fear of going mad

[flatterycat]

Hello

Can anyone relate to fears about their mental health? I keep thinking that maybe I have manic depression or schizophrenia. I am suffering really bad with anxiety - earlier today I thought I would have to drive myself to the local psychiatric hospital because I felt that I was going to lose all control! I have been reading about these mental illnesses and they make me so scared. I keep thinking "what if I start behaving like that or hear voices or start getting paranoid?" I think I have read too much information and although I haven't had the symptoms I find myself thinking I am going to develop them. Also I am really bad in the mornings/day and by the evening I feel calm. I then think this is me having mood swings linked to bipolar. Or I think "Right I'll go and weed the garden" As I do I have a powerful feeling of dread go through me and I just want to stop. Again I then question if this is a sign - the constant positive feeling followed by fear. Anyone get this too?

[miss motown]

hi there i have had this fear for years i once told my gp that i think im loosing my mind she told me that if i was loosing my mind i wouldnt no about it she said people that are insane dont no there in sane as were i no there is somethink wrong and that it was anxiety. i have days were my mood is so high were im the centre of attention and with in minutes i can go into myself and get really panicky were i think here goes am loosing it my head goes and i feel ive lost control with reality i hope this makes sense to you.i do suffer with depersonalization quite alot and when i get that it tends to freak me out

[Debs8a]

I am terrified of going mad. When i am the middle of a bad bout of anxiety or just before i have a panic attack i startle myself with all kinds of thoughts. I was diagnosed with clinical depression brought on by stress (the start of all my bloody problems) 3 years ago and i was ill for about a year. Since then i have regular anxiety/panic attacks. I can live with the panic and stuff but i NEVER EVER want to be depressed again. It was horrible. This is one of the reasons i think i have these thoughts.

Is it just me or is it very therapeutic speaking to everyone on this forum. Im glad im not the only one with these symptoms.

[michellemumof4]

hi

The most common fear for any who has anxiety is the fear of losing their mind going mad ect..........

Let me try to help here , to go mad as we know we would have to have a illness of the mind a psycosis , we dont we have a illness of the nervous system which is called a Nerurosis , a nerurosis can NOT become a psycosis
it simply never ever happens, even tho we think we will because of the way we feel and all the irrational thoughts we have , we still hold the rational side to our brain and thoughts ...

The thoughts are a product of the way we feel and are no more than a over active imagination,

Going back to the way you feel in the morning that again is totally normal, almost everyone has the same complaint , this is because either we have not slept very well and are very tired, or we havent eaten so our sugar levels are low and we tend to think when we wake " oh no what if this what if that , will i cope how bad will i be today " and that i am afraid sets us off for the day !! Depresion does come hand in hand with anxiety but for some people it means a couple of days here and there which is totally normal, anxiety is one HUGE rollercoaster of emotions - we are up and down crying or happy sleepy or hyper , in a nut shell we are all over the place ...

I assure you everything you said is TYPICAL acute anxiety ...

Good luck

Michelle xx

[PUGLETMUM]

hi flattery,

its hard to believe what your being told when you are this frightened?
but the fact is that this is the truth, its now knowing what you can do to help yourself?
firstly you are probably hyperventilating so you could do with starting there!
do you have the deep breathing exercises? if so start doing them!!!!! and lots of times throughout the day as the shallow breathing becomes almost second nature, so you have to re-train yourself here as well and it takes time.your body has the wrong balane of co2 and oxygen and just that can produce most of the uncomfortable symptoms!
next you can do progressive muscle relaxation? go through all your muscles tensing for 10 seconds and relaxing so you get to see how a muscle feels to be tense and relaxed. you do this a few times a day as well.
next you can listen to your worried thoughts but you can put in the more rational response so your mind starts to slowly but surely get back some perspective okay so here it goes your saying to yourself ' ia m sure this cannot just be anxiety? this has got to be something more serious a proper mental illness and i should be hospitalized'!!!!!
heres the response ' i FEEL like this because my body is full of anxiety producing ADRENALINE, that is there to help me in an EMERGENCY situation, and here there is no EMERGENCY just an overload of anxiety that is making me frightened and making me lose all perspective because in a true emergency i would be back to normal now, but i keep frightening myself with these worries of mental illness and so therefore i am adding MORE ADRENALINE to my system and so the cycle goes on!! i have no evidence to support the belief in mentall illness, i have seen doctors and no doctor has indicated that i could be mentally ill, and also all the people on nmp are feeling the same and they have not been diagnosed with mental illnesses either. these thoughts are not helpful to me right now and i can let go of them and accept that this feeling can be brought about by ANXIETY. i also have to accept that the body has the ability through relaxation and proper normal deep breathing(the sort a baby does!) to produce the opposite of the emergency response the PARA-SYMPATHETIC response the CALMING response that my body would experience in a normal emergency situation'!!!!

this is how you start to turn this panic cycle around flattery and you know you can do it!!!!
all the best
emma

[tryintfloat]

=========================================
Understanding Intrusive Thoughts
by David A. Carbonell, Ph.D.
=========================================


In the weeks since the shootings at Virginia Tech, many people
have called and come to my office, afraid of their thoughts.

