Weird thoughts! Please help!

[sedohrrelyt]

Okay.. All night/today I've been having these weird thoughts. It's like I'm having conversations and going over conversations that I had with people. I know! It sounds so strange but it's like I hear what I would say in my head and I can like imagine there response.. I don't know. It's just like I remember or imagine conversations with my friends and I can like imagine their voices and everything. I have the fear that I'm going crazy or becoming very mentally I'll so this doesn't help.. Please, I need some advice on this.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:07 ----------

Also, I get these strange panic attacks where my mouth and arm get this intense sort of tingling/burning sensation. They come on like flashes and only when I have scary thoughts so I'm just wondering if this is for sure a panic attack. Those are my two main symptoms when I get them.

[inCOGnito]

Sounds quite normal to me.

going over a past conversation is analysis.

going over a potential conversation is planning.

Nothing wierd here.

[Stormsky]

I used to go over and over past conversations id had..
Analysing everything..
And I also had the sensations you have.

[sedohrrelyt]

So, you just feel that it's just me over analyzing a normal thought process? Because I felt that could be it but then I connected to.. Wait.. Does this mean I'm hearing voices in my head.. Am I legit going Schizophrenic.. Etc.

---------- Post added 04-08-13 at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was 03-08-13 at 22:45 ----------

It just freaked me out because I realized that I was hearing another persons voice in my head (My friends) and I was like talking to them in my mind. I don't know.. I know it probably sounds dumb but it really spooked me for some reason. I just thought this was a sign that I'm losing it.

[inCOGnito]

It's imagination. Your brain has the ability to turn electro-chemical signals into images and sounds. The brain also has the ability to analyse, reason, associate things simply and abstractly, to remember, to project, to plan, to organise, to choose, to decide, to love and to hate.

Remember the last comedian you seen on TV, remember Al Pacino saying "say hello to my little friends!", remember Britany Spears singing "Hit me baby one more time".

When you remember them do you recall what they say in your own voice? in mickey mouses voice? Or do you remember them with their own voices? It's normal to hear the words in the voices of others. It's just the mind creating associations.

What you are doing is worrying about it and by worrying about it you attach an emotional valence to your thoughts about it.

[sedohrrelyt]

Very intuitively put. I'm coming to that realization that the problem I have is that I put fear and other emotions in every thought that I have. Like, I'll learn something new and i'll have a emotion like it's a threat or something. Do you have any advice on how to stop giving your thoughts emotions? I get to points where the idea of changing or getting over my anxiety gives me more anxiety because it's change. I'm starting to meditate and get into that because I feel like that will help a lot.

---------- Post added at 19:30 ---------- Previous post was at 19:27 ----------

I just always have had a very vivid imagination. Very vivid, which made me very gifted in art and I think which made me look deeply into things but these last 5 years with panic and anxiety, my imagination just feeds it and feeds it which scares me into thinking that I may not be able to get control of my imagination or thoughts or feelings.

[inCOGnito]

Yea you are correct. Every emotion you have has a thought attached to it and that thought usually involves some threat to the "I".

Putting an end to the emotion (or rather let it get to normal) is something I'm working on. To do this one way is to stop believing the thoughts. To stop believing them you have to question their validity. Ask if it is true. So if you have a thought that says "im going to choke and die" then you ask if its true. Once the mind sees its not true it doesn't really fear it anymore.

Of course there are deeper beliefs which are hidden and the mind can put up defences so it can take time to get at them and question them. Some you might not want to face.

Eventually by removing those anxiety promoting beliefs the thoughts won't get out of control.

Also just knowing that they are thoughts will help. It won't fuel the thinking process. Remember too that the fear is actually there to help you! It's doing its job. Once it realises that these things aren't threats the fear and thoughts will subside.

[sedohrrelyt]

I see. I try to interpret them as just thoughts but then I can easily be thrown into the thought process about these strange thoughts going through my head being a sign of a deeper mental illness, such as Manic Depression, Scizophrenia, of whatever mental illness that comes up. I also get the health anxiety really bad too but that seems to have took a backseat to this mental health fear. If I could fully believe that I'm not developing or have any of these mental illness and it's just my anxiety. That's the hardest thing for me because I feel like I have a bad mental illness or something, if that makes sense. It's just a odd feeling when I'm not in fear and panic that are occupied with strange obsessive thoughts.if anyone could give me some good advice or help on that mental health aspect, it would really help me out.