Stress Center Peer Support

Hi guy's I am new here but have had anxiety and panic now for 5 years. I am doing a lot better than I used to but one of my worst and most scary things is what I call " Fading away" it feels like I am fading away ! It only lasts a short time, sometimes only a few seconds but it reminds me of when I was a kid and they would give me gas at the dentist to put me to sleep. Like a " Drifting off " feeling. Does anyone else have this or am I going nuts, I am fed up of thinking it must be something seriously wrong !!

God bless you all

Hi,

You are experiencing a common symptom of anxiety known as depersonalization, and although it definitely feels weird, you are not weird for having it:). There are several threads on this symptom and advice about about dealing with it if you scroll down in this section and other sections of this forum:).

In short, when your body and brain are under stress, it releases stress hormones to help you cope with the stress. Some of these hormones produce a drug like effect on the brain. However, the drug like effect doesn't cause you to EVER lose touch with reality. You just feel "weird" or like you are "going" to disappear, fade away, etc. It's your body's way of giving itself a break. When people find themselves in a natural disaster, this depersonalization actually helps the person survive the disaster by making it appear 'unreal' as they go through the life saving motions to protect themselves and don't completely process the horror of the event at the time it is happening. When you have anxiety disorder, you may have actually been through something traumatic in the past and something in your present triggers the memory, and your brain responds with this response when it doesn't need to. All of us do it to some degree, even without anxiety disorder, and when we are overly anxious or tired we all trigger this response. Lucinda Bassett refers to this symptom as "Bewilderment". The good news is that it is harmless and is actually your body's way of protecting itself against stress. However, when you respond to the symptom with anxiety, it actually causes your body to do it even more, etc. so it is definitely good to know how to cope.

I have my advice about dealing with it if you want to look through my past responses by clicking on my name and recent posts. Others have really good advice too, and this program does address this "weird" symptom and how to cope with it:)

Take care,
luvpiggy