Do You Ever Get "Nervous Energy?"

[Deleted member 541]

I have these days, when I get what I call, Nervous Energy. I can't sit still, don't want to, and yet I don't know what in the hell, I really want to do. I don't feel anxious, but rather, like I said, a nervous energy, and I don't know how to burn it off.

I have workout for 70 minutes already this morning, washed everything in the house, as far as laundry is concerned, and have gone to the laundromat to dry it. I still have tons of this, nervous energy to burn, and for the life of me, I don't know how, or what I want to do.....

So, does anyone else get like this???? Does it drive you a bit nuts?? And, how in the hell do you deal with it.

I feel like crawling out of my skin right now, it's such an awful feeling....UGH!!!!!

 

[SGT Bilko]

I just jibber jabber a lot. I say words... any words .. just to hear somthing... even if im alone. My GF hates when i do it. No i don't have terrets. I also do a lot of yard work. I ride my bike too. I ride it like i'm trying to get away from everything in life and sometimes end up out in the nearby orchards and just kinda hang out alone.

 

[Blues in NYC]

On the days as I'm getting better where I try to be active--either doing more to fulfill responsibilities or getting out to the park for a bike ride--I also get something like this.

Sometimes it's accompanied by a fleeting and fickle desire: do I want to brave a restaurant? a movie theater? should I try seeing if I can handle a beer or a glass of wine? should I try committing to cleaning the house or seeing some friends tonight? and if it's a desire, like for a restaurant or movie or ice cream--I can't ever place my desire. an unscratchable itch.

I've brought this up with my doc. And at this point in my recovery, as I try to learn some better behavioural patterns--one's I never really had in the first place--we've worked out a few things for me to keep in mind when I get my nervous energy:

1) I used to ALWAYS be on the go. Filling my hours with work, activities and adventure to cope with what happens when I slow down. Always responding to anxious energy by continuing to pursue activity is not the best thing to do.

2) I need to learn to slow down after doing something active and break my habits of overcommitment and overambtion that helped bring me to my knees when I experienced my more recent trauma.

3) Lack of ambition and desire have long been symptoms I was ignoring of my PTSD. If I have an itching desire I can't reach, I should slow down and just savor what it feels like to desire and want something, anything--even if I can't figure out if what I want is a milkshake or a beer or a bbq with friends. I've been advised to not try and fill the want, but in a sort of Tantric turn of life managemnt, "learn to simply savor the state of desire"

So don't know if I'm going through exactly what you are or if you have similar workaholic coping patterns to adjust as you move into health, but that's what I've been trying to do to manage what I think are similar feelings.

Hope this helps--you or anyone else reading. :smile:

Be well.

~Blues

 

[Salu]

Yes, but I dont think quite as bad as yours at the moment:P

I went walking or tried to run, sometimes I did that two or three times a day. I mean longer distances, like walking for an hour and a half, not slowly, not quite jogging but enough to make your skin wet, with steady space.

And found a place with fresh air, sometimes I tend to get that way when there is nothing to breath, hot weather is not easy to take.

 

[Blues in NYC]

I just jibber jabber a lot. I say words... any words .. just to hear somthing... even if im alone. My GF hates when i do it. No i don't have terrets. I also do a lot of yard work. I ride my bike too. I ride it like i'm trying to get away from everything in life and sometimes end up out in the nearby orchards and just kinda hang out alone.

For years, I've talked (and I guess I write now :rofl:) to simply fill space. Trying to pare back on this and just sit with my feelings as I get better. It's a hard way to be sometimes!

 

[Deleted member 541]

Thanks for the replies......Blues, yes, it is very much like an unscratchable itch....

So, with my nervous energy today, I drove up over the mountain to NY state, and had a Hot Fudge Sundae, with *Death By Chocolate* ice cream....OMG, I was in sugar heaven.....Then went shopping, and grocery shopping. I have ended the day, on the treadmill, trying to work off the sundae.. LOL!!!!!!! Probably not going to cancel out the calories, but I tried......:crazy:

 

[pandora]

i used to have to most orgazized house and life...Now...when I have that feeling to clean and organize..i can do paperwork...I am jealous that you are still moving! maybe one day...i am sure cleaning helped me and i miss it to the exent that i used to be able to do it to release anxiety at least to it used to help me. Maybe one day..i like being cleaned and organized! This just sitting around and trying to let my back heall with the decompressions is enough to throw me over the edge!

 

[Marlene]

Usually when I get that nervous energy it's right at the beginning of bad anxiety attack. I have all of this energy and can't figure out how to use it because my mind is so scattered and I'm all over the place. I find that I pace a lot during times like these, bounce my feet or hands and then I finally end up running out of energy just as quickly as I got it and I have trouble staying awake.

I used to enjoy having bursts of energy. Now I dread it because it's with the anxiety and that just tears me up.

Lisa

 

[cragger65]

Just savouring the feeling of desire... your T is very Zenny Blues, I like it. I am always confused as to what degree this is healthy. Where does experiencing end and wallowing begin?? (in the case of sitting with feelings).

I do get a "the motor is running" feeling at times. I handle it the same way as you guys, go for a power-walk, pace, etc. Sometimes I will try to meditate, which can help for the moment but doesn't seem to shift it the way I'd like.

 

[Irton Pike]

I run. Three times a week and growing.

and i ride my bike every day.

I have to do these things. They are part of my symptom management. When I don't do them I start to deteriorate.

I got really serious about my running back in November. Ran the half marathon in Sheffield last sunday in 1 h 56 min 11s. I know its not fast but it was 18 min quicker than my previous best last september. Aiming for 1h 45min by the end of this year.

It just gives the energy somewhere to go. It lets the body do the flight that it is itching to do. combined with CBT it has really, REALLY helped me come down from agitated wreck to bneing able to feel happy. Sometimes.

 

[dust]

I do lots of exercise too - like Irton says, it helps with the flight response. I get lots of muscle aches and pain if I don't.

I love the idea of savoring the desire - BRILLIANT. I'll think of that the next time I have that feeling and don't know how to satiate it.

Thanks for the thread She Cat.

dust

 

[2quilt]

I felt nervous energy when I was taking Reboxetine so I stopped it and changed back to Cymbalta. I was cleaning everything and organizing everything and not sleeping too many hours, and the longer I took Reboxetine, the more I began to vibrate inside, and shake (tremor) a little bit. I felt overstimulated.