Derealization/ horrible thoughts coping methods.

[hannah26]

Hello, I'm sorry if I have posted this in the wrong thread, I wasn't sure where to put it.
So if you have seen any of my other posts then you will know that I have been having high extreme anxiety for the last 2 weeks, since I started new meds. One of the symptoms I have been having is the feeling of derealization and weird thoughts. Feeling like I'm not real and that everything is scary around me and so big. I've been having thought like what's under me, what's above me, the world is so big and I'm so small and I'm going to fall off of it.
These thoughts are horrible and they make me feel like I'm going crazy and losing my mind. It scares me so much ii feel like I'm going to lose control.
I wanted to know if anybody else feels like this? And if so how do you cope? What techniques do you use to cope wth these horrible feelings and thought. I've tried so hard to distract myself but they just won't go away!!
Any advice would be so great.
Thank you
Hannah x x

[Harley]

Hi Hannah, I am sorry you are feeling this way and I can completely sympathise with you as I suffered exactly the same for almost ten years. I let the thoughts rule my life. I would spend hours trying to argue with them or make them go away. At one time I had three jobs to try and keep me busy. All this just made them worse until I realised why. The thoughts are a symptom of your high level of anxiety so it is not the thoughts you need to work on but on calming yourself down. I spent years trying to run away from them, not getting on with my everyday life. As a result I totally missed the first ten years of my daughters life. How did I recover. By beginning to focus on what really mattered to me, and doing the things I really wanted to do,no matter how bad I was feeling. It wasnt easy at first, in fact the anxiety got worse to begin with but gradually over a period of time I started to return to normality until I suddently realised that the thoughts were no longer there. I still had some days when I would feel really anxious but i just ignored the feelings and got on with my life. Anxiety and thoughts cannot harm you. They are only feelings and thoughts. Today I am able to live a completely
normal life. I have run my own business, going back to full time work, visited my daughter in Australia all by myself and done so many other things that I once thought I never would. I so regret letting anxiety rule my life for so long. So my advice is not to try to get rid of the thoughts, just let them be there, they cant harm you. Dont try to distract yourself as you are only fighting the thoughts and the anxiety, just let it be and eventually they will disappear. You can recover completely. Good luck.

[gregcool]

HI Hannah ...So sorry to hear you are having a horid time...
I have been in this very same situation as you are many of times...the first time it happend to me i was only 23 . I just woke up one day and was flooded with everything you said in your message and more...i couldn go outside my house for some time as it felt very big outside my home and all seemed very loud and scarry,,,,,,,unsure what was going on and with no internet in my day to research and get support Ijust thaight i was going insain or had a mental illness....i felt like this because at the time i suffered a shock in my life and i only know now what i was suffering was Post Trumatic shock to my event ,,,,this caused severe anxiety......but to me at that age it was the end of my life.....after a long time in my flat i was able to start to go outside slowly but like you EVERYTHING and everyone in my life around me felt unreal false.....my enviroment seemed like it was all some strange reality show i felt everyone around me was just acting oiut some strange roll...my enviroment was big and loud and very odd to me , even places i knew....i felt something was realy wrong with me.....even when i talked to people , i felt they were all part of some strange game ....i felt like i was all alone and like a outcast in life,,,,,i never thaught i would ever smile or feel happy ever again...i developed agaraphobia....which ment i couldt go anywhere or away from home.....everything in my life seemed alien to me ... even my familly....god i was so unhappy....i hated life and wanted to die....One day after a few months my older Brother took me into town for a MC DDONALDS ...i had been to this place many of times before...as i sat there eating i just cried , because i looked around only to see everyone eles just having a normal day and I was feeling some deep Derealization and Dpersonalization wheres as i was speeking i felt like i was a spectator to my own conversation and was watching myself talk....it was so horid and very disturbing i felt i was slipping away from reality and something was realy wrong with me and no one eles even new this was all going on inside my head......BUT AFTER A LONG TIME AND MONTHS ON MEDICATIONS it all just whent !!!!!!! just like that ,, as if it was never there like a cloud moving away in the sky,like a massssive weight off my shoulders....i couldnt even make any of those feelings come back by thinking of them .....It was all just gone....i was only young and felt i was dieing inside and needed help....but i got through it somehow you just do.....you may feel week now but it will pass you by esp nowadays there is so much more help out there for you and great support hear Hannah ,,,,,,....anyone can get through it..and you will...i prommiss....
Greg

