thoughts stop, feel like my mind will shut down

[lotus]

So this is my newest symptom ... I'm not even sure whether it's a symptom of anxiety, or I'm simply going mad.

When I feel stressed, depressed, panicky, low, I feel like my thought processes stop, I can't think anymore, I can't make my mind work. I want to think about something, but I just can't, my brain refuses to work. I'm afraid that at one point my mind will shut down, and I will zone out forever never to return to normal again. Is this possible?

I'm afraid that at one point things will get so negative, stressing, and overwhelming, that I won't be able to cope anymore. This is my biggest fear at the moment. I feel like I'm on the edge, my mind and my body are exhausted because of the 24/7 anxiety feeling. There are moments when I feel like I must have a panic attack, but I don't have any strength left to have it /that doesn't make much sense, but it's so hard to explain/. It's like those moments when you want to cry and you need to cry, but you are so tired that you can't do it.

Also, there's this other thing /now I'm going to moan lol/ ... recently, even the smallest problems make me feel extremely negative and depressed, huge anxiety, can't eat, can't sleep etc. For example: when I have even a slight disagreement with my boyfriend, when my parents criticize me or make a negative comment /such as "Your room is a mess, you have to clean it"/, bad news, etc. I constantly feel like a very bad person, I feel guilty about everything, and I feel like I always get only bad things happening to me /even though I know it's not true/. Last night, for example, I had a problem with my laptop keyboard and I had to use an external one, and I thought that it was the end of the world, that I have no luck, and that only bad things happen to me. I know it's exaggerated and dramatic, but that's how I felt. It's like every litle thing is just too much.

My parents think that I should definitely go back to the university. They said that I will either go back to the uni, or start work. And just thinking about that triggers panic.

Any comments, advice, etc. would be much appreciated.

[Meg]

*I constantly feel like a very bad person, I feel guilty about everything, and I feel like I always get only bad things happening to me /even though I know it's not true/.*

This needs stamping on before it gets out of hand. We've all been there and it is usual to have a phase of this but you need to take control of this now by proving that are not being singled out by fate or the bad luck bunny etc and create situations that make you feel good about yourself.

The concentration stuff is all very common with acute anxiety. Active Relaxation is very helpful here.

Confused? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4187)
What an awful morning (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5278)
Emotions up and down. (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5809)

Blank mind (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5483)

http://www.nomorepanic.org.uk/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2079

You do need to do someting constructive with some of your time and not sit about dwelling on it all 24/7.



Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[FRIEND21]

In answer to original message, yOU'RE not going mad, its called "brain fag" and is one of the symptoms of nrvous illness. I get it all time and sometimes so bad it takes me all my time to make a cup of tea!

Lydia

[desperate]

**My parents think that I should definitely go back to the university. They said that I will either go back to the uni, or start work. And just thinking about that triggers panic.**

I finished my uni degree with intense anxiety, have you tried talking to student support about going back? they were good with me, i got extra time for exams and was in a smaller room too.

I'm also started voluntary work only 2/3 hours a day mind and maybe just once a week, but i think it is important to try and do things. I know it's not nice feeling the way you do when you are doing them but it might distract you a bit. I haven't worked since completing my degree in July and feel it is time now to try something. I am also doing quite difficuly therapy about the cause etc and solution alongside it.

Hope that helps a bit!

Sarah

[FRIEND21]

Third time lucky in trying to reply to this message (having computer problems!)

In response to your feelings of negativity, it could be that you have become dpressed as dpression is so often a secondary illness to acute anxiety.I have had bouts of depression that have dveloped in exactly the same way.
Your feelings of inability to even have a pnic attack, i have experienced that too.In a book called "Essential Help for your nerves" Claire Weekes describes this as nervous fatigue and makes you realise that it is just the biology of the brain working normally.I can't recommend this book enough.It discusses everything you are feeling,good luck

Lydia

[lotus]

Thank you all for your replies.

Lydia,

Can you tell me more about nervous fatigue? It sounds like it's a protective mechanism, but what follows after it? How serious can it get? Can it develop into a nervous breakdown or madness?

The way I see it, the pattern is something like that:

feeling normal > feeling anxious /panicky > nervous fatigue, inablity to feel anxious anymore as a self-protecting mechanism > and then what? what's the next step?

Now that I look back, I see that the moments when I have felt relaxed, I was not truly relaxed, it was more like a forced, artificial relaxation, kind of like being too tired to even experience anxiety/panic. Now I feel exactly the same way, and I constantly worry that my brain may become so tired, that it may just shut down. I worry that I may zone out forever, forget who I am, forget where I am at and how to get back home. I very often have moments when I zone out, my thought processes stop, I forget what I'm talking about in the middle of a conversation, I forget what I have done a couple of minutes ago, I want to think about something, but my brain simply refuses to work. It's so frustrating.

I don't think Claire Weekes' books are available where I live. But they sound like a good read, I will check if I can order them through the internet.

Thank you all once again, sometimes even reading a positive post by someone who is willing to help makes a huge difference. Thank you.

[Meg]

*I constantly worry that my brain may become so tired, that it may just shut down. I worry that I may zone out forever, forget who I am, forget where I am at and how to get back home.*

Have you read Megs story on the home page. I thought exactly the same even to the point of labelling my bag, car etc so when I did shut down people would know who I was...

It never happened and I started to recover and this fear faded and has never returned.

You can get Claire Weekes from Amazon.

I know nervous fatigue also as adrenal exhaustion- either is similar. You are running on fumes emotionally and through your nervous sytem and are in need of a recovery strategy.

Are you on the supplements and taking the steps outlined in this. It is not a complete guide but will get you on your way to feeling somewhat better.

First Steps to overcoming Panic and Anxiety (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=942)



Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[Haylesbells]

I love this site. Thank you xxxxx