How do I wake up in the morning and deal with feeling tired and miserable?

I know you don't want to look at sleep. The problem is that any competent health care provider - be they medical or mental health - is going to ask you to work on your sleep first. As intelligent as we are, we are physical animals and our stress levels are very much dependent on is getting adequate rest.

So you have to see a doctor. He will go over physical issues, but included will be the concept of "sleep hygiene." Look it up, and follow it. Not only will it improve the amount and quality of your sleep, the behaviours overlap with those for reducing stress.

As for your "morning terrors," you do not really describe enough of what is going on to address it. You have dread, but of what? You need to explore that.

You will probably want to have a morning ritual to relax you and make you feel prepared. Some people feel a benefit of a small amount of caffeine (this mood altering drug does NOT make you less tired; what it does do is open blood vessel in the brain, bringing more nutrients/oxygen and improve focus, sometimes mood). A small tea can be helpful.

I say this one too often, but this is a standard in the field of mental health, your counsellor will either recommend it directly or give you a riff off of it and you need some sort of coping skill: look into cognitive behavioural therapy. There are plenty of books on the topic, also websites (but I recommend starting with books since websites can start in the middle, whereas a book is planned). The industry standards are "Mind Over Mood" or "Feeling Good" but there are plenty of good books at libraries and bookstores.

You would particularly benefit from a skill called a "thought diary" which is taught very early in the process. Also, since coping and stress relief are not a part of the curriculum anymore, CBT can just be a good life skill for coping in the future.

Mindfulness, which is also in CBT practice, would also help you in the morning. There are many ways to accomplish this. It would be in the books, but you may be familiar with meditation or prayer, which use similar principles and you may be able to practice immediately.

Lastly, you likely cannot reduce your morning stress without reducing your overall stress. That means keeping on top of things, seeing friends, having hobbies, taking care of yourself, etc.

Take care.

Maybe the first step would be to figure out what's causing you to feel this way. You can't just zap feelings away, it's best to look for the cause and start there. I used to have similar problems but at night before I went to sleep when I had school the next day, I went to see my GP about it who recommended counselling or speaking to a school counsellor. I'm not suggesting you have the same issue as me but it's worth a thought! I hope you get better.

I know you said you don't want to know why you might have trouble sleeping. But I want to know do you know if you have sleep apnea? My husband has this issue. Some thing you described, and he was diagnosed with it. And he sleeps with a machine called a CPAP. And wakes up just fine.