Anxiety or paranoia??

[AliasEQ]

Hey,

Sooo, I'm known for being very paranoid about everything. As a kid, I was afraid of old people because I thought they were alcoholics. And apparently, alcoholics were dangerous, for some reason. Funny but true, lol. Can you imagine how paranoid I am at this age? I got my anxiety from drugs, but I don't know if the anxiety is still there. I don't know whether it is the anxiety or if it is my paranoia. I'm not stressed and everything seems to be fine. But whenever I feel my heart or whenever I feel chest pain, I start to worry. Even though my heart is beating normal(I think?). I've been to the doctor and everything is fine.

Bpm while resting is around 60. Bpm through-out the day is around 75-80. I workout 5 times a week. I'm 18 years old, is that normal? Also, I'm still having this fight/flight response constantly. But my body is not reacting to it for some reason. I don't know ugh

[jessed03]

Childhood paranoia I had a few crazy ones too. I'm tryna remember them now. I believed I was gonna get kidnapped a lot. I was paranoid of cars stopping lol. That's the only one I can seem to remember ATM.

The heart stuff sounds like anxiety. Although there's not too much difference between anxiety and paranoia in our cases, they're both pretty freaking obsessive and off the mark. You sound really healthy. Young, fit.

Depends on what your first bout of anxiety was like.

I say it's anxiety, as it follows an anxiety like pattern:

There seems to be a heightened alertness to the heart.

It seems slightly too light for paranoia.

Sometimes when you have your first bout of anxiety, and the whole fight or flight kicks in, your mind subconsciously looks around for danger, but then when it doesn't see any, believes the danger is INSIDE of you, and notices some heart pounding, or dizziness cos of the adrenaline, and believes it's that that's set the alarm off, that those symptoms are because of danger, and becomes obsessed and fearful about small bodily symptoms.

That's why you hear Loadsa people say they know they aren't dying, but can't shake it. It's cos the survival system is still locked on it, even if your conscious mind isn't as much.

That one silly little moment can set off years of suffering and cause so much hard work to undo. It's more a case of going on that journey to convince your subconscious you're fine, and letting the amygdala calm down.

Ah what damage a moment can cause sometimes.

Although it can happen on different scales for certain people ya know.

[AliasEQ]

Lol, paranoid of getting kidnapped, I think I had that one too.

My first panic attack was the trigger to my anxiety. I was smoking some pot and a panic attack hit me out of nowhere. After that I've been worried and anxious for like 2 months. But I feel like it's not there anymore, since the derealisation/depersonalization feeling has faded away. Maybe I have some other kind of anxiety. idk Ugh

Yeah, it's horrible. Wish I could "undo" the moment I decided to even try drugs at all