Doubting Knowledge, Thoughts, and Reality?

[Godzillasaurus]

Greetings everyone. Now to start, I have been stressing out about intrusive thoughts from unreasonable doubts and worries for one long time now, and it has been crippling and has really begun to piss me off.

Recently, I had begun to doubt and fear even reality itself and it feels as though I am living in some gradually-enclosing box that is throwing hallucinations at me (I am not hallucinating, but everything is starting to feel unreal, if not as if I am living in a video game or something of that nature). What I didn't doubt even a year ago has been starting to really get to me and infect my memories and thoughts.

My question: IS DOUBTING THINGS AS SIMPLE AS YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY ITSELF IS A COMMON OCCURRENCE WITH HIGH ANXIETY? I am pretty certain that I suffer from some sort of intense anxiety (doubting is one of the many fears that I have experienced among many other anxiety-associated ones that are irrelevant now), so it would help knowing that others experience similar symptoms. Has anyone else experienced this?

DISCLAIMER: I am not asking for medical or psychological advice that is supposed to come from a professional. This is merely a question as to whether some of you experience similar feelings and thoughts and if this is a common symptom associated with high anxiety. I am NOT trying to diagnose myself

[Dahila]

Anxiety cause doubting reality, it is difficult sometimes different what real, and what is in our head. I think most people suffer it, at least once in their life. I remember it for a few years when I was still a teenager, up to my early twenties
Are you stressed out a lot right now? Do you go to doc or therapist. Do you practice some kind of relaxation or meditation? Are you using some herbal remedies?
There is a lot you can do:) It would be nice to talk to doc or psychologist to help you in this situation ...And welcome to the forum , :)

[Godzillasaurus]

Thank you!

My anxiety right now is not unreasonably high, but I am having a couple of issues with doubt (the intensity of my worry fluctuates from time-to-time. Sometimes I feel as if I am dying due to the intensity of the situation)

And yes, I do practice some relaxation techniques, and they do seem to work on occasion

[JustaGal]

Greetings everyone. Now to start, I have been stressing out about intrusive thoughts from unreasonable doubts and worries for one long time now, and it has been crippling and has really begun to piss me off.

Recently, I had begun to doubt and fear even reality itself and it feels as though I am living in some gradually-enclosing box that is throwing hallucinations at me (I am not hallucinating, but everything is starting to feel unreal, if not as if I am living in a video game or something of that nature). What I didn't doubt even a year ago has been starting to really get to me and infect my memories and thoughts.

My question: IS DOUBTING THINGS AS SIMPLE AS YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY ITSELF IS A COMMON OCCURRENCE WITH HIGH ANXIETY? I am pretty certain that I suffer from some sort of intense anxiety (doubting is one of the many fears that I have experienced among many other anxiety-associated ones that are irrelevant now), so it would help knowing that others experience similar symptoms. Has anyone else experienced this?

DISCLAIMER: I am not asking for medical or psychological advice that is supposed to come from a professional. This is merely a question as to whether some of you experience similar feelings and thoughts and if this is a common symptom associated with high anxiety. I am NOT trying to diagnose myself

My experience was I was driving down the street and it felt really weird, like a different reality or something. Everything had a foreign look to it. I was conscious, just felt displaced.
Around the same time I had feelings of being ungrounded and not totally in my own skin. This went on at different levels for 6 months. It was scary. I feel better now.

[Dahila]

Thank you!

My anxiety right now is not unreasonably high, but I am having a couple of issues with doubt (the intensity of my worry fluctuates from time-to-time. Sometimes I feel as if I am dying due to the intensity of the situation)

And yes, I do practice some relaxation techniques, and they do seem to work on occasion
Do it regularly, it helps better:)

[Godzillasaurus]

My experience was I was driving down the street and it felt really weird, like a different reality or something. Everything had a foreign look to it. I was conscious, just felt displaced.
Around the same time I had feelings of being ungrounded and not totally in my own skin. This went on at different levels for 6 months. It was scary. I feel better now.

