Night/Early-morning "anxiety" caused by need to urinate

I get up once a night to pee, Some nights it’s 2 AM other night it’s 4 AM. It varies..

I never have Any anxiety after getting back to bed, But I have lived with prostate cancer and reoccurrences for 15 years. My anxiety is gone.

The first few years I had prostate cancer there was a lot of anxiety. Wondering how long I would live, Did I have five years?. This type of anxiety is very common, especially in the first few years after diagnosis and treatment. You are right in that hot spot. If you’re only having anxiety after you pee at night, that would be quite unusual. We have an awful lot of people that have come into this forum asking for help with anxiety. There are a number of drugs you can take that will almost totally relieve that anxiety, But it doesn’t seem like you have significant issues that are keeping you awake at night, or making you think about it constantly during the day.

Overtime that anxiety will reduce greatly, Eventually going away.

My husband does not, but he is a special case with nerves of steal and sleeps like a rock in any situation. Actually I was afraid to let him stay alone in hospital thinking that he would sleep so deep that he would forget that he had surgery and get up half awake with catheter dangling down - anyways, he is not even aware in the morning how many times he went or if he even went.
BUT, I personally understand what nerves can do and my interpretation of your situation is that you have mild PTSD 😔.
Your subconsciousness is waking up in lite part of sleep phase and letting you know that something is amiss (surgery happened and all other bed stuff) and urination involves the part that was in pain after surgery. The moment you pee and are fully awake your consistence takes a charge and you know that all is well and you relax and go to sleep.
I am not psychologist, but it could be it 🤷‍♀️. It should resolve soon, the more time passes it will get better and better.

I had RP 15 months ago at age 70. Even though I was pretty much immediately continent after the catheter came out, I definitely had some anxiety which I believe was due to me not being fully confident in my ability to sleep through the night without having an accident (even though I only once had a very minor accident one night early on). As @surftohealth88 so well described it above, for me the anxiety slowly resolved over time as I grew more and more confident with my "new normal". But I definitely remember thinking that my mind was intentionally waking me up to urinate so I didn't have an accident, even if the physical urge wasn't yet very strong. Now at 15 months, that's all in the past and while I generally will wake up needing to go once a night (on average), it's only because I do actually physically have the need. The anxiety is gone. I don't know if it really helped, but I kept a disposable absorbent pad under the bottom sheet on the bed a few months longer than I physically needed as it seemed to help me get past the anxiety. After all, if Linus can have his security blanket I decided I could have my security pad 🙂 Best wishes.

@jeffmarc
My anxiety is "before" I urinate. I seem to awaken slowly with an unpleasant dream or feeling of tension/anxiety. Then I realize that I "could"/"should" pee. There is not any huge urgency, but I do need to go. So, I get up to urinate. "After" I urinate, I return to bed and notice the anxiety is gone. It's like the need to urinate slowly builds while I sleep, and my anxiety increases proportionately. It's weird, and it is no longer a coincidence, I am anxious before I urinate, and calm after I urinate.

@retireditguy Thanks for your reply. From the moment my catheter came out, I was able to sleep through the night - for whatever length - with any accidents happening. I think it was a "gravity thing" - laying down in bed does not place any pressure on the bladder, so I never leaked, not once. I now sleep without a diaper because I know I will be fine. My anxiety builds with the subconscious need to urinate in the early morning hours between 4:00 - 5:00. The anxiety awakens me and I lay there comfy and lazy, not wanting to get out of bed, but...I do. I urinate, and go back to bed, and my anxiety is gone after urinating.

@rlpostrp Definitely the wrong answer from me. We get so much anxiety from people in here that the anxiety that you’re gonna pee the bed is definitely not the same as the anxiety about prostate cancer in general. I’ve had that happen a couple of times in the last 10 years, But it’s not something I worry about, My mattress pad is waterproof And it hasn’t happened in years.

For years now my bladder has been an issue at night, even before my PSA began to elevate. My prostate is not that large, but it was chalked up to BPH before cancer was finally diagnosed. I wake every hour or two, feeling the urge to urinate. I’ve been on Myrbetriq which helps a little, but learned the easiest thing to do is to get up and pee rather than letting it make me anxious. Currently in the midst of SBRT for PCa my bladder irritability is even worse; after today’s (treatment #3/5) I’ve been voiding every half hour and fear the same will happen through the night. I started Flomax (tamsulosin) last night added by my Radiation Oncologist. I tried several alpha-blockers in the past but disliked the associated retrograde ejaculation; but of course that’s a moot point now following SBRT and ADT.