Hi, i'm looking for some advice for helping out my fiancee. whenever she goes to bed and settles down to sleep she gets plagued by irrational fear of being abducted/tortured/sexually abused that causes anxiety and makes it very difficult for her to sleep. I know that it is just like a mild OCD-type 'tick' type thing (you know where you see something and your brain makes a link to something else and you can't help thinking about it), not a psychological problem of any sort. I guess she just thought about it one too many times and now can't help the thoughts pop into her head whenever she lays down at night to sleep. I can compare the fear to what one feels after watching a truly unsettling/disturbing/scary movie, where you know that the fear is irrational but can't help yourself being afraid of the dark, so to speak. Unfortunately, this just happens at regular occurences, and are seemingly triggered by nothing other than her own conscious thought. I have done my best to reassure her that everything is fine and that I would protect her under any circumstance, but I really feel like some sort of light medication may be the key here. something doctor-prescribed would be ideal, we don't want to make a big deal out of the issue by seeking psychiatric help or anything like that (which always blows things like this out of proportion). We were thinking possibly some sort of basic sleep medication that will just allow her to relax and be too tired to be able to think about these things before falling asleep. if anybody else has had similar problems to this please give me your thoughts, I hate to see her scared like this and feel helpless as there is nothing I can do about it.
thanks in advance!
thanks in advance!