Were you extremely anxious at the time?

DAHILA, you might be right!

[JustaGal]

Were you extremely anxious at the time?

DAHILA, you might be right!

I would say yes, during that period anxiety was pretty much 24/7 with peaks. I had tapered of my SSRi 2 months before. I think I had a combo of relapse and discontinuation syndrome. >>>>shudder<<<<<

[Joe.]

Yeah I used to feel separate from reality all the time about 6 months ago. That was at the peak of my anxiety. It was like being a spectator to reality, even my body was almost in auto-pilot.

If you are extremely anxious feelings like this are common, and they are no harm. I ended up finding it quite fun

[JustaGal]

Yeah I used to feel separate from reality all the time about 6 months ago. That was at the peak of my anxiety. It was like being a spectator to reality, even my body was almost in auto-pilot.

If you are extremely anxious feelings like this are common, and they are no harm. I ended up finding it quite fun

What made it stop for you?

[Joe.]

What made it stop for you?

Not too sure exactly. It seemed as though as my anxiety levels decreased the depersonaization got better, and this were probably a result of me just being more aware of anxiety. Have a better knowledge of it I think

[JustaGal]

Not too sure exactly. It seemed as though as my anxiety levels decreased the depersonaization got better, and this were probably a result of me just being more aware of anxiety. Have a better knowledge of it I think

Interesting that you stopped fearing it and that it then stopped. I think that is key ----- take away the fear. Glad you are doing good.

[Godzillasaurus]

Yeah I used to feel separate from reality all the time about 6 months ago. That was at the peak of my anxiety. It was like being a spectator to reality, even my body was almost in auto-pilot.

If you are extremely anxious feelings like this are common, and they are no harm. I ended up finding it quite fun

Describe your symptoms. What exactly was it like at the peak of your anxiety? Perhaps we can relate feelings?

For me, I basically doubt things that I wouldn't have doubted in the past before my anxiety peaked (heck, only did I begin such doubt when my anxiety reached a certain point; before that, I was plagued by worries, but not derealization). And basically, whenever a troubling thought comes across me, my mind will "go blank" and be "locked" on said thought, no matter how reasonable it actually is. Does this sound similar to what you have experienced?

[Godzillasaurus]

By the way, sorry for such a late reply

[JustaGal]

Describe your symptoms. What exactly was it like at the peak of your anxiety? Perhaps we can relate feelings?

For me, I basically doubt things that I wouldn't have doubted in the past before my anxiety peaked (heck, only did I begin such doubt when my anxiety reached a certain point; before that, I was plagued by worries, but not derealization). And basically, whenever a troubling thought comes across me, my mind will "go blank" and be "locked" on said thought, no matter how reasonable it actually is. Does this sound similar to what you have experienced?

Hijack..... My mind would lock on a thought as well. When I was 19 I was obsessed and convinced I was going to go insane by the age of 25. That was a constant torture. I wonder if part of the anxiety has OCD in it to do that. Well, I am still here and sane, and have moved on to other fixations.

[Godzillasaurus]

I feel like I am going crazy too, when I am having an anxiety attack of course (I am not severely depressed where I am suffering 24/7; anxiety attacks, on the other hand, occur in intervals, and I am almost certain that I have anxiety problems).

There have been multiple instances over the past, what, 6 months of so where I have uncertainty/worry about something and I cannot stop thinking about it. What makes this worse is the fact that I would have never doubted the same thing before my anxiety began, and said doubts are unreasonable for a normal-thinking brain.

[JustaGal]

I feel like I am going crazy too, when I am having an anxiety attack of course (I am not severely depressed where I am suffering 24/7; anxiety attacks, on the other hand, occur in intervals, and I am almost certain that I have anxiety problems).

There have been multiple instances over the past, what, 6 months of so where I have uncertainty/worry about something and I cannot stop thinking about it. What makes this worse is the fact that I would have never doubted the same thing before my anxiety began, and said doubts are unreasonable for a normal-thinking brain.

