Does anyone else feel Drunk?

[theforester]

Hello all, I'm an undiagnosed newcomer and am trying to put my mind at ease. I have many many symptoms including dizziness, but one of my more worrysome ones is the feeling that I am drunk. I am not a drinker and have only actually been drunk once in my life back in college. What I'm feeling now is very similar to how I felt then (except with many more symptoms).

Anyway, I feel very uncoordinated, my limbs don't seem to move how I want them to, my reflexes can be pretty exagerated at times, my movements aren't very smooth and I shake a lot. Basically I feel drunk! It is no fun at all and has been going on since January. Sometimes it's bad and sometimes it's pretty mild, but it doesn't seem to want to go away.

I'm not really in a panic over this, but it does have me pretty worried and none of my doctors have been able to give me a good explanation for it. My psychologist isn't sure, but says it could be related to anxiety. I've had a pretty good neurological workup done, but that was a few years back, years before the drunk feeling began.

Has anyone else out there felt literally drunk without having ANY alcohol at all? Does this seem possible to anyone?

[melody]

I haven't felt completely like that. I get hyperactive sometimes & over exciteable. It makes me act silly like a kid. I get the shakes if I forget to eat every 2 hours, but I eat lots of protein which helps reduce the severity. When I get the shakes I get very moody & act more aggressively than normal. It's just a blood sugar thing. That makes me feel clumsy & like I'm going to faint.

I get pretty jumpy. I feel jolts if there are loud noises that shoot through my body. I get a lot of headaches though. My ears go funny & make me feel dizzy & like everything is too loud.

I believe you that you feel drunk. I don't know if we get anxiety cause we're crook, or if we're crook cause we have anxiety? All we can do is take the best possible care of ourselves, make sure it's not serious with dr.s. Then all we can do is accept that that's what lifes given us to deal with & try to make the best of it.

I say this as a person who has been in pain every day since the injury in 2001. Life is hard. Giving up was harder. I choose to welcome life, discomfort, people not understanding, mental illness & all. That gives me some of my power back.

[starlady]

Hi, I have also felt in a dizzy/almost drunk state whilst walking. I suffer from panic attacks which seem to come and go but one of the symptoms i seem to get is a type of out of sorts feeling where my co-ordination isnt right. It feels strange as sometimes my legs are shaky and sometimes i feel i will faint.......which never happens. It may be your anxiety levels are a bit higher than usual..........take care. Angie x

[reddevil]

Hi,

I think a lot of us are struggeling with this of late...!

red

[Pudding]

I get this a lot also, it's one of the worst things for me along with the dizziness. I can put up with a lot but not being in control of your body is pretty uncomfortable isn't it. I get it quite badly at the end of the working day, I work in an office and am on a computer all the time and my vision is all over the place when I take my glasses off and I feel really drunk then.

Fran

[theforester]

I get this a lot also, it's one of the worst things for me along with the dizziness. I can put up with a lot but not being in control of your body is pretty uncomfortable isn't it.

Fran

Yes, it is definitely the most frustrating for me. My dizziness is really annoying and at times pretty debilitating, but this new drunk symptom is just unbearable. Most of my symptoms will (usually) die down a bit if I get up and go outside or move around a bit, the "drunkness" however is just the opposite. I feel it a lot worse when I move. If I sit perfectly still I don't feel it at all, but then all the other symptoms will get worse! It's as though my body doesn't want me to get better, so when I start to improve it comes up with new, unexplainable symptoms! It's just sooo frustrating.

My psychologist (who's doing CBT with me) says that it's just because I'm constantly looking for new symptoms and thus finding them. The thing is, it doesn't seem like I am at all. I have been trying to do normal things and stay distracted so that I don't pay much attention to the symptoms. This is very difficult since the "drunkness" gets worse when I move, but still, I don't THINK that I am looking for new symptoms at all! I wonder if it could be subconscious... Hmmm... Any thoughts?

[reddevil]

I personally think your psychologist is correct as most people like me feel we are not stressed but we constantly have symptoms like we are poorly etc.

I think our brains are constantly running in the background looking for our weaknesses and then triggering symptoms, which it knows will stress us (kind of like playing a game).

Red

[theforester]

Thanks Red, I really do hope that it is "just another symptom of" anxiety.

It is really difficult/virtually impossible to NOT think about symptoms when the symptoms are with you all the time! That's one of the reasons that this new "drunk" feeling really bothers me a lot because before this I've had times when I could forget about my symptoms by moving around and doing things. Now however, I feel more "drunk" the more I move so now it's like I can't escape the reminders that I'm not 100% healthy . Grrrr...

[reddevil]

Thanks Red, I really do hope that it is "just another symptom of" anxiety.

It is really difficult/virtually impossible to NOT think about symptoms when the symptoms are with you all the time! That's one of the reasons that this new "drunk" feeling really bothers me a lot because before this I've had times when I could forget about my symptoms by moving around and doing things. Now however, I feel more "drunk" the more I move so now it's like I can't escape the reminders that I'm not 100% healthy . Grrrr...

What you described above is bang on with my problem.

Red

[Oceanblue]

Hi theforester,

Yes, yes,.. I too feel like i'm drunk the majority of the time. I have even fallen over because the dizziness has got to my head and flashing images have taken over my balance,.. i've hit my head twice in the past few days, which of course hasn't helped. Has only made things worse, because my head now hurts so much.

This is a symptom of stress, anxiety and panic. Slow movement and tunnel vision are also signs. Flashing lights are to do with signs of stress/migraine.

I suffer with both anxiety/panic and bipolar disorder, it's really not very nice and I can understand what you're going through.

Although hard, try not to worry so much. I really do hope that this can also reassure you.

Take care of yourself x