View Full Version : Why am I panicing over nothing?
I'm literally sitting here feeling as though I'm falling to bits. I'm having a non-stop full blown anxiety attack at this very moment.
HOW DO I GET OVER THIS?
Listen to this.
The other night I feared the sky was turning pink. I knew FULL WELL the sky will never turn pink and that it's not dangerous but because I've now linked that to an anxious thought whenever I look at the sky I get a massive anxiety attack (insane I know) and now every time I look at the sky because of fearing the sky turning pink I'm non-stop panicing.
Now I'm sitting here in shear terror and FOR NO REASON?
What the hell is going on. My body has gone into pure fear and panic mode and I don't know what to do.
I'm trying to keep calm, then as I know the sky is outside I start panicing again.
Help! :shrug::lac::weep:
hi david i no how u feel and what your going threw. it does get better. im here to help
Help me please I can't stop the fear and emotions and thoughts. Even pictures if the sky are making me shake. It's so irrational and because of that I'm going mad with adrenaline and fear!
calm down it wont hurt u i promise close all the blinds so u cant c. breath threw your nose and out your mouth i am here
I was prescribed 20mg sertraline and have been putting it off but now I've just taken my first one. I can't seem to get over this. It's becoming a fear of everything. I've worked my self up.
Start taking your tablets every day they will help u calm down. try and think of something nice or talk to me to take your mind of it
It's so strange. It's because I'm so scared of going insane if I have an insane thought I'll link it to something then whenever I see it again I freak and it starts over. I must beat this. I will beat this!
You can beat it. it will just take time have u tryed cbt ? it really helps
Tried CBt but it wasn't working for me as I didn't agree with it. I feel awful tonight. Scared of what tommorow will bring.
nomorepanic
24-09-10, 00:02
Can I ask why you didn't agree with CBT?
It may be that you weren't given the right kind of CBT. What made you feel so negative about it?
nomorepanic
24-09-10, 00:03
I forgot to say that I think you are suffering from depersonalisation/derealization
I forgot to say that I think you are suffering from depersonalisation/derealization
Pretty sure this is the case too. It's horrible!
Just started sertraline tonight. Have the driest mouth in the world and I feel sick but hopefully it will pass. CBt just didn't seem to work. My fault really I just didn't agree with it.
Still feeling awful today. Is what I'm experiencing normal for sufferers? I feel so ill today and still scared of everything. This is the worst it's ever been for me.
Firstly you need to understand that you are not feeling this way over nothing.
You have somehow internalised a fear of the sky turning pink - for whatever reason and this is similar to the method by which phobias are created. It is irrational, which you know to be the case ... and yet you still get the physical reaction from your fear.
We are constantly taking in the world around us, through our senses and making an internal representation of the outside world - as if ..... what that external world means to us. When things are going on around us our brain looks for ways to make sense of things, so for example ...... if you are feeling the emotion of 'fear', your mind checks out your surroundings to see what is going on that you could be fearful of and then links the fear with a particular thing that it notices in the world around you.
So it may be that you caught something out the corner of your eye that made you scared/fearful and your mind felt the fear .... it then scanned the environment and 'noticed' the sky was pink at the time - so it linked the fear with the pink sky. In fact, it was not the sky's fault - since the sky cannot harm you in and of itself, which you know to be true already. The fear in that moment was from some other input, but your brain did not specifically link them at that moment.
I wonder what the sky turning pink means to you?
Leaving the 'rational' explanation behind and accepting the first thought that comes to mind .....
> What happens to YOU if the sky turns pink?
What's the FIRST answer that popped in to your head already, now?
You know that the sky does actually turn pink quite often in various sunsets around the world and most people find it very nice to look at ... and get a warm glow and feeling of contentment when they see that pink sky now.
Red sky at night, shepherds delight!
Every negative behaviour in humans has a higher positive intention - in that even a seemingly negative behaviour process is doing something positive for that person, even if they do not realise what it achieves for them. One fear, may help them avoid a bigger thing that they would be more scared of.
The trouble is, that sometimes our mind will over-generalise or apply the wrong reaction [as in my example above] to what it thought the problem was and that is where 'irrational' fears and phobias come from.
