Overactive brain anyone? Am i somehow feeding it?

[rbm]

I' ve been fine for the last couple of months, no panic attacks, fewer intrusive thoughts, no xanax, no insomnia... but my main prolem came back...fuzzy head, memory lapses, concentration problem.i feel lost when i'm not certain of what i did 5 min ago...or why i was wrong in thinking something and only realised it later...

I keep thinking there must be something i'm doing wrong.i don't feel overloaded with stress or daily chores or job related stuff, i just take it day by day but when it comes to trying to remember whether i did something or not, life gets pretty hard.i was boiling an egg , 5 min later i was asking myself if i lit up the fire or my husband did.i'm easily distracted and i forget things , confuse things...if i can't remember clearly doing something, i'm not sure i did it in the first place and i conclude for myself its mental decline.it can't be normal to have such a short attention span.i do remember most things but dare i think that its just my brain doing the thinking , going on and on without me? Can i do something about it? I try to meditate and eat healthy...i'm just so lost...

[MyNameIsTerry]

But if you compare how you feel now to how you did months ago, do you feel much better and experience less of these issues? Do they trigger less anxiety? If the answer is yes that you are better than then, see it as a current recovery position and that you are still working on yourself.

Memory can be improved. It will always decline as we age anyway but we can exercise it just like we can our bodies. You could do things like this but not out of fear, out of healthy living.

[rbm]

Terry to the rescue :D

Yes i.m feeling better, no more insomnia, no more panic...just this confusion is driving me nuts.i.m thriving at work, i.m calm but it scares me when other people point out the logic mistakes i make.

I was wrong about st george.s tomorrow , i remember thinking about it, not realising i.m wrong in thinking it is some other saint.then someone pointed out i was wrong and immediatly thought this is it !! The D word again !!:weep ... it can.t be normal not to realise one confuses familiar things or situations..i know it.s st george.s tomorr(i know other saints holy days aswell)but why did i think of some other name and not realise it.s a mistake when tge date did.t fit ??! I.m starting to feel convinced i have IT but dr keeps it from me, saying it.s just anxiety

Otherwise i feel fine, the world is beautiful, spring is beautiful, i.m happy...then i misplace something or i can.t remember where i put something like 10 sec ago and my smile is washed away...so trying to get through this, i ask myself if the racing or random thoughts i sometimes have are been fuelled by me.is there something i can do to stop ? Meditaton ? That.s tricky

[MyNameIsTerry]

:biggrin:

So, lots & lots of positives there! :yesyes:

Racing thoughts can certainly be fuelled in the same way any anxiety can be fuelled. So, that's very possible.

Random thoughts are just how out brains work. New research is taking place on something coined "Mind Pops" which are random and potentially linked or triggered thoughts. These aren't like intrusive thoughts though e.g. you could hear a word and your subconscious recalls a previous discussion or event with a match to it in some way that confuses you as you can't see a match.

If you think about how overactive our minds can be at times of stress, I wonder how that impacts on these mind pops? Do they become more frequent? It's all new so I doubt they have got that far yet.

It seems like you still have some work to do on triggers. Keep trying not to react against them with a fear response or anything negative, the more you reduce this the easier it will get.

I think something you may also want to consider is "what is normal for non anxious people?". Something I often spot on this forum is how people make comparisons to other anxiety sufferers or make assumptions based on their knowledge of how anxiety works. But what if what they are worrying about happens the same in people without anxiety disorders? Wouldn't that mean there is no problem at all because the healthy person is functioning the same and perhaps the problem lies in our perception of the issue? Could that be the case with you?

[rbm]

Oh terry, all of our different perceptions of reality is what leads us to progress and our very own personal right-and-wrong mental programing.i agree we just might be overthinking things but it would be easy to blame it on the maping of the brain, we all have something we can.t shake off.some say meditation and ctb restores the brain.s connections and responses to emotions.with me,lately, i guess it is more of a subsequent depressive behaviour to the thought rather than the emotional response to the same thought.the trigger takes place and i think...ok so i.m going dumb, way too young for it but life sucks!! No palpitations no spasms or hypertention..just going numb like life is over...i'd rather be scared than admit defeat to a life imprisoned in my head! I feel like i.m surrendering to a situation i don.t ever know if it.s real.

I am rather confused of my condition because i.m feeling fine focused and rested and still...i get easily confused and lose confidence in recalling things i.ve done today or yday, i can.t blame it on lack of sleep or vitamins...

Ps : to try to answer your q, I.ll tell you a friend told me how she got into a car other than her own (several times) and laughed it off, how she wrote down the wrong thing and couldn.t remember when she did ...my immediate response would have been ...??? Fill in the blanks

Your answers really mean a lot to me, thank you!