Racing Thoughts And Anxiety

[Cindy532]

Does anyone else have problems with racing thoughts or obssesive thinking about the past? I cannot concentrate or focus on anything right now. My brain is in constant motion mostly flashbacks but also i'll be talking to my therapist in my head or writing a letter to someone in my mind and I can't quiet my brain. I have to shut my eyes and shift my brain to get back in the real world and then my brain hurts afterwards. I have been having difficulty sleeping because I can't turn off my brain. Is this part of PTSD or am I just crazy besides it? Hopefully someone out there can relate! If anyone has this problem, what works for them? I used to meditate and do yoga so thinking about taking that up again and hoping it helps. Besides that I am just numb and disassociated and I cannot seem to connect with my family, maybe because I can't seem to get into the present world with my brain. I have been off all medication for a few months and was fine but now I am going downhill. I'm afraid I went off medication too soon and will end up back in the mental hospital. AHHH!!!
Another question: how does anxiety show up for you? I have been physically sick with anxiety and can't eat, gagging on food etc, my stomach is just a mess right now. Does anyone else have nausea and stomach problems from anxiety? I'm wondering if medication would help.

 

[Gamereign555]

It sounds kind of flashback like, the intrusive memories kind of hit me unexpectedly too and it makes sleep difficult because well all you can do is rerun the thoughts over and over.. I am not sure if there is anything to really help for that, its not something I am too familiar with.

Anxiety does cause acid reflux with me, and numerous digestive problems too. If the pain is really bad, you might go to a doctor and have yourself checked for a type of virus that reoccurs in some of us. If not but the pain is like a firestorm, you probably have an ulcer, or are working on one right now. Whether you do or not, the treatment to help it heal or prevent it from happening is OTC pepcid and the 2 week box of something like 24 hour tagament, also over the counter. Make sure it doesn't conflict with current meds, as antacids can. The pepcid coats your stomach from the damage and the Tagament prevents the production of the acid.

Its probably best to see a doctor of course.

 

[Cindy532]

Oops I meant how does anxiety appear besides panic attacks? Thanks!

 

[Gamereign555]

It kinda goes like this I think.
Lifes stresses ------> Anxiety --------> Panic, one overloads into the next. Anthony has a great understanding of it in one of his many threads. I think its called Understanding Ptsd.

 

[Cindy532]

I was on prevacid and it seemed to help for a while and I did the 14 day treatment, but I still feel sick. I talked to a doctor and had bloodwork and an ultrasound and they couldn't find anything wrong. It's been going on for months now where i'm just gagging on my food and have nausea. It's like morning sickness except i'm not pregnant. Now the doctor and my therapist think maybe it is Siliac's disease and i'm doing the camera up, but it is worse now because I have been anxious and I can't even eat anything. I was just wondering if anxiety medication would help or not for that or if it just helps panic attacks? The endoscopy isn't until November and i'm hoping the stomach stuff isn't in my brain and not just anxiety related because it started happening when I went off Zyprexa. GameReign what is this virus you were talking about affecting us? By us did you mean PTSD victims?

 

[Jacquie]

I just rode it out until I screamed at some people who kept overloading me to BACK THE H**L OFF!!!!!!!!!

I had reached I dont care any more mode. Turning point for me.

But until then, yup, no sleep, and it just churned around in my head 24/7. The brain wouldnt even slow down let alone rest.

The 'flicking thoughts' thing is still with me (dammit) but I am now doing things to FOCUS and CONCENTRATE and FINISH THINGS.

Cognitive exercises are helping hugely.

 

[Gamereign555]

No the virus isn't exclusive to ptsd sufferers, I forget what its called but I remember being tested for it when I had my ulcer. Some people get a gagging sensation from anxiety, if that's the cause then maybe treating the anxiety will fix that.
The 'virus' I was talking about is actually a bacteria called 'something' pylori. It reoccurs in those who get it and it can cause nausea, inflamation of stomach lining and ulcers. Mouth sores in some people.
Also, perhaps they didn't think you had an ulcer since they didn't put you on the pepcid? Prevacid is good but its only half of what is needed to help heal an ulcer, I took pepcid for months before my stomach felt better without it. Ulcers are slow to heal, no 14 day treatment will cut it.

