Having bad anxiety symptoms need help !

Hi, I'm new to this site and have never posted on an anxiety forum before. I was just looking to see if this will help as all other attempts have failed. I'm a 25 year old male and I am a senior in college. All of my life I have had pretty bad anxiety about death, my health etc. But in February I went on a trip to Florida with my family and it turned into something unbearable. The sensation set in that I was in a cloud or a dream like state where I'm not in control of my body. I feel as if my body is on autopilot and I'm just along for the ride. In Florida that feeling (that I came to find out I think is called 'depersonaliztaion') started to give me panic attacks because it lasted for days on end. Now it's almost 2 months later and I still have the feelings that I am not really the one controlling my body. It's almost as if I'm not real or I don't have control over myself, even though I do in reality. I guess my goal in posting here is just to see if this sounds familiar to anyone or if anyone could give some insight as to what this is. If it is depersonaliztion I'll deal with it until it goes away but I guess my anxiety is telling me that it's something worse. I did get a physical with blood work done last week to be sure and was in perfect physical health. Thank you for anything you could do !

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Originally Posted by joem

Hi, I'm new to this site and have never posted on an anxiety forum before. I was just looking to see if this will help as all other attempts have failed. I'm a 25 year old male and I am a senior in college. All of my life I have had pretty bad anxiety about death, my health etc. But in February I went on a trip to Florida with my family and it turned into something unbearable. The sensation set in that I was in a cloud or a dream like state where I'm not in control of my body. I feel as if my body is on autopilot and I'm just along for the ride. In Florida that feeling (that I came to find out I think is called 'depersonaliztaion') started to give me panic attacks because it lasted for days on end. Now it's almost 2 months later and I still have the feelings that I am not really the one controlling my body. It's almost as if I'm not real or I don't have control over myself, even though I do in reality. I guess my goal in posting here is just to see if this sounds familiar to anyone or if anyone could give some insight as to what this is. If it is depersonaliztion I'll deal with it until it goes away but I guess my anxiety is telling me that it's something worse. I did get a physical with blood work done last week to be sure and was in perfect physical health. Thank you for anything you could do !

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Hi Joem and welcome,

There's "depersonalisation" and "derealisation" and I just call these things "feeling like a zombie" :) I never knew these terms when I first had bad anxiety in the early 90s but I sure experienced the symptoms.

What it is is being super self-conscious basically. With anxiety you are on high alert *all the time* and this does some weird things to you. It becomes a vicious cycle because then you panic about feeling weird and you feel even weirder!

So just keep in mind this is a common thing with anxiety/depression. It feels f'ing horrible but if you can just accept it you don't add more anxiety to it.

Are you on any meds? They can help a lot if you are at the point where it's hard to function.

All the best,
Gypsy x