Yep, I am right there with you. At the peak of my anxiety I may think I may become suicidal, the one passing thought gets grabbed and I ask "why did I think that, it must be true, I am suicidal, oh no, then I get really disturbed and can not let it go. The obsession takes over.
Then when I feel normal I realize that is not true and not rational..It was simply fear fueling fear.....this defines my anxiety spells.
I think this is standard for high anxiety.

[Godzillasaurus]

I was actually having trouble sleeping last night from that exact thought. I am not suicidal (and, save for my worries, my life is generally good), but I have thought about the fact that I, as someone who has a lot of unreasonable worries (and likely an anxiety disorder), am fundamentally at higher risk for suicide than a normal-thinking individual (common sense really). I had an anxiety attack in bed last night after believing that I was now suicidal due to those thoughts that crossed my mind.

Isn't one symptom of high anxiety the distortion of thoughts/perceptions and ballooning of tiny mistakes/flaws into disasters? Because this happens to me too often among my doubting

[JustaGal]

Wow - exactly what I have gone through. Also the fixation of loosing a loved one at times have given me attacks.

Yes, catastrophic thinking is a symptom of anxiety. I am not suicidal either, but my pattern of thought is like yours. I find myself in a vicious cycle of
1. having the thought
2. feeling the deep negativity
3. analyzing the thought - rumination - catastrophizing
4. getting very upset
5. (now that I much better) I do a mood change and reject all the bs thoughts (not as fast as it sounds)
6. then I feel better and my mood lifts

That can occur several times a day. I wondered if that is some kind of game I play with myself or something, because the pattern is intense and the same. WTF is that all about?

[Godzillasaurus]

I would say that my "worry pattern" is more-or-less identical to yours, give or take a couple of "steps".

The kick though is that sometimes a stressful thought will take hours to relieve. And oftentimes these, as I believe I have already stated, are usually completely irrational and "minor" to the average joe. They do get better after a certain amount of time, then I am happy for a variable period of time, and then another anxious thought crosses my mind, repeating the process.

[JustaGal]

I would say that my "worry pattern" is more-or-less identical to yours, give or take a couple of "steps".

The kick though is that sometimes a stressful thought will take hours to relieve. And oftentimes these, as I believe I have already stated, are usually completely irrational and "minor" to the average joe. They do get better after a certain amount of time, then I am happy for a variable period of time, and then another anxious thought crosses my mind, repeating the process.

At my worst I did take a small dose benzo because I could not get relief. Interesting brain patterns, seems like the thought just literately gets stuck like a broken record. Mental OCD..... : /

[Godzillasaurus]

I am assuming that these "thought locks" are a common symptom associated with anxiety too, right?

[JustaGal]

I am assuming that these "thought locks" are a common symptom associated with anxiety too, right?

Yes, they are. The more you read on the forum, you will see the commonalities with anxiety symptoms and the relief people feel that they are not the only one.

For example
http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showthread.php?15617-what-symptom-of-anxiety-bothers-you-the-most

[Goomba]

My instincts say you have it backwards.

I do not think you are doubting reality as a symptom of high anxiety.

I think you are learning that your reality may not be what you always perceived it as, and are, consequently, questioning your entire life. This causes the high anxiety.

Just my two cents, I could be wrong. Depending how you perceive it, life can easily feel like a simulation, or video game.

[jessed03]

Yep, you're in pretty deep with this OCD stuff, buddy. When you start doubting reality itself, the problem has been left to worsen for too long.

Stop the pattern of rumination and you defeat your illness. Reading Brain Lock or The Imp of the Mind should help if you can't get some good therapy.

[Godzillasaurus]

My instincts say you have it backwards.

I do not think you are doubting reality as a symptom of high anxiety.

I think you are learning that your reality may not be what you always perceived it as, and are, consequently, questioning your entire life. This causes the high anxiety.

Just my two cents, I could be wrong. Depending how you perceive it, life can easily feel like a simulation, or video game.

