Feeling like your being followed

[lonetree]

I'm hoping someone else has this symptom and can help me understand it. My sufferer will suddenly get the feeling someone is right behind her and it lasts for a long time. She sees shadows out of the side of her eye. If is very real to her. We cant identify triggers or that it is related to any past event. Has anyone else had to deal with this and have any suggestions?

 

[PerfectEmpire]

I see shadows in my peripheral vision mostly when I'm alone, and always when it is dark. I deal with it by finding things that make me feel safe - candles, a computer, a phone - and keeping them near whenever I am alone. If the electricity goes off I leave and go to where there are more people so I feel safer.

I also see the shadows when I am exposed to loud noises. I keep earplugs handy for vacuuming and using our blender.

It helps to keep my eyes busy. Does it help her to watch TV, play video games, or surf the web? Those things keep me engaged so that I don't notice shadows if they're happening.

 

[lonetree]

Thank you Perfect.
Distractions should help if she can concentrate on them. The feeling is so overwhelming to her that she constantly looks over her shoulder and shrinks into a protective stance. It happens during the day and when she is alone as well as with others. I'll work with her on that.

 

[brokenchild]

I get them a lot, though they no longer frighten me. When I was doing intensive outpatient, I was able to realize that it was ME watching me, if that makes any sense. I was following myself from outside my self. I don't know if this makes any sense.

 

[Sethe]

Sometimes I take different routes home if I get that feeling. Other times when I get it (when not driving) there really is someone near me, so it just seems to reinforce me to be even more 'aware.'

I try to remind myself that a lot of it is in my head. Usually, I am near other people, so I try to tell myself that it's very unlikely someone would single me out with so many other people present.

Distractions sound like a good idea. 'Sanity checks' (boy, is that relative) may help. I suppose that's what I'm doing when I remind myself that it's really unlikely I would get hurt around so many people.

 

[Kaii]

This happens to me often. I repeat to myself "It's not real", "I'm okay", "I don't have to be afraid". Sometimes it works and sometimes not. Sometimes I even go so far as to check under the bed, behind the door, in the basement, etc to see if there is anyone there. It makes me feel better.

I also take my phone everywhere. Also having my dog with me helps too. I don't feel so alone then.

 

[lonetree]

It sound like if she can think about it she may have a chance to ride out the feeling. I do try to show her nobody is there and she understands that but still has that overwhelming feeling. I'm sure the more she works on it the better handle she'll get on it.
Thanks for the input. It really helps:)

 

[Philippa]

I have always gotten this, and I've seen some pretty wacky things as well...but that's for another thread.

It used to be when I was out the back at night, mainly...probably just subconscious "boogey man" stories affecting me from childhood...but I could SWEAR there was something right behind me, and it would make me panic a little and run inside as fast as I could, shutting the door behind me. Maybe I just liked to scare myself that way?

This was before I had been through anything (that I'm aware of) which would cause PTSD though, so I don't know if it will be helpful to you?

 

[lonetree]

Thanks Philippa,
Everything is of help to me at the moment. :confused:

 

[cakey]

This is a HUGE barrier for me. It causes so much distress I want to put that part of my head to rest. It won't listen though.

Every car behind me has been behind me for too long{takes drastic driving measures}. At night theres always someone outside loading a gun, or setting up a scope. Can't smoke a whole cigarette. If a car drives by too fast I have to hop inside and make sure they aren't looping back around. If a car is driving by too slow, I prepare for death. Did someone go through my trash, what are they looking for? Did they follow me to this forum? Are they still watching my every move waiting for me to get SI so they can kill me and play it off like an accident? Why were they in my backyard, where they real, there's no foot prints, whens the last time I slept? Should I shoot a warning shot into the bushes at 2:00am?

Oy vey. It'll get better though, focusing on being aware of it has helped, trying to extinguish the fire when its a spark. Sometimes I have to take a lorazepam or clonazepam just because of this though, which is bad because I used to be dependent on these not too long ago but it sure beats the alternative.

 

[Reclusive]

I get that being followed thing and the shadows at the corner of your eyes (and flitting straight across). To be honest, I've gotten it my whole life but with the PTSD it's gotten worse. I've gotten to the point where I feel stupid checking, but I check the doors, windows, closets, etc. but I do it anyway because I know I'll just freak out if I don't. Getting decent sleep helps a lot, so I only feel that way when I'm actually outside. The worst is in the bathroom when I'm showering. I'm convinced there's someone on the other side of the curtain and sometimes I just shower with it open and clean up the water later.

When I'm outside, I also get the feeling that every car has got someone in it who is going to shoot me. I have no idea where that idea even came from. And it doesn't help that no one has any reason to shoot me - I know these things happen at random, so it's totally plausible. I don't know what to do about it except take my clonazepam when it's really bad or crawl into bed (my fiance is willing to check under the bed while I'm in it because sometimes I think when I get out of bed someone is going to grab me).

Just re-read what I wrote. I think I qualify as nuts officially.

 

[Kintsugi]

I have had this problem ever since I can remember (early childhood sexual abuse, long-term). When I was a kid I always felt someone behind me, under the bed, behind the shower curtain, *behind me in the shower,* standing right outside a second-story window (craziness!), my closet--everywhere. I was afraid to pull my shirt over my head or towel dry my hair, because I was certain when I could see again there would be a man right behind me. I regularly become so convinced of these delusions that I will bolt somewhere to the point where I trip and fall in fear.

I have always been afraid of being outside alone or in a group of only females or a male I consider incapable of protecting me (very frustrating for some of my male friends, but I can't help it!). I used to hide from every passing car, or walk up to someone's door randomly because I thought someone was following me, and I wanted to throw them off and make them think I lived somewhere I didn't.

I have worked a lot on these symptoms and am now confident in being outside alone during the daylight, but this change happened over a long course of time and took living at several extremely safe environments verrry far away from where my traumas occurred. The first time I felt comfortable walking around in daylight was in a kibbutz in Israel, a small socialist/communist community that generally focuses on sustainable farming and peaceful communal living. The second was at school, an extremely small 'work college' where everyone knows everyone and most people are pacifist hippies who like to work hard.

My only weakness in these environments have been parking lots. A counselor once suggested that something happened to me in a parking lot. This completely bewildered me until I began to think about it closely and found that yes, a string of things did occur to me in parking lots, though they are not the things I usually think about as the forefront of my trauma, though parking lots had a lot to do symbolically with the major trauma I experience. I suppose I created an association between parking lots and the abuse I suffered. Now when I am in parking lots I experience hyperviligance the worst, even if I am in a locked car.

Perhaps your sufferer could try to identify some of the specific situations where she feels most threatened and try to free associate around that event. What went on before she felt threatened? Where was she when she felt threatened? Do her followers have faces, or are they just shadows, or both (I have both)? Where do those images come from? Do they remind her of something? What was the reality of the situation? What perspective may have been helpful while she felt threatened? What activities? I haven't heard these straight from a therapist, but these sorts of questions have helped me learn about myself and make progress on my hypervigilance.

Sorry for so many words; this is the only way I can express myself. I hope it's helpful.