[loopylu86]

HI Hannah ...So sorry to hear you are having a horid time...
I have been in this very same situation as you are many of times...the first time it happend to me i was only 23 . I just woke up one day and was flooded with everything you said in your message and more...i couldn go outside my house for some time as it felt very big outside my home and all seemed very loud and scarry,,,,,,,unsure what was going on and with no internet in my day to research and get support Ijust thaight i was going insain or had a mental illness....i felt like this because at the time i suffered a shock in my life and i only know now what i was suffering was Post Trumatic shock to my event ,,,,this caused severe anxiety......but to me at that age it was the end of my life.....after a long time in my flat i was able to start to go outside slowly but like you EVERYTHING and everyone in my life around me felt unreal false.....my enviroment seemed like it was all some strange reality show i felt everyone around me was just acting oiut some strange roll...my enviroment was big and loud and very odd to me , even places i knew....i felt something was realy wrong with me.....even when i talked to people , i felt they were all part of some strange game ....i felt like i was all alone and like a outcast in life,,,,,i never thaught i would ever smile or feel happy ever again...i developed agaraphobia....which ment i couldt go anywhere or away from home.....everything in my life seemed alien to me ... even my familly....god i was so unhappy....i hated life and wanted to die....One day after a few months my older Brother took me into town for a MC DDONALDS ...i had been to this place many of times before...as i sat there eating i just cried , because i looked around only to see everyone eles just having a normal day and I was feeling some deep Derealization and Dpersonalization wheres as i was speeking i felt like i was a spectator to my own conversation and was watching myself talk....it was so horid and very disturbing i felt i was slipping away from reality and something was realy wrong with me and no one eles even new this was all going on inside my head......BUT AFTER A LONG TIME AND MONTHS ON MEDICATIONS it all just whent !!!!!!! just like that ,, as if it was never there like a cloud moving away in the sky,like a massssive weight off my shoulders....i couldnt even make any of those feelings come back by thinking of them .....It was all just gone....i was only young and felt i was dieing inside and needed help....but i got through it somehow you just do.....you may feel week now but it will pass you by esp nowadays there is so much more help out there for you and great support hear Hannah ,,,,,,....anyone can get through it..and you will...i prommiss....
Greg

I had a 9 month episode at 22 and it went after meds etc. Mine has returned now at 26 as I have recently lost my nan. This time around it feels so much worse somehow. I was with my sister and had a panic attack yesterday..It's the sense of doom and dread and this weird feeling that I get along with it that scares me the most. Even not during an attack I feel it. I worry that I am stuck this time like this. I am off work and spend pretty much all day along. Do you think I will ever get out of this rut?

[gregcool]

Loopylu86 sorry to hear you are back in the hole again....But thats all it is !!! a hole...
and holes can be climbed out of one way or another,,,,mine returned around about 3 years ago and has eased right off since it came back..But !! i kept saying to myself that it will pass when im feeling better and happier in me....i had problems that made mine return but i know from my earlier days it is horid and scary ..But !!! it cant hurt you and wont hurt you...its just a feeling an emotion that your body is experiencing for a short time and it will go...You have to be strong and positive about this and tell yourself that you are in control and will be better soon,,,tell yourself this everyday as often as you can...But you have to say it like you really believe in what you are saying....you have to mean it...the more often you say this to yourself the less you will feel it because what you are actual saying is you are in control and will be better soon and your brain has just become in control for a short time and you will get back in control again...self belief is what you are trying to achieve .....you have to ground yourself again and try to feel life in your body again....
when you are feeling in this poor state its hard to believe you will ever get well again , everything huts you and you feel worse,you just cant imagine ever being yourself again can you ? but you will...give it time and except it for now and tell yourself this is only for a short period in your life///and you have beet it once and will do again...in fact you will find as you get older and get this anxiety back again you will be stronger every time and it will last less as you except it ....it will soon fade and you WILL be your self again.....give it time