Short bursts of anxiety/panic

[bbanxiety]

Hello again everyone,

Does anyone ever get a strong burst of adrenaline/panic that lasts for about five seconds?

The best way I can describe it, it's like when you're on a chair and tipping it backwards, then you get past the point where it won't go back down and that huge surge of anxiety and panic hits you. Or another way of putting it, it's those first few seconds of getting horrific news where it hits you hard.

I found over the past few weeks this is a new symptom. It happened to me the other day and it was quite strange.

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Yes, I wondered why

[Kevin87]

Yes definitely! It’s usually accompanied by an obsessive thought or the thought of a bad situation. The best thing for me is to immediately breathe slowly and deeply. It tends to ground me immediately and I can come back into myself...

It’s almost like a fight or flight response when nothing is around to trigger you

[bbanxiety in reply to Kevin87]

Mine used to be obsessive thoughts but it has no transformed into my mind feeling as if it's remembering a thought, but no actual thought materialising.

Its almost like a flashback of nothing? I've been told this could be so many things, I personally believe I've read up too much on neurological disorders, and now I've primed myself into thinking that that simple thing is actually something else.

[Crystal1534]

Yes I've been having them for the past 3 weeks now everytime I'm on my way to my class. Only those times that it . What is it that makes me feel like that? I hate it. I getting that feeling it just hits me out of nowhere when I notice I'm getting close . I started smoking cbd a couple weeks ago thinking it will help me ,you know instead of getting on meds ,but I dont know if its making a difference or making it worse.

[bbanxiety in reply to Crystal1534]

Although I think sometimes it can genuinely be for no reason and have no obvious triggers, maybe yours is tied into approaching that situation?

I found when I had this with other areas of my life, such as driving or public places, I had to slowly keep exposing myself to these situations to allow the anxiety to ease off ever so slightly each time, allowing myself to feel the anxiety and accept it. Remembering that it's my oversensitized fight or flight response, giving false alarms to everyday normal situations.

It gets better man.

[Diannadada in reply to Crystal1534]

I get bad panic attacks where mine can last minutes to hours. Heart racing , shaky, can’t breath and all types of symptoms. That being said, I remember when I use to work at McDonalds when I was younger and would drive down this road. It was every time I drove down that road I’d get a panic attack. It was a mental game my mind would play and I got so immuned to it. I would be terrified the thought of getting close to that road and bam , I’d get a panic attack. This lasted for months and then I started taking a different route to work and it stopped. Our brains are very powerful.

[Minnie87]

Oh yes!!!sometimes all day everyday!as well as constant butterflies in my tummy.its horrible.

[bbanxiety in reply to Minnie87]

Horrible isn't it, sends me into overdrive overthinking that somethings wrong, especially when it feels like my brain is trying to remember a memory but there's no actual memory there to remember.

Hard to explain! Never found anyone else with this symptom.

[Funkyfaerie]

Brilliant analogy !

I get them more when I start to think I'm feeling good today, then wham! Out of the blue, feels like my body lurches for a few brief seconds, but scares me that I'm not going to get back.... I do, but it's scary

[bbanxiety in reply to Funkyfaerie]

Same, I think I'm starting to realise slight underlying triggers that build up to this reaction.

But a lot of the time it genuinely has no trigger.

[MollyStark]

With anxiety, our bodies become conditioned to react in this way, so these episodes can occur for no obvious reason as well.

I once read that a surge of anxiety is like missing the bottom step of the stairs - I think this is an excellent way of describing it.

[bbanxiety in reply to MollyStark]

Great analogy, couldn't agree more.