I would really appreciate people's help so please read

[stevesinelgin]

My fellow NMP friends, I come reluctantly on here for advice. As you will probably have noticed I try no to get stuck in the perma-loop of going onto forums and also realise that there are some things none of us should use google for...e.g. self diagnosis. For 4 years i have been on good old sertraline at 50mg....last year at the start i was doubled in dosage for a few weeks, but I ended up feeling like a menopausal woman with hot flushes without heating on and stiffness etc. So I went back onto the 50 mg and it took a while to settle back, but the progress i'd made had been kinda lost as I had been able to go for day trips on the bus, the train, even hired a car!

however this year didnt begin swimmingly either. My mind was racing and my concentration was muddled. I also was feeling like my own family members were strangers and was concerned...but i thought 'its only a racing mind..its just anxiety'....fast forward to July...As a sexually active male in the sense of solo sex...one evening id 'relieved' myself and fell asleep...I woke up and i went to the shop and as I was waiting to cross the road I felt like i didnt know how to!!! Strange...Next it got to the point where that feeling of familiar people being strangers got a bit worse and then i found that it felt like my brain was damaged...cos when i went onto my pc it seemed as if my ability to do things was gone...Patiently i have waited for things to get better...also my long term memory for events and even using my mobile seems to have been erased and that damaged feeling persisted...i ended up googling dementia..CADASIL...strokes ..well you get my drift. bad enough that i feel i have to remeber to breathe and feel like im having seizure like episodes but a young man like me shouldnt have dementia? there's no family history of it and it make me feels depressed at times....funny how the racy brain has been replaced by feeling like im demented and for someone who prides himself in the ability to remember things etc..it just doesnt feel like the normal fuzziness.

Could my body also be rebelling against my meds and could this just be my brain overprotecting itself...just dont want to forever be chopping and changing medications and want to no longer feel; as if i dont know my brother, sister, mam or dad...people i love and have been frustrated over the years by the mental pain ive been through...its tough trying to rationalise when your brain and body doesnt play the game or follow the pattern of what i think anxiety and depression does to you...unless im wrong

your advice please whether you be a fellow sufferer or someone who can shed any light as to why it appears i have symptoms that are 'beyond anxiety'

frustrated guy who is sick and tired of feeling brain damaged:weep:

[shaggyowen]

18 view and no 1 has said anything i hate it when i get 6 view and people dont write lol anyways its just anxiety your concentrating on what going on in your head so much that whats going on in the real world dosent apply to you and its like your on auto drive, iv felt like that myself a few times its just from being up in your head to much and not down to earth in reality your fine dw and its nie on impossible for some1 your age to have demancha so dw about that just chill out and keep your mind occupied

[Anxious_gal]

sounds like derealization, an anxiety symptom, If it really is that bad you should see a neurologist.
just be a good idea to get fully checked out.

[debs71]

Hi Stevesinelgin,

It is so very hard to do I know, but please believe me that this is all anxiety driven that you describe, and I have had ALL the same things you mention.

I think because of the symptoms we experience it is very hard to put them down to anxiety as they seem so bonkers. The family feeling like strangers thing I can relate to big time. That is called depersonalisation/derealization I think, where you feel like you are in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar faces around you, even though they are your nearest and dearest, and for me that is the most frightening symptom I have ever experienced, and the worst thing is feeling like you don't recognise YOURSELF even, and experience a kind of out of body feeling. SCARY AS HELL, and you really feel you are going mad.

This is basically the mind's way of protecting itself from overwhelming anxiety, so it kind of shuts down from even familiar things unfortunately that normally wouldn't be unfamiliar at all to us.

The other things you mention about concentration and forgetting things are symptoms of an overstressed/over anxious mind too and I frequently have times like that too, usually in the form of walking into a room for a purpose of some kind (to fetch something or do something specific) and then stand there not being able to remember why I went in the room....maddening!

I know how horrible these things feel, but please be reassured you are not going mad, have dementia or anything suchlike, and you are not alone........just very anxious.x:hugs:

[stevesinelgin]

thanks all! by the way...don't freeze its minus 14 degrees up here! brrrrrrr! ;)

[Going home]

Yes its a cold night for most of us...keep warm everyone xx

[stevesinelgin]

above my living room window in the flat above is an icicle that must be at least 10ft long! as well as a few more killer ones about too! but i can at least say thats nowt to worry about lol