I think I might have to be more honest with you: I don't know if doubting "reality" is the best way to describe my feelings. My thoughts and worries lately have just been.... weird. I have been doubting my enjoyment of certain things, my abilities, and such that I wouldn't have had anxiety about in the past (you know, before my anxiety began). It is absolutely painful, but it is hard to describe, and it is unreasonable beyond belief!

Jessed03, again, maybe the "reality" portion is poorly-worded: I could not find another good descriptor for my worries. I think I have heard of similar books before, but maybe I can try them out.

[Godzillasaurus]

Ok, for an example:

I took a practice ACT test earlier today and my abdominal region began to tighten-up and feel as if it was "floating" (think about a balloon) during the writing portion of the exam. I didn't know what went wrong, but I just had a massive anxiety spike when I began to doubt my writing abilities (which I am generally very proficient at). And then when that portion was concluded, I had another racing mind with distressing thoughts that were locked in there, particularly because I was trying so hard that I ultimately ran out of time and had to omit the final 10 questions.

One thing that occurs often with me is that, if I am doing something, it must work out EXACTLY as I want it to: it must happen PERFECTLY if that makes any sense. If that doesn't become true... well then I have an anxiety attack.

[Goomba]

Ok, for an example:

I took a practice ACT test earlier today and my abdominal region began to tighten-up and feel as if it was "floating" (think about a balloon) during the writing portion of the exam. I didn't know what went wrong, but I just had a massive anxiety spike when I began to doubt my writing abilities (which I am generally very proficient at). And then when that portion was concluded, I had another racing mind with distressing thoughts that were locked in there, particularly because I was trying so hard that I ultimately ran out of time and had to omit the final 10 questions.

One thing that occurs often with me is that, if I am doing something, it must work out EXACTLY as I want it to: it must happen PERFECTLY if that makes any sense. If that doesn't become true... well then I have an anxiety attack.

The need for it to happen exactly as you want it to is your need to be in control. You're controlling situations/anxiety through perfection.

Self doubt isn't uncommon in this type of situation. I can remember during my worst periods, especially when I was questioning reality, I felt like I couldn't process anything. I remember my biggest thing was that I felt like I couldn't comprehend what I read. I would read something, understand it, but felt like I couldn't hold on to that meaning, or there was a part of the message that I wasn't getting. But, this wasn't with deep stuff. It could be something like, that color is red. I would process it like, ok, its saying that it is red, but how red is it? What is a color? Ok, well a color is something that identifies how something looks, but what does it mean to look? This would go on and on until I could process every detail, and then I would accept that I understood it. But, a lot of times I would get distracted along the way and lost track of the initial message. And, I love language/communication. I went to school for the stuff, lol.

This is just one example. I doubted my ability to do many things, and my world didn't feel at all like it once did.

[JustaGal]

Ok, for an example:

I took a practice ACT test earlier today and my abdominal region began to tighten-up and feel as if it was "floating" (think about a balloon) during the writing portion of the exam. I didn't know what went wrong, but I just had a massive anxiety spike when I began to doubt my writing abilities (which I am generally very proficient at). And then when that portion was concluded, I had another racing mind with distressing thoughts that were locked in there, particularly because I was trying so hard that I ultimately ran out of time and had to omit the final 10 questions.

One thing that occurs often with me is that, if I am doing something, it must work out EXACTLY as I want it to: it must happen PERFECTLY if that makes any sense. If that doesn't become true... well then I have an anxiety attack.

What doesnt bend will break.... go easier on your self : )

[jessed03]

Ok, for an example:

I took a practice ACT test earlier today and my abdominal region began to tighten-up and feel as if it was "floating" (think about a balloon) during the writing portion of the exam. I didn't know what went wrong, but I just had a massive anxiety spike when I began to doubt my writing abilities (which I am generally very proficient at). And then when that portion was concluded, I had another racing mind with distressing thoughts that were locked in there, particularly because I was trying so hard that I ultimately ran out of time and had to omit the final 10 questions.

One thing that occurs often with me is that, if I am doing something, it must work out EXACTLY as I want it to: it must happen PERFECTLY if that makes any sense. If that doesn't become true... well then I have an anxiety attack.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification.

