General Feeling fat as form of hypervigilance?

[anonymous]

Sorry if this is a stupid question... so my husband, who has PTSD, is not really fat... he is a bit pudgy... but he feels fat... like he is really, really fat and unfit.

So he is sometimes afraid that he will not be able to act level-headed in case of emergency. A fear I share and we talked about it... and it actually did not feel good.

However he is "beating himself up" about how fat and unfit he is... and it is not even true. He works out a lot and is not unfit and while he is pudgy he is not really fat.

Could it be sort of hypervigilance when you see being fat = danger?

 

[Kintsugi]

I'd say on the spectrum of anxiety that falls closer to undue paranoia than hypervigilance. Hypervigilance is more of being on edge to where you're hyper aware of your surroundings, sensations, escape routes, and you're easily startled IME. It's like when your adrenaline is pumped way up and so everything is crisp--every rustling leaf sounds like a sound being played on movie theatre speakers. He sounds more paranoid that there will be a time in the future when something will happen and he'll be unable to react the way he feels he must.

 

[anonymous]

Sorry. I am not sure if I get the difference between the two.
Hypervigilance=being hyper now. Paranoia=being hyper about the future?

 

[Kintsugi]

Everyone has experienced hypervigilance sometime, I think. Think back to when you were a kid or a teen doing something you didn't want to be caught doing--your ears would have been super sensitive to your parents or teachers coming, your heart might start beating faster, you might sweat or breathe shallowly, think you saw someone out of the corner of your eye... that's hypervigilance.

Your husband is worrying over a future situation wherein he will fail to do the right thing because he will be impeded by what he perceives as an unfit body. That's not being hypervigilant; that's harboring an arguably unrealistic fear about a future scenario.

 

[anonymous]

Okay. I see.
Are unrealistic scenarios like this common for ptsd sufferers? I thought it was called hypervigilance.

He has quite a few of that unrealistic fears. Another one is that he will loose his job for being illdressed, while he is a very well dressed man.

 

[Kintsugi]

I mean... that's just a very high level of anxiety typical of PTSD.

The Dx for GAD enumerates those sorts of anxieties well:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA

Which, of course, we're talking about PTSD, but PTSD anxiety looks a lot like GAD.

 

[anonymous]

What can a supporter do if her sufferer shows that sign of reoccuring unrealistic fears and tells her about this over and over? Should I ask him to stop talking about it because it is leading nowhere? But I feel he is being desperate and needs reassurance. On the other hand it scares me... because I sometimes pick up a fear of his.
Sometimes I have to pick his clothes because he feels unable to do so and then he can be demanding like waking me up in the morning because I forgot to pick his clothing.

 

[AngelKeeperJ]

Thinking that we are bigger than we are, or that some part of our body sticks out, or is shaped wrong, etc. is Body Dysmorphia, and I have it as well. I know I am not huge, but my inner voice says that I am noticeably big, and am constantly aware of how I look. It's beyond irritating and counterproductive. I know my eating is WAY off when it comes to eating healthy, and you would think that feeling fat would make me more careful. Not...

 

[anonymous]

So you say you have it but at the same time you became aware that your body is not really disfigured. Might I ask you how you became aware of this?

 

[AngelKeeperJ]

I don't remember when I realized that my perception is off, but between what I am told by others, and by logically comparing my body to other people who are overweight, I now know my perception is off. I challenge my feelings wth that logic. It's an ongoing process?

 

[Sighs]

Is your man ex-military? My man is 185cm tall and weighs 85kg. His BMI is 24.8 which puts him in the healthy range. He can hike for hours, lift weights, do chin ups. But he thinks he is fat and unfit because he is comparing himself to his level of fitness when he was a full time infantry soldier. When he got back from Afghanistan he weighed just 75kg. He thinks he should get back to that weight. I've seen the photos - he looked awful - gaunt and unwell.

I don't think he has body dysmorphia - just that his standards are military not civilian!

 

[Sweetpea76]

My vet is the same as @Sighs's guy. He wants to have the same physique he had when he was in, and that's just not going to happen. He is a big guy. Because he was solid muscle he was over the weight limit for his height while he was in the Army alllll the time, but he always passed tape tests with flying colors (think of powerlifters being heavy but not fat. They measure parts of your body to make sure the weight is muscle and not flab). I think always having to prove he wasn't fat because he was over the weight limit wore on him. Now he can't lift weights like he used to, and he's lost muscle mass and gained weight. He talks about being a fatty all the time. I don't think he worries about emergency situations because he's disabled anyway, rather he just wants his old, in shape, fully functioning body back.