 

[SadDreamer]

I have the same problem. Which is why I've lost my focus. I can't focus at all in my classes because of racing thoughts, flashbacks, etc. Or I will start to do the laundry, and my head is racing about things I really have no control over, and I forget what I am doing because my thoughts are so intense. My mom thinks I'm lazy. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't have it. I have had it for 2 years, but recently I am getting severe migraines after... I don't know how to stop doing this.

 

[Cindy532]

Oh geez. I can't focus in school either! I'm in this continual brain fog too where even when i'm here, i'm not. Total disassociation. I'm afraid i'm going to flunk my classes. Ahh! Well at least one of my teachers has been understanding cuz I actually lost it in her class and so now she's like if it gets too much for you let me know. You just have to keep in touch with the teachers and tell them where you're at I guess. But it's hard. Yes, my brain hurts afterwards too. Don't listen to your mom or friends and family who don't understand PTSD. I'm sure they love you and mean well but they have no clue. People have been telling me (I was diagnosed with it last year but I didn't know I had it because I had blocked out my memories of trauma and it all came back at once and caused breakdown.) it's all in the past and let it go and move on with your life and you have this great life now and blah blah, and I was trying to do what they said and it just made it worse. I realized from this forum that PTSD affects your brain chemistry and you can't just get over it you know. And we have flashbacks, triggers, dreams, panic attacks, it's so all encompassing and we have to deal with it every day of our lives. So you just keep that head up of yours!...It's been helping a little for me to talk myself through it with the racing thoughts, like I say okay, right now I am doing this and I'm going to bring myself back to the present. I have to do it a lot. SIGH. Now too, I've been going through all these things in my mind, looking back at my life and going over it again and again and trying to figure things out and of course it doesn't work. I blocked myself out too, just hiding behind everything so I didn't have to look at what happened to me and now I'm just going through this major identity crisis. Who am I? What do I want? I just have no clue. And thinking about it causes anxiety. Sheesh. You just go through life thinking it's one way and then you find out it was completely wrong and it was really this other way. It's hard to manage. I spent the majority of my life coping with it and hardly any of it living. It's hard to switch. My mind races to find excuses for itself again. I have to stop and think and go,no you're just denying more stuff to yourself and doing mental gymnastics to deal with it and you just have to face it. Sorry that was long.

 

[Cindy532]

Jacquie, what are some excersies you do?

 

[Laura]

I get this all the time. My Dr. said it is just worry and running thoughts. I told my Dr. about this and he increased my meds again. I will think over and over what someone said to me or someone did and replay it like a damn video (or what I said or did). I even have conversations with people in my head so I can try and perfect what I will say to them, so I don't say something foolish or silly. I will try and over come the thoughts and think of something else and the running thought is still there in the background. I thought I had gone nuts too, lol. I once experienced something even odder where my thoughts like 3 or 4 thoughts felt they mangled each other and became one crazy screwed up thought, like my brain was on shut down..........

I shake from anxiety at times. I am worried what to say to people. My anxiety tends to turn to depression. I was told PTSD usually will go into anxiety issues or OCD. Then depression comes, IDK thats what the councilor told me.

Oh I have to watch how much I think of my past so I dont wake up with horrific dreams. I will scream like no tommrow I bet the neighbors have heard me. I have woke up walking around thinking I am in my past and freaking out tell I come to reality and start asking myself questions and I snap out of it. It like I am in a movie and I dont even see my actual home but my past......weird

Yes, I have IBS and gatroitis. Alot of acid and sick feeling and gas issues............

 

[Cindy532]

Oh Laura, Yes that's exactly what I do, talk to people in my damn head, go over what i'm going to say, what they said, what happened, just everything. Maybe I should be on meds because I was on three different ones and weaned off all them. I don't want to go back on though because it was like I couldn't think independently or creatively and im an english major taking poetry class so I kind of need to think you know. =) So just have to deal with all the racing thoughts I guess. It all totally sucks!!!!! Dreams are horrible because they can be so realistic and you feel like you are back there. I think asking yourself questions is a good idea to get yourself centered and grounded in reality. When I wake up from the dreams, i'm anxious and depressed and have a hard time getting back to sleep. I'm glad everyone on here knows what it's like to have PTSD and understands what i'm going through.