry and fear, often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain, dizziness and shortness of breath, during menopause has two principal causes, hormonal change and sleeplessness due to night sweats.

Oestrogen has a major effect on your mental state, as it regulates the levels of cortisol, the hormone that is a direct product of stress and anxiety. Thus, if oestrogen drops, cortisol cannot be controlled, leading to a feeling of more stress and anxiety. Also an important factor is the health of your adrenal system. The adrenals can normally assist with hormone production; however if your adrenals have become severely fatigued, you may not be properly manufacturing enough oestrogen also, DHEA and progesterone. Without proper levels of these hormones, even a small stress event can rapidly escalate into an anxiety attack.

To make matters worse, studies are confirming that people suffering from a lack of sleep run a high risk of developing an anxiety problem. That’s because a lack of sleep stimulates the part of the brain most closely associated with depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric problems.