Deja vu Update

[anx1ous]

It went away for a couple weeks, then the deja vu started to come back again. Perhaps it got triggered by the fact that I've had to take care of the house for my parents while they are on vacation, which is not part of my usual schedule and I'm a creature of habit lol. Then after the deja vu I get bad anxiety and panic feelings. Sometimes the deja vu lasts briefly, while other times I start dwelling on it and it freaks me out. Feels like I go back in time with these feelings/thoughts, and I *swear* I've done some things before but I know I haven't. Scary stuff. :/

[Gary A]

It went away for a couple weeks, then the deja vu started to come back again. Perhaps it got triggered by the fact that I've had to take care of the house for my parents while they are on vacation, which is not part of my usual schedule and I'm a creature of habit lol. Then after the deja vu I get bad anxiety and panic feelings. Sometimes the deja vu lasts briefly, while other times I start dwelling on it and it freaks me out. Feels like I go back in time with these feelings/thoughts, and I *swear* I've done some things before but I know I haven't. Scary stuff. :/

Have you spoken to your doctor about this?

[ChildOfTheKing]

Do you mean deja vu as in thinking "this has happened before"?

[anx1ous]

Do you mean deja vu as in thinking "this has happened before"?

yeah, I feel like I've been in the situations before. This starts a chain reaction where I hyper-analyze everything and think everything is causing me that feeling which in turn makes me more anxious.

[MyNameIsTerry]

What you have to ask yourself is why is Deja Vu worrying you? We all experience it, it's not an anxiety thing, but only the anxious tend to beworrying about it.

What do you perceive it means?

There may be various reasons that are logical why it happens including how the subconscious handles memory. Look at TomT's threads as he had the same worry.

Are you worried about any form of mental illness?

[anx1ous]

What you have to ask yourself is why is Deja Vu worrying you? We all experience it, it's not an anxiety thing, but only the anxious tend to beworrying about it.

What do you perceive it means?

There may be various reasons that are logical why it happens including how the subconscious handles memory. Look at TomT's threads as he had the same worry.

Are you worried about any form of mental illness?

I'm not sure why it worries me so much. I guess it's because I irrationally associate it with that it's a sign I'm gonna die soon or something. That's been for ages now though :roflmao:

I guess I get slightly concerned about having schizophrenia, especially since I also have the racing thoughts symptom of anxiety. I've talked to my psychologist about it before though, and he told me someone with a mental illness like schizophrenia wouldn't be aware they were so before diagnosis.

[anx1ous]

Random update.
Just had one of those deja vu moments and I realized my response was getting startled by it which in turn made it worse, and then snowballed into me getting anxious. I'm still worried about it being epilepsy. Sucks I've been getting this on and off for a few months.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I had a feeling you would mention Schizophrenia. So, often the case when someone mentions worries about memory or cognition. It's exactly as your psychologist says, that's what they always state about it.

Something to remember is that memory stores everything. When we have these moments, can we say we truly haven't seen something before? Perhaps the subconscious has it in memory and is reminding us?

This was the thing with TomT. He was having these Deja Vu's about faces he had seen when out. But realistically, how can you ever know everyone you ever see? Your subconscious sees the images we see and perhaps can trigger such reminders when it finds a face, or maybe even facial features or what they were wearing, that is similiar?

[anx1ous]

I had a feeling you would mention Schizophrenia. So, often the case when someone mentions worries about memory or cognition. It's exactly as your psychologist says, that's what they always state about it.

Something to remember is that memory stores everything. When we have these moments, can we say we truly haven't seen something before? Perhaps the subconscious has it in memory and is reminding us?

This was the thing with TomT. He was having these Deja Vu's about faces he had seen when out. But realistically, how can you ever know everyone you ever see? Your subconscious sees the images we see and perhaps can trigger such reminders when it finds a face, or maybe even facial features or what they were wearing, that is similiar?

Yeah I think my brain just goes overdrive when I see something remotely familiar. The more I get worried about the feelings, the more I get them.

In the past few months I've had 3 major episodes of this deja vu/derealization feeling that last for hours and sometimes days. It's exhausting, but I'm sure those are just caused by anxiety, because they were all when I was traveling somewhere new, and going new places makes me anxious. All 3 of those times I thought I was gonna die.

The minor deja vus that happen all the time make me worried that it's temporal lobe epilepsy though. Someone else on here ages ago had a similar fear and it turned out to be epilepsy. However, they had a family history of epilepsy and I don't. What I DO have is a family history of anxiety on both my parents' sides of the family ;)

I realize this all sounds like reassurance seeking. Perhaps I should get an EEG to get peace of mind. However, I know I've been completely convinced I had other things before. Last year I was very anxious about having a heart condition. I got an EKG which turned out to be perfect. So I think it might be a waste to get an EEG since I've had health anxiety about so many other things. Epilepsy is just a new one maybe.

[anx1ous]

Any other advice? I'm really hoping it's not temporal lobe epilepsy.