Anxiety is a fear of the future and shows that we are not focussing on what we want, rather we are focussing our attention on the negative outcome of a future event. Although we are 'making this up' in our own head - the body reacts with the 'fight or flight' response as if it were a real threat.
Nig
Nigel that makes a lot of sense. The sky turning pink fear actually developed in this way...
I was looking at the sky and thought to myself I wonder if I was to go insane would i think the sky is pink. I then had an anxiety attack.
Since then whenever I look at the sky I get an attack. I've not felt this bad with anxiety ever. I fear that anxiety is going to apply a fear to everything I look at or see/touch etc how do I stop this? I'm terrified!!
I am a strong believer in talking!! It has certainly helped me to stop a major anxiety attack!! :) x
oh u poor poor thing. you are not going crazy - the most important thing that YOU KNOW the sky isn't turning pink, you KNOW that. that means there is no way you are going crazy. tell yourself this over and over and over again. crazy people don't realise they're going crazy, they can't recognise their own irrational thoughts. my therapist has made it very clear to me that feelings like this of total unreality is out body's way of trying to escape, it is characteristic of anxiety and panic so this symptom is by no means unusual.
i can relate to what you're going through, i have an irrational, panic inducing fear of night time (that's when my attacks happen) so around dusk i flip out, cant i just cant deal with it becoming dark. BUT i know it has to and i know it is not more dangerous than day. just keep trying to reason with yourself, and know that we are all here for you. i know how scary it is, we all do, we are all here for you please don't feel alone....i know it is so so hard but things will improve. maybe go back and see your doctor if your medication isn't helping. lots of love, stay strong. xxx
I'm glad I'm not the only one with total irrational fears. When your anxiety is heightened do you find that u end up making yourself worse by attaching more fear to more irrational objects?
Also what physical symptoms do you experience? I get sweating, adrenaline rushing, trembling, loose bowels and others. It's horrible. I'm in a vicious circle of fear now :(
Obviously the above questions go to anyone who suffers this...
paula lynne
25-09-10, 10:55
I get sweating, pins and needles, vomit, diaorrheoa, palpatations, blurred eyesight, feelings of unreality, paranoid thoughts, heightened hearing..etc etc etc...you are NOT ALONE X
In meditation there is a saying that you should focus on the fire not the wood.
If you get into a situation where you feel that you're loosing control because of such strong emotions, as strange as it might sound focusing on them and concentrating on breathing will help.
If you imagine that the feelings are the fire, the thoughts are the logs/fuel. The more thoughts you have the more you fuel the fire.
Try to focus on the feelings.
You might want to close your eyes and be along, try to keep your breathing calm. Focus on exactly where the feelings are in your body.
For me its normall a knot in my tummy, tention in my chest and shoulders. I get a very cold negative tingly feelings cross my chest and shoulders.
So I start by identifying what those feelings are and then trying to focus my thoughts on them, whislt breathing into the feelings.
You'll find that as you focus on the flames, you run out of fuel and the fire dies down.
Just remember, however unpleasant they are, they cannot hurt you, feelings are just a chemical reaction in your body..
Sounds wise trooper.
Another thing I'm having a really hard time with lately is I find myself fearing or attaching anxiety to ANYTHING! For example. I was watching my gf eat a roll earlier and that made feel fear/anxious? Other examples include: watching people talk, a random nice memory, a sound, even looking at my own leg earlier...pure fear/anxiety came over me.
Is this normal? I mean I can't seem to get out of this state lately!
Fly away Katie
29-09-10, 22:46
Hello David, I used to worrie about all sorts of daft enviromental things like that... I once worried that when it rained, it wouldnt stop... and flood us all.. and keep going till we hit the sky, and then we would all die and run out of air. Sounds silly doesnt it.
You just have to tell yourself its nonsence and concentrate on something that makes you happy x x x x x
Right 7 days into Sertraline and I've had 3 good days.
Today isn't so great. I keep thinking about life, I look into things too much and I can't feel calm and comfortable and it's working me up as I'm scared I'll feel this way forever. I keep getting this overwhelming thought pattern that says "oh my god you're on all these pills to function normally what must that be doing to u"
Need some advice guys.
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