DrakeCKC

I am wondering if any of you have had these "episodes" like I am having. I don't think they are full blown panic attacks but they are disturbing and annoying at best.

What happens is a sudden, fleeting feeling of fear or anxiety, triggered by who-knows-what, almost like I am facing danger or disaster. I shiver in fear, want to scream but can't and feel like I am chilled, that "blood runs cold" feeling. It passes and I go on feeling shaken but able to function. Happens periodically, sometimes 2-3 times a day, sometimes more frequently. I can go days with out one, but today they are frequent and I am feeling that way now as I type.

I am 19 months sober so could it still be withdrawal?

I have a revisit to the psych a week from today and I plan to discuss it.

Just thought I would see if this is something anyone here has experienced.

Hope7726

I get those too. My psych said there's not an official name for it but she has had other patients describe the same feeling. She called it "negative intrusive thoughts" which I think is a pretty accurate name for it. One example of mine, I will be sitting at a traffic light and suddenly feel that a tractor trailer is going to slam into the side of my car, even though there isn't one around. Or at a crowded public event I will envision a mass shooting. I may even plan my escape route in my mind.

DrakeCKC

Yep totally irrational, sometimes mine are specific like that, other times it is a sudden chill of "all is crashing, all is a mess" like I am in a middle of some disaster while standing at a grocery check out.

courage2

Drake, my duck, I don't know about the feeling of fear or chill but the negative intrusive thoughts I definitely get -- sometimes really a lot lately -- before I got sober & got on anti-d's, the last time I remember so much negative intrusion was when I was just a teenager. I remember it because I used to walk across the park in Chicago, straight, yelling at myself to shut up because of the bad images in my mind. It's not precisely a feeling of fear for me -- more like incredibly jumpy, like I have a premonition of a very nasty very immediate future. Stuff falling out of the sky, holes opening under me, collisions, etc.

Let us know what your psychiatrist says. Mine would probably just tell me that's what xanax is for. I'm trying to just make my peace with my weirdnesses including even these anxious episodes, even though they set my teeth on edge pretty fiercely. As long as I'm not depressed again, it's a bargain so far to go back to anxious.

Hope7726

I would like to do that. I have been on various anti Anxiety meds and now anti depressants as well, for so long. I'd kind of like to find my baseline but I think I would have a meltdown. My anxiety gives me anxiety.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one suffering from NITs.

courage2

I only have 9 months sober and only 8 months on anti-d's -- before that I was wild & undiagnosed & self-medicating mostly with daily quantities of gin for years until I reached near zombie-hood. I have no idea where my baseline is -- and whether it's sustainable with no more than my current meds. I'm pretty jumpy lately but so far I haven't done anything dangerous to my self or others.

courage2

Weird goings on with my connection -- sorry for multiple posts.

courage2

See above. Maybe the sky IS falling.

Verte

Hi DrakeCKC,

The feeling you describe is what I experience when something triggers a distant past traumatic experience of mine - a manifestation of PTSD. It is really interesting because when it happens I can feel the sensation and have a physiologic response without knowing intellectually what triggered the response, similar to what you wrote.

Luckily it is not a common occurrence, but last week it happened as I was listening intently to someone speaking with me and looking me in the eyes. It was a combination of words spoken. My pupils must have tripled in size. Talk about intense conversation .

It is strange. Hope everything goes well with your appointment.

raul88

Drake,

That sounds like textbook anxiety to me. It doesn't always culminate in a panic attack. But it is typical (in my experience) for the symptoms to come in waves and alternate with feelings of being ok.

Soberpotamus

double

Soberpotamus

Minus the chilled sensation and internal "scream," this happens to me quite often. It's anxiety, from the sound of it. I must've learned to just live with it. I guess I thought it was fairly normal.