Do These Symptoms Sound Familiar To Anyone?

[Deleted member 29311]

My symptoms have been more severe the past couple of weeks more then usual:

Jumpiness
Irritable
Anger when someone makes noise
Social paranoia
Distrust for people in general
Feeling like someone’s watching me
Stressed
Tightening sensation on the upper left side of my head
Trouble knowing what’s real and what’s not sometimes (whether or not what I’m feeling is justifiable, if that makes sense)
Feeling like people are going to attack me constantly
Impulse control has become a little weak, I find myself lashing out at strangers
Etc.

It's been extremely difficult to deal with, I'm really struggling I need help, please does someone have any advice or anything?

Thank you.

 

[WillyKat]

Much of that seems familiar to me, with the exception of the last two bullet points maybe.

And I think it's all in line with PTSD. Have you brought this up in therapy?

 

[Mosaic]

Majority of these sound pretty familiar to me. I don't know what the tightness in your head about but apart from that these all look like typical symptoms for someone with PTSD.
Thinking everyone's going to attack you, even picturing the scenario of it happening, thinking everyone around you has bad intentions.
It will fade I promise. Are you seeing a therapist at the moment? They will be able to discuss different mindsets you can put yourself into when you feel like this, breathing tips and almost reasoning with yourself.
"It's understandable that I'm hypervigilent and wary of people, but there is no evidence to suggest that they want to hurt me"
And grounding is very important, looking at your surroundings and reminding yourself that you're safe, be it
"I'm in public, there are people around, I'm perfectly safe"
Or
"This person I'm feeling hostile towards for making noise isn't trying to upset me, they can't have any idea that it would upset me and if they did they would probably be quieter, it's not their fault. I'm in a safe situation and a noise doesn't endanger me although it's ok that it puts me on edge, it's normal"

One of the biggest things my therapist told me to do is be kind to yourself.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

Most sound familiar to me too. Sometimes I can cope with them other times I can't. But the bad times pass although they don't always feel like they will at the time.

In times of stress remember to breath slowly and deeply. It helps.

 

[illusionist]

Yes..apart from feeling angers towards others, I turn that into myself...and not feeling the tightness in the head. I have learned to change my way of thinking when this kicks in. I've learned to question the situation.

It takes a long time and hard work but you can overcome it to a comfortable level.

I was never taught in therapy how to overcome this...learned by trial and error. Hopefully you can be guided by a therapist and find this easier to deal with sooner than I did.

I wish you all the best.

 

[Crow]

Yep. It all is familiar. Therapy has been the only way I've moved through those episodes and still functioned. Before therapy I'd stay in bed for weeks waiting for it to pass.

 

[Deleted member 29311]

Guys I want to honestly thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I appreciate the feedback and that you're open enough to share your personal stories with me and each other.

To answer some of the questions, unfortunately I do not have a therapist although I'm currently waiting for free help. I've too, learned to cope through trial and error. I get about 8 hours of sleep a night, I eat right, I work out a lot, I avoid unnecessary stressors in my life and I don't drink, smoke or do drugs. Unfortunately, despite all of this I still go through periods that are extremely rough. The severity of all of the symptoms VERY rarely diminish enough that it's almost unnoticeable and if so, only for a short moment of time. I've learned to deal with it but like I said the past couple of weeks have been absolutely unbearable.

Luckily tonight I feel better. Another thing I want to point out is that I have problems with personal space. I've had many, many people tell me things like ''Why are you standing so far away? I'm not going to bite.'' or ''Man, you have a big personal bubble.'' or ''You don't like people touching you don't you?'' and they're all correct. Although I'm working on it!

I'm hoping that the help of a therapist will give me more tips and help me understand what I'm feeling and how to cope with certain things in a better, healthier way.

Anyway, again thank you and if any of you reading this have any replies please share, I'm always thankful for any kind of feedback.

 

[Deleted member 29311]

Oh I also want to add that one of the hardest parts about this battle, is that it's made me push away and lose friends and family. That's one of the hardest things to deal with. Also the way people perceive me is totally different then how I feel generally. One day I'm idealizing a friend, the next they're ''bad'' in my mind, even though they haven't done anything and I stop communicating with them or I start feeling uncomfortable around them for no reason.

It's made it hard to connect with people. Most of the time I feel nothing but stress, anger and paranoia. I struggle with being extremely ungrounded and unfortunately because of it, it makes matters worse. I feel invisible at times. As though people don't see me as a person either. I don't know if that's PTSD or just some other battle I've got going on but it's a struggle. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to get the idea that 99% of people have bad intentions out of my head, even though I know it's not true but it feels that way.

At times my behavior and mood is erratic and inappropriate. I'll blow up and say really disturbing mean things out of no where and it scares those around me. I don't know why it happens.. although actually every time it happens it's because I have uncontrollable anger that needs to come out and I don't know how else to express it. I'll flip random people off, swear at strangers for no reason, etc. It's horrible honestly.

Some times I wonder if I have another issue at play here like Schizophrenia, Borderline or Bipolar. I'm supposed to go back to a mental hospital soon for weekly visits so I can get another diagnosis.

One step at a time.