Feeling SPACED OUT AND SCARED

[Lost22]

Hi everyone, I am new to the site i started having panic attacks about 6 years ago during high school. Now I am 22 and the ANXIETY is BACK!!!! I have every symptom listed and its so hard for me to function daily. I get dizzy, cant breathe, my hands cramp up from not breathing properly but i have learned to deal with those symptoms the one that is driving me crazy is the constant spaced out wired feeling!!! I cant drive or go out with friends or even the mall because i get so spaced out and that's what scares me the most. I will wake up in the morning and think I am really here?? is this really me! even though deep down inside i know i am but the world feels fake, unreal, and scary!!! I just want to know how i can deal with this because i am supose to graduate college in May and if I dont get this in control I dont know how I will make it!!!! HELPPP

[suzy-sue]

Hi and welcome to the forum .What you feel is best describe d in the following ..
Depersonalization, Derealization, Feeling of unreality

What you feel:

Now for the Brain , the limbic system in the brain instigates this whole response and is responsible too for our emotions and behaviour One of the body symptoms that people hate most is the one when you feel all foggy, surreal, woozy or spacey. You may either feel that you are not real or that the earth is not real and you're a time warp away. These are often the hardest symptoms to understand and its very common to deduce that you must be going mad which makes you panic even more. This is completely untrue and you are very safe.
You feel like you are not a part of what is going on, or that you feel like you are in a dream state or 'out of touch with things'. Also, things around you may seem like they are shimmering, foggy, hazy or too bright.
What causes this:

As we learned in Understanding, the body and mind are tightly integrated. What affects one affects the other. This symptom is another example of how an over stimulated nervous system can cause us to experience odd and impaired feelings, emotions and perceptions. Much like how a psychoactive or recreational drug can alter one's mental state, an over active nervous system can affect certain body chemistries thereby producing mind altering effects. The feeling of unreality or disassociation is one type of altered mental state that high levels of stress biology can produce.
It is not completely understood what goes here but it is generally thought that the limbic system in the brain decides there is too much going on and goes into a self protection mode and shuts out excess stimuli. As the adrenaline levels decrease and you calm down it clears. This can be several hours days or weeks....Fear is the Key ..It only feeds it .Anxiety just loves it ..Accept and dont fight it this way ..It will pass once you learn to relax more .Get plenty of rest and good quality sleep .Nerves need looking after ...T/c Sue x

[Kimberley22]

hey there all, im new to this hole forum thing and dont really know if anyone will reply but thats ok as long as i get it off my chest! my story is long so where do i start? im 22 years old and have 2 beautiful children both girls, it all started when my yongest who is now 5 months was born, i noticed that when i was about 4 months pregnant with her i stared to feel funny in my head but i always brushed it off as being slightly enimik or low on sugar being pregnant and all so i never thought anything of it and it never bothered me that much, well about 5 weeks after my daughter was born it was late evening and i was sat with my partner when all of a sudden my head started to spin out and i was getting this cold chil that rushed through my body and my breathing pattern had completly changed.. honestly? i thought well this is it im dying something was happening to me that i had never felt before so i rang the paramedics who told me id just had a panic attack and to get some rest i should be fine in the morning, the next morning was when this all truly started and its never left me since!. heart palpatations, burning up all over, feeling dizzy and woozy, chest pain, seing flashes of light, disorientated loads more and all that at once, this went on for days i was literaly petrified id get this rush of fear run staright threw my entire body i didnt understand what was happening to me, well i trollied myself straight down the the hospital to find out that there was nothing serious going on with me! that couldnt be tru surly when i was feeling so terrible? well to try my hardest to cut this story short 20 weeks have past a few diazapam here and there really worked i must say took all my physical symptoms from my neck down away.. my worst symptom of this horrid ordeal is the derealization i dont have it once in a wile its every day for me and my thought pattern is constantly racing " i have a brain tumour " " i have lukemia " " im just going mad " it repeats and never stops so im mentaly drained at the end of every day bearing in mind that i have 2 children to care for and my partner works 5 days a week 8 hours a day and i still manage to pull myself together for them how? i couldnt say! everything i look at looks like im inside a glass bowl i can never shake this feeling it makes me cry, makes me angry, i went to the docs today oh and i have OCD which isnt good either, i felt reassurred but not cured, hes put me on citalopram? i dont know if anyone here could tell me if medication shifts the physical symptoms of anxiety? and if ill ever be normal again??? sorry its so long but that had to come out i could shout it to the whole world but i still wouldnt get this off mychest but it does make you feel better once youv gotten it of to the people who understand, thankyou for taking the time to read my long ordeal with anxiety x

[Lost22]

Hi :)...I have the same thing everyday and i understand everything you are going through!!! I think we just need too accept it like the suzy sue said and try to live life with it and then it will slowly go away! but i know how scary it is i just wish one day i can wake up and its gone!! We are in this together and the good thing is it cannot hurt us!...good luck!!!

[Kimberley22]

its horrible i have it all the time, the doctor has just put me on 10mg of citalapram made me feel abit funny about an hour after i took it last night but i soon drifted off, i dont know how affective they are but iv not had a bad day today dont get me wrong its still there but its tolorable, its hard to eccept when it feels so bad, i thought i had something seriously wrong with me inside my head like a tumour or something it does make you question it though.. how long have you had yours for if you dont mind me asking? xx

[Lost22]

Hey...well i used to have it about 6 years ago when i had panic attacks all the time and it lasted about 6 months and went away i guess i just got used to it. So now its back and it started in Oct of this year at first i was scared because i didn't feel it in a long time but i started using the program attacking anxiety and depression from lucinda basset and its working. I just get scared because i get thoughts like what if I am not real or these arent my parents or my house and I know they are silly but it scares me to think that way.. do you ever get strange thoughts like that???