Just recovered from a deep thought of going crazy.

[js1803]

Thank God it's over... I think it lasted for over an hour...

I know fear of going crazy is a symptom of anxiety...

But what the hell is triggering it? Is it my breathing? Is it emotional? How do I stop it?

Just is so horrible =( My thoughts were that I was going to end up in a mental hospital... crazy...

[MyNameIsTerry]

Triggers can be obvious or subtle so it can be hard to spot some of them. They can be even a bodily sensation that triggers memories of those feelings being connected to anxious situations.

Triggers can also be intrusive thoughts. So, do you have an intrusive thought of becoming seriously mentally ill or perhaps something you can name like schizophrenia or psychosis? If it is intrusive, your reaction is important and learning to react with neutral or positive responses is very important in reducing them.

[js1803]

I just get an intense worry. I fear that my major anxiety will put me in a hospital.. I fear that I'll lose my mind.

Can anxiety make you go crazy?

I'm just in a constant state of panic I think... My fight or flight system has been stuck on for 9 months.

[MyNameIsTerry]

No, it can't make you go crazy, it only feels this way. People who experience episodes of psychosis don't realise it, people who experience delusional disorders believe them totally no matter how much evidence you put in front of them, etc. It's others who see the change and bring help in for them.

I remember reading one of the NHS leaflets at one of their outpatient services used for treating people with those more serious psychiatric problems and this is what it said.

It could be a sensitisation issue. When we get more severe we can be on alert constantly and anything around us seems to be a trigger. When my GAD was really bad I was so anxious that even brushing my teeth or washing made me worse. Eating was very hard. I would notice all the changes in how my body felt and because this felt like a lack of ability to control everything around me, the anxiety & panic would rise.

Getting out of that cycle required a lot of different things and the cumulative effect they brought.

[js1803]

Well, thank you for the response. It was very helpful. I think I may have some delusional thinking, but i just try my hardest to realize that it is major anxiety... I just try to remember what my doctors say... I personally think that something is wrong because of what I feel.. for example my ears ringing.. I hate that my ears ring especially in morning. Been there ever since I developed a panic/ga disorder 9 months ago.

So what other positive responses can I do to counter these episodes of deep worry/fear of going crazy other than positive thoughts?

[MyNameIsTerry]

There are other on here who have issues with ringing ears so they might know more about that.

If you only get that when you wake, it can be Hypnopompia, but don't worry as thats a normal issue all people can experience but it (along with the falling asleep & within 2 hours of falling asleep equivalent, Hynpagogia) is made worse by stress so we can experience it more. I do know humming, roaring, hissing, rushing, zapping, and buzzing noises can occur in these stages and it's connected to REM Atonia stopping too late (for Hypnopompia) and kicking in too early (for Hypnagogia).

So, if your doctors find no medical cause, that could be a possibility if it is isolated to those sleep stages.

If you had delusional thinking, you wouldn't realise it. We often might say "you are deluded" to someone because they are firm in their belief of something but Delusional Disorders are different to this. Someone with a DD will have a 100% belief in something strange. For instance, they may believe they have 3 arms and nothing any human being on the planet will convince the otherwise. You don't need to worry about this.

GAD is difficult isn't it? It can be so general that you don't even have triggers. I remember my therapist asking what triggers my anxiety and replied "waking up". Mine was 24/7 non stop and everything around me would trigger me more but really I was always on edge.

For me getting into routines helped a bit so I was sitting around less. Exercise helped to manage the physical sensations and walking was one I took up pretty quickly. It can be difficult if you are very symptom focussed like I was but you just keep chipping away at it until things get easier.

I did have CBT but it was limited but I had complications with meds at the time which I believe have sabotaged it. My therapist did start me off on Mindfulness though and this did help me much more so I always recommend this to people, especially with things like OCD. In the US you have MBSR which has some studies behind it showing how it reduces the density of the fear centre of the brain so it's worth a try.

Breathing exercises can help when the tension is high. Distraction techniques help in the same circumstances. I found the intent staring one useful in getting me through my difficult eating and a tricky wisdom tooth extraction. Even things like these simple strategies just help get you through. Even smelling nice things like lavender and using your hands to hold/rub objects at times is useful. They are all forms of distraction and nice smells can bring forward memories.