Hello, I read your story and very much relate. I've been ill since May this year and still suffer much the same.

My day is a lot like yours.

I usually wake very early - 6 or 7... lie awake for several hours (I look at the clock one minute, look back the next and several hours have gone by. I'm always time shifting...), have a small breakfast, go back to sleep. The tinnitus is always at its worst when I wake from any sleep. Then I eat some lunch, move to the sofa and lie there for a few hours, maybe listen to radio 4. I'm trying not to sleep too much into the afternoons or I can end up not getting to sleep until 4am and waking at 7am.

I was trying to go for a daily walk but the last month or so I haven't been able to because I always get so tired I just want to lie down in the middle of the grass and then I get in a stress about how I will get home.

A friend took me for dinner a couple of weeks ago which was ok for an hour or so but then started feeling very drowsy, all i could think about was falling asleep on the table. Thank god he was driving me home.

I'm in the UK also - in the South East. Have you contacted Headway? They have groups, too, I think. I keep forgetting to call them.

Btw, I was told Citalopram can makes people more anxious the first week or so they take it so that might not be best for you at the moment. My dr prescribed me diazepam to help with the anxiety which I take maybe once a week at most. It depends how often you're getting the panic attacks.

Beta blockers can be very good for panic attacks and have few side effects. May be worth asking your doctor about some as-and-when type medicine for the panic.