Feel like I'm loosing my mind?

[Active32]

Hey all, new here and need some assistance with a symptom that's been bothering me a great deal lately and which just began at the beginning of September. I'm currently 24 years old and suffering from what I believe is Anxiety and Panic Attacks. I feel completely foggy and detached from reality, like I'm slowly but surely loosing my mind. Everything feels very weird, it's extremely hard to explain. It's almost like it feels like I'm in a dream and things aren't real. Places I've been before and go all the time seem foreign and just different. Ontop of that, I feel like my emotions are dulled too. Like I said, it's so hard to explain but I hope I kind of got my point across..This feeling is making me very concerned that I'm slowly loosing my mind or that something else is going on. I can't get out of my head and stop thinking about how crappy it makes me feel. I have gone through something similar before, but it's been maybe 3-4 years and my psychiatrist at the time just said it was due to anxiety. But this time, it feels sort of more intense and constant.

I can't really put my finger on what caused this. In the past, the bouts I've had of it happened after a panic attack. But, I have had a stressful few months. In June, I was in a bad car accident which I have been recovering from and have had to take an absence from work which has given me so much free time. The day before this started, I was a little anxious about some dental work I was having done but I've been way more anxious in the past about other things so I'm not sure if that's a factor or not.

I have some really amazing plans coming up this winter that I should be excited for.. I'm planning on proposing to my girlfriend in December and taking a road trip all over the U.S. to snowboard with her. But ever since this started happened, I can't stop thinking about the negatives and worrying if I'll be stuck like this forever or if its progressing to something worse. It's like I'm obsessing over it.

Anyways, thanks for reading and thank you so much for the replies in advance.. I really appreciate it.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi and welcome to NMP :welcome:

What you are experiencing may be Derealisation or Depersonalisation. These tend to happen due to very heightened periods of anxiety or result from panic attacks. Others on here who have a bad panic attack have then suffered this.

It tends to be the way the mind tries to escape from the mental anguish, which may sound similiar to Dissociation (but this other forms it can take too), and it can be a very unpleasant & alien state to feel in which just feeds anxiety more.

There is a sub board for DP/DR so I suggest you have a look at that and the advice people give to deal with it. Try to accept it as such a function and you can work your way out of it. Grounding Techniques are also used to help with it, there are plenty out there via Google.

[Active32]

Thank you Terry, I'll give the sub board a look.

[Mermaid16]

Hi Active. Anxiety and panic attacks do suck, but they can't hurt you. I try to remember this whenever I am feeling particularly anxious or am having an attack. You are also not losing your mind (if you were you wouldn't be aware of it). I also worry about what 'might' happen in the future regarding holidays etc. So I try not to think too much ahead and try and just get through the day. Maybe put off organising the holiday for a few weeks and just concentrate on what you are going through at the moment. You will not be like this forever, you will get better. I also find that if I start getting caught up with thinking about things that might happen, I will say to myself 'Stop, don't worry about what might happen, because it is going to change anything'. Once I do this, I seem to be able to stop the worry and bring my anxiety levels down. Tracy