Does Anyone Else Ever Feel Their Body Is at a Younger Age?

[hodge]

I'm not sure what to call this and I feel like this sounds really weird, but here goes. The only way I can think of to describe it is as a kind of body flashback. Sometimes, like in the last few days when I've been really upset and stressed, my body does not move or feel like it normally does at my actual age. It feels and moves as if I were a small kid. I'm unsteady on my feet, not very coordinated, and have to sit down a lot - not because I'm tired, but because I'm so disoriented that I'm afraid I'll fall or something. The weird thing is I don't know of any traumatic thing that happened to me before I was 11, and this feels younger than 11.

This has happened to me several times over the last few years - one time in a public place, which was probably the most terrifying time. When it happens, I feel scared and unable to leave the house alone, except to go in my backyard for short periods of time, and don't trust my ability to go for a walk or drive. These last few days are the longest time this experience has lasted as far as I can remember (which isn't saying much).

I was going to make this into a poll, but I'm having trouble finding the words. Anyway, has anyone else ever experienced something like this?

 

[pandora]

Hodge...I feel this way too with being unbalanced and unsteady on my feet but I have always thought I looked older with my movements and I have a back injury....

Could it be meds or a blood sugar problems...dehydration or something like that....maybe you need some blood work done??? Just a suggestion...

Take Care

 

[hodge]

Pandora,

Well, I have had hypoglycemia since I was a little kid, but I control that very well with diet and exercise. I did worry about that yesterday and checked my blood sugar after not eating for about three hours, and it was normal (yaay). I drink liquids all day long and my output is clear. This has happened before I was on meds and since. In fact, the time it happened in a public place was what sent me over the edge to finally try meds. It's pretty rare, though, compared to my other symptoms and flashbacks.

Hmmm, I hope I'm not the only one who gets this. I know you have professional medical skills, Pan, so I'm going to check it out with my med nurse and therapist. (Oh, I just remembered that the therapist I was seeing when this first happened thought it was a sort of body flashback; I guess that's where I got the phrase.) Also, I am supposed to get some fasting blood work done, just the annual routine, but I'm waiting till hubby gets home (which will be today!).

 

[pandora]

I would check just to be sure, I am glad your blood sugar is normal and that your intake and output are normal.

Now that I have thought more as well...when I had a severe anxiety last week and my heartrate was 130 beats per minute it was just anxiety but my legs were so weak I thought I was going to pass out out.....body flashback...could have or could be that as well. There are quite a few reasons....ruling things out would probably be your best bet at figuring this out......the nurse comes out in me and there alot of things that it could be. I hope you figure out the answer....I wish you nothing but a positive outcome.

 

[Deleted member 541]

Hodge,

I am NOT trying to be a smart ass, but I have to tell you....MY body feels 100 most days, so I think you are lucky if yours feels younger.

Now on a serious note.....Do you think it's possible that it's anxiety???? When I was having really bad anxiety attacks, it would almost feel as though the floor was waving like ocean waves. I would stumble, feel off balance, and over all just out of whack with my body....

 

[hodge]

Wen, I know it comes on when I have severe anxiety. This time it started after the horrible onslaught from my mother et al. over the weekend. It is disorienting but maybe that's because it's accompanied by a literal feeling of having a smaller body. For example, even my steps are closer together, as they were when I had short legs. It's like a full-body retreat into a younger, well, body. I don't know. At least I hope it's psychological and not something purely physical, like early signs of MS or something. Probably a good thing I'm getting a workup this week, though now I'm more nervous about it.

Otherwise, thanks for making me chuckle:)

 

[pandora]

Sorry I made you worry Hodge....exactly the reason I call myself a worry wart....I know too much medical info...sometimes I wish I didn't know all of what I learned in nursing because I tend to overreact and worry way too much.

 

[hodge]

No worries Pandora!! I appreciate your knowledge. I've stopped worrying about it!

 

[hodge]

Just an update to this thread. I saw my therapist today and, almost as soon as I began describing this, she started nodding her head with a gentle knowing look and from then on referred to it as a flashback. So, evidently, I'm not the only one who's experienced this weird kind of flashback. It's nice to have a therapist who's been around long enough to have probably heard just about everything :)

I've ordered The Body Remembers in hopes of seeing if this kind of thing is covered in there.

 

[blindspot]

hodge

I too have these memories. I call them body memories. Some times my legs point in and i waddle unsteadingly. some times I just sit and not move looking at things on the floor. It doesn''t last all day.
But it freaks me out sometimes.

 

[hodge]

Hi Blindspot,

Welcome and thanks so much for sharing this. It's pretty much how I get. Even my steps are closer together, as if my legs were much shorter. This is one of the external ways in which I feel like a young kid when this happens. Also, things appear taller, bigger than they normally do, or else I feel smaller and kind of shrunken. My therapist commented early in our appt. yesterday that I was positioned such that I looked smaller, like a young kid.

It helps to see I'm not the only one, though I'm sorry that you go through this, too.

 

[dlross]

Hi Hodge,

I have had similar experiences. I'm not sure what they are. Some kind of memory or dissociation type thing. I can end up feeling three or six, sometimes fifteen, depending on what the dominant emotion is. Major anxiety / fear when trying to process things from the past is the usual trigger for me. Just another way of trying to cope I guess. The main thing is to be sure you stay safe when you are not quite yourself. Like not wandering further than the backyard :smile:

dlross