hi, possibly existential anxiety?

[dina013]

Hi,

My name is Doris and I'm a 20-year old student. This summer I experienced what I later found out to be a depersonalization/derealization. It was extremely frightening for me, and although I got over that, some other symptoms came (I suspect OCD). I realized at that point that I had had anxiety for at least a year, but had no idea of it.
Anyway, the point is, after the depersonalization, I started feeling very unreal, and a while after had extremely disturbing and obsessive thoughts: sometimes about the universe, other times about humanity its beginnins and ends, other times just any philosophical idea I could grasp on.
My attention is very low, and I feel generally stressed all the time- sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat and all that.
I have a powerful will to move on with my life. I have a family that I love immensely, a boyfriend and I see a lot out there that's worth living for...
The feelings have not passed and today I just saw a tread on the web about existential anxiety not being treatable just manageable and that I'd better take medication and see a psychologist.
What I did do was go to a psychologist a few months back and purchased the Linden method (which was of help re-assuring me). Now the question is whether I can stop obsessing about life and forget about all this?
Has anyone experienced something similar? Has it ever passed?
Thanks a lot for any of the comments. I really do hope there is some solution for us out there :)
Many encouragements for everyone in this forum coping with any anxiety situation.

[Rob1978]

I've been suffering from derealization triggered by marijuana use for 15 years now. For the first 13 years, I thought it was brain damage, then through the internet I learned of anxiety disorders, and further research lead me to believe I was experiencing existential anxiety. Often as I was walking down the street, thoughts of space, time, existance would get stuck in my head and for lack of a better explanation "blow my mind" triggering a panic attack. Then one day, about a month after I was perscribed beta blockers for my blood pressure, I realized I couldn't really trigger those attacks the way I used to. I still didn't feel normal, but it was a huge relief from my previous condition. So to get to the point, in my experience, yes, the intensity of EA can be diminished to a less unpleasant extreme.
I'm no psychiatrist obviously, but I believe derealization and existential anxiety to be closely related, or maybe even one in the same. I'm interested to hear some of the more experienced posters take on EA.

[dina013]

Actually, I found a wonderful book on the web...
i'm not allowed to post the address since i'm a newbie here but e-mail me if you're interested
I think the author is right in pinpointing depersonalization (and implicitly derealization) to a habitual thing; that's also what the Linden Method promotes.
And let me tell you something: whenever I read, or was at least slightly focused on something, I felt better. Not that it disappeared completely, but definitely felt better.
I think it's worth trying immersing yourself in a few months of "reading aloud", "watching movies while reading subtitles aloud".
We have negative thinking: like I can see myself taking every single damn piece of info about existence and drawing catastrophical conclusions. Like thoughts about when humanity is going to end... like I don't care... I just want to live my life... so I can just see how stupid I'm thinking :P
No one needs to suffer from this condition for years, I believe you and I need a lot of discipline to overcome this. I believe that and let's hope it's a true fact
Good luck and we might share thoughts about our progress on this page