Strange questions/Strange feelings/Unreality

[sedohrrelyt]

I get panic and anxiety about stuff like my future or life itself. I really don't know how to explain it. It's just so strange for me because my anxiety was strictly social and I was a shy kid growing up but ever since I had my first panic attack I became a severe hypochondriac. I also was familiar with the going crazy, losing control fear. I'm used to these anxieties and these panic attacks. However, there's new things that have started happening such as like, "Who am I?" questions. And, "What is life, What am I, Life is so weird, What are you going to do with yourself.." Just questions like that.. And they really frighten me and make me feel very, very odd and depersonalized. Is this normal anxiety and panic? And has anyone gone through these types of questions? Any advice? I'm 20 years old and I want really want to get past anxiety and get a job, go to college, just get a life going.

[Annie0904]

This is very common to have these questions when suffering from anxiety. If you search the threads I am sure you will find some about it.

[Pennyjoann]

Hi :) I've experienced the same thing, I think a lot of people with anxiety come across these questions and feelings at some point. I started thinking these things when I was 19, I was really lost I had a relationship breakdown and I left my uni course because I didn't know why I was doing it. That was the beginning of my first episode of anxiety. I'm 23 now, I don't really think about these things as much anymore unless I'm having a bad episode of anxiety, but I know and understand now that anxiety is all it is and I'm not going crazy! Are you on any medication?

[inCOGnito]

It's normal to ask those questions. If you had no emotion attached to the questions would it feel wierd and unreal? People have been trying to answer those existential questions for 1000s of years. Philosophers, psychologists, spiritualists, physicists, and just about every person on the planet is trying to find out who they are without even being aware of it.

My own assertion is that anxiety can be a gateway to realising the answers to those questions. Buddha termed enlightenment as 'the end of suffering'. He did this because he realised that often it is suffering that leads us to freedom.

The reason these questions make you feel anxious is because the anxious part of the mind feels threatened by them. Why? Because that anxious part of the mind fears that these questions might mean its own destruction. of course that's not real but it doesn't realise that and so perceives a real threat.

[PanchoGoz]

Search Existential Anxiety on the forums, feels very isolating when you are stuck with these questions but you are not alone.