froscow

Has anyone suffered this as a side effect of anxiety? It's quite frightening and when it happens to me, it makes me MORE anxious and then the anxiety spiral continues..urgh.

I'm trying CBT and mindfulness...but it can be hard when you have an anxiety attack in the middle of work

Tetrax

Yes I have had it in the past, including at work and it is truly awful. Thankfully it has not reappeared after getting sober, and for me also an SSRI seems to work particularly well with anxiety, as well as CBT techniques (though yes they can be hard to put into practice if you're caught off-guard).

Auchieshuggle

I recently experienced it, I think, whilst out walking. I have been suffering from agoraphobia and I was in a shopping centre when I felt that I wasn't in control of my body and nothing was real. It was horrible, but thankfully didn't last too long.

Like Tetrax, I have been prescribed an SSRI which appears to be helping. God bless you.

Arthox

For me I feel like the anxiety came as a side of affect of the depersonalization. I fried my brain a bit taking hallucinogens and living in a different world for so long, that when I came back, I didn't know how to be normal. When people would ask me small-talk questions I would instantly go into Fight or Flight because I didn't understand what kind of response they were actually expecting.

After some time, turns out most everyone is just trying to get by and be happy. I had to learn they just want to make that awkward silence in conversation go away.

I feel ya. I can't tell you how many jobs I've walked out of because my anxiety got so bad, that my flight instinct kicked in and nothing else mattered except getting away. After practicing looking people in the eyes and smiling, it's sort of vanished completely.

Meditate. Practice sitting on the bottom of a pool, and the world is way above you, far away. Try meditation where there are no rules, if that feels better. For me, though, it was forcing myself to do things that totally sucked, like look the cashier in the eyes while having a full blown anxiety attack where my face spasmed out. But then I kept on making myself uncomfortable and kept my head up (literally), and made sure I was always aware and using good posture. Changed everything.

If it's a thing at work, maybe tell someone you're having irritable bowel syndrome and you have to go to the bathroom or diarrhea everywhere. Most people who give you anxiety in the workplace don't understand what anxiety even means.

Best of luck! Jordan Peterson's book really helped me with what it sounds like you're going through.