They read the stories about this terrible event and they
wonder "What if I did that? What prevents me from snapping
and committing horrible acts like that?"

The same thing happened after other terrible crimes, such
as the Columbine murders, the Jeffrey Dahmer murders, and
the Susan Smith murders, among others.

Hearing about such real-life tragedies is especially difficult
for people who have already been struggling with unwanted,
ugly thoughts of murder and mayhem. These are people whose
fearful imagination imposes horrible thoughts on them - about
tossing babies out windows, driving into oncoming traffic or
off bridges, running over pedestrians, stabbing loved ones,
and more, each thought more foul and upsetting than the last.

It's a terrible thing when people experience these kinds of
thoughts, because they often feel so scared and ashamed that
they can't bring themselves to confide in anyone about the
awful thoughts they're experiencing. They struggle and worry
with only brief periods of relief.

So I'm going to write about this now, while it's fresh on
people's minds, to offer some help to those who live in dread
of these thoughts, and just don't understand them.

These kinds of thoughts are called obsesssions, and are
surprisingly common. For instance, surveys suggest that 40%
of depressed women with children under the age of three have
thoughts of harming their children. For women who are not
depressed, the figure is 7%, still rather high. Overall, it
is believed that at least 1% of the population in the U.S.
experiences horrific obsessions and becomes very upset and
troubled by them - that's nearly 3 million Americans.
Studies also suggest that millions more experience the same
kinds of thoughts, but are able to dismiss them as nonsense,
rather than become preoccupied with them.

Obsessive thoughts are persistent, intrusive "what if?"
thoughts about terrible events which the individual doesn't
want to happen. When a person who experiences these thoughts
reads about some brutal, inexplicable crime, they tend to
assume that the killers were people with thoughts like
theirs, who just "snapped" one day and went on a murderous
spree. And they worry that they might do the same.

For people who become fearful of such thoughts, it's common
for them to take all kinds of "protective" measures. For
instance, fearful parents will often avoid solo contact with
their child. People with obsessions about harming others
will avoid knives and sharp objects. People who fear
running over a pedestrian will circle the same block, again
and again, trying to satisfy themselves that nothing happened.

People who suffer with these thoughts often think that the
solution is for them to somehow become perfectly certain that
they will never commit such crimes. This isn't the solution
because it's impossible to become certain about future,
hypothetical events. You can be "pretty sure" about a lot of
things, but feeling absolutely sure about the future is just
not possible. And when these efforts to be sure fail, as
they must, the person usually feels more afraid.

How can you tell the difference between harmless (however
upsetting) obsessive thoughts, and thoughts which predict
dangerous behavior? Here's how I do it.

When I discuss obsessive thoughts with a client, I take any
of the following four signs to be a sign of potential danger.

1.If a person is not upset by the thoughts, but regards them
as okay, or even enjoyable.
2.If a person has a history of actual violent acts against
people or animals.
3.If a person sees and hears things which are not actually
present, and seems unable to tell the difference between
fantasy and reality.
4.If a person feels, not fear, but strong anger accompanying
these thoughts.

On the other hand, if I'm working with a person who experiences
these awful "what if?" thoughts and who doesn't meet any of
these four criteria, I'm generally satisfied that the problem
is obsessive, not criminal or psychotic.

If this helps you see that obsessive thoughts are your problem,
then your next step might be to consult with a psychologist who
has expertise in treating obsessive thoughts. A good place to
find one is the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, at:
http://anxietycoach.c.topica.com/maagjVvabybhociR8QXb/ (http://anxietycoach.c.topica.com/maagjVvabybhociR8QXb/)

[flatterycat]

THANKYOU SO MUCH
It helps enormously to read what you have all written. My husband has decided to take the internet off me to stop me looking up all these awful things I have been finding. I'm allowed a bit of time in the evenings, when he gets home to check this site! I do actually agree with him (for once!) and can see that I wasn't helping myself by looking for so much info on certain things.

Love Sarah