Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

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Feeling "different" or unusual

ourangel
ourangel
For some time now I have been having what I call "spells" where I can "feel them coming" almost like a "ZAP". Don't know how else to describle them, but that is about it. Anyway have had a few of them lately and the result of them is that things look different or unfamiliar to me.
I do not feel like ME....I feel totally different. I am not forgetting things, losing things or anything like that....but me, and my surroundings look different and foreign.
It is a scary, scary, scary feeling. I went to the doc the other day, crying, and he said just in case it was some sort of a "mini epileptic seizure" or alike (which I am not sure it is) he put me on Valproic Acid...an anit-seizure medication, 250mg taken twice a day.
He also put me on penicillin in case it is a sinus condition affecting my brain....which I also sort of doubt.
Has ANYONE...ANYONE...had this happen. It is so very scary...I can hardly function. I am a 69 year old woman, who is otherwise in good health and very happy. HELP ME PLEASE !!!!!
deleted_user
deleted_user
Hi Angel,
Are you on any other medications? Or have you recently stopped any medications? Stress can also do things like that. I know when I am anxious or preoccupied I have trouble realizing what Im looking at or who Im talking to. An EEG would be a quick way to rule in or rule out seizures. Has it stopped or continued with the anti-seizure meds? I hope they figure something out for you!
DogCrazy
DogCrazy
The not not feeling you part may be derealisation and depersonilation.
I,ve had one episode that lasted 3 weeks before getting better, do you feel like your watching your lie like movir scemes.
I would reccommend looking it up om the net and talking to your physciatrist about it.
Good Luck And Hope You Feel Better Soon xx.
BonTemps
BonTemps
Exactly as Dog Crazy said..sounds like depersonalizaton and /or derealization. Ive had this too ad my therapist explained that its your minds coping mechanism for extreme stress or anxiety. Ive had situations where I was sitting talking to friends and then over a period of
a very few minutes , Ive totally lost the ability to concentrate and follow
what the're saying and felt like i was in another world . I told the doc I would have sworn it was a stroke except I had no pain.
deleted_user
deleted_user
A friend of mine used to have what she described as "panic attacks." She said they would come on out of nowhere, and everything around her would seem fuzzy and she's get very anxious. Then one day, out of the blue, she had a grand mal seizure...at 25 years old...first time ever. When she went to the neurologist post-seizure, he explained to her that her "panic attacks" actually were mini-seizures. It is quite possible that this is what's happening to you. It wouldn't hurt to go see a neurologist and possibly get a scan. I don't think your family doctor can, or should, jump to any conclusions and put you on a medication that you may not need. I suggest seeing a specialist. Epilepsy isn't something that makes you feel sick or unhealthy, so you wouldn't have many physical symptoms. Best of luck to you, and I hope you get to the bottom of this soon!
deleted_user
deleted_user
..and also, it's not something that cannot be managed! I think you'll feel better getting a definite answer from a medical stand point. I know that when my anxiety hit it's peak, I went to my OBGYN and had her change my birth control and run blood work, just to make sure that I didn't have anything going on hormonally that was causing my anxiety...knowing that there really wasn't anything physically wrong with me put me at ease a bit.