Goomba has already said something very similar to what I was going to say. During spells of anxiety, just living can just be the darned hardest thing to do. Your body and mind truly betray you.

How do you feel normally? Like, for instance, the other 80% of your day? I do see some classic examples of anxiety manifesting themselves in your life. I'm just wondering how badly they affect you. :)

[Godzillasaurus]

The need for it to happen exactly as you want it to is your need to be in control. You're controlling situations/anxiety through perfection.
Yea, I have always been considered by others (and myself...) to be a perfectionist. For another example, I would always get frustrated when I used to play football and I would make one small mistake.


Self doubt isn't uncommon in this type of situation. I can remember during my worst periods, especially when I was questioning reality, I felt like I couldn't process anything. I remember my biggest thing was that I felt like I couldn't comprehend what I read. I would read something, understand it, but felt like I couldn't hold on to that meaning, or there was a part of the message that I wasn't getting. But, this wasn't with deep stuff. It could be something like, that color is red. I would process it like, ok, its saying that it is red, but how red is it? What is a color? Ok, well a color is something that identifies how something looks, but what does it mean to look? This would go on and on until I could process every detail, and then I would accept that I understood it. But, a lot of times I would get distracted along the way and lost track of the initial message. And, I love language/communication. I went to school for the stuff, lol.
Wow... I have similar feelings with doubt too. My main worries associate with the very concept that I cannot comprehend anything when I am stressed. I will read something in a book, and I would question what I read and I would have an anxiety attack because I was uncertain if it was true factual information. When I was younger, I learned so much information from reading various nonfiction texts, and I began to doubt that information when my anxiety reached a high (which I would say was back in September or October if I recall correctly). Thus, I became psychologically "crippled" as I like to call it. It is like my brain is trapped in a certain state where I know it subconsciously, but I have anxiety when I actually think about it.


What doesnt bend will break.... go easier on your self : )
Doin' my best :)


How do you feel normally? Like, for instance, the other 80% of your day? I do see some classic examples of anxiety manifesting themselves in your life. I'm just wondering how badly they affect you.
I have my ups and my downs. When I am not stressed about something, I can get pretty happy and carefree (hence, I am not necessarily depressed in the medical definition of the word, but I get low whenever I have an anxiety attack).

[Im-Suffering]

I will step in, enough with the smoke and mirrors and avoidance. Spinning the board in circles.




Yea, I have always been considered by others (and myself...) to be a perfectionist.


Doin' my best :)


I have my ups and my downs. When I am not stressed about something, I can get pretty happy and carefree (hence, I am not necessarily depressed in the medical definition of the word, but I get low whenever I have an anxiety attack).

As long as you live in the shadows of others expectations, acting blindly and not of your own accord, the personality will dim, as will the bright spark of reality. You will recede more and more from it, and so the world will appear vague or as you term it "unreal"

'Doing your best' is exactly what you told 'them' to shut them up. Because you simply had to be perfect, in 'their' eyes. And so 'doing your best' is a lie, and it doesn't feel good (when it's forced). Try you may, succeed or not, until the next trial. Yes, childhood indeed felt like a 'courtroom' where you were consistently the defendant.

And so happiness is your (innate) state of mind when that weight is lifted (and court is in recess), however fleeting that moment is (described by you as ups and downs). The psyche is conflicted and repressed in this case. Who am I? Is the question. And the goal. You have not had the pleasure, thus far, of meeting (the real) self, without (beneath) all the crap. The crap are the false beliefs about who you are, period.

Lastly, you consider yourself a perfectionist because that was a learned belief, from the 'others'. You simply had to be good enough, your self worth depended upon it. And so that belief system must change for any healing to take place.

And when we say "others' or 'them' we know who they are, you and I.

That is all I have, and frankly enough because intuitively you know all of this, only guilt, and shame stop you from facing the mirror, and as you are beginning to see, fear is not only their close companion but a result of this state of mind.

[Godzillasaurus]

Phew! That was deep! But thank you for your help!