Note-I’m NOT asking for medical advice, I just wondered if someone else knows what this is.
Okay, sometimes, in the past months (usually around my period), I’ll just be sitting, thinking about something, when a particular word, or phrase, or odor will trigger a sort of “episode”, that feels like I do when I’m dreaming, (weird situations, strange people, etc), and I start to feel all panicky and start having a panic attack until it passes. It’s usually less than a minute, and it feels like microsleep, except it happens when I’m NOT tired as well, or when I’m reading. It happened again just now, triggered somehow by the smell of a musty old library book.
Oh, and by “weird situations” I mean I’m thinking of things that don’t make sense, or trying to search out a puzzle that’s nothing but gibberish, and I get disoriented and dizzy.
No, that’s not it. Basically it’s like, I’m having a really weird dream-but I’m awake and AWARE I’m having this really weird dream. And when I realize this, I start having a panic attack. There’s no numbness, or really physical symptoms, except from the panic attack-I get all tense and hot and that’s when it stops. It lasts no longer than a few seconds-it sounds like TIAs can be almost a minute.
No, never. I don’t think I’ve ever been in the same area with someone smoking pot.
Yes, I have OCD, and I’ve been on Paxil for about eight years. Would this just crop up over night? And it’s not really visual, or audio, or whatever-it’s all mental. But it freaks me out.
It’s like-okay, have you ever been falling asleep, into a very light doze, and you start dreaming, but then all of a sudden, you jerk awake suddenly? It’s like that, only much much quicker. That’s why I thought it might just be “microsleeps”, but I’m not always tired.
It is my carefully considered medical opinion that my fellow posters are exactly correct, and that you should make an appointment with a physician immediately. There are several possibilities, but no way to go further without an exam and some testing.
Keeping a record of what time of day each episode happens, and what you were doing at the time, is a good idea. You might wish to start now while waiting for an appointment, since the data will be helpful diagnostically. But please make the appointment first.
If you’re nuts, it hasn’t shown in your previous posting :).
Well…I can tell by your answer, you have never taken hallucenogins…for the record, although it is common to have mild hallucenations from pot, it is not a hallucenogenic…I believe it is classified as an “upper”…I was reffereing to LSD…but it is clear the answer is no. (thaqnkfully)
As for Paxil…that is a very, very tricky medication. It has an unusually short “half-life” meaning if you miss a few doses, it can REALLY screw with you. The dizzy feeling, the crying and everything you described sounds like it is paxil related…I AM NOT A DOCTOR…but I had had personal experience with Paxil, and once when i tried to stop taking it, by the third day, I was dizzy, and experiencing what can only be decribed as “electrical zapping, or light headed shocks” i was dizzy, confused, and I was so emotional, it scared me…I ended up in the ER until we discovered what was wrong…I suggest you call your doctor…your dosage may need adjusting.
Oh, I know pot isn’t a hallucinogen, I meant it more as I haven’t even been near anything, not even something as mild as pot. That’s all.
Miss a few doses-BINGO. Earlier this week, the pharmacy ran out (this happened a few months ago as well, and I’ll bet that was the same time this happened), and I spent a few days without it.
I thought so…it freaked me out…I thought I was going nuts, too. Ever since that time, I go to great lengths to ensure I do not miss or run out of it. FYI: it gets MUCH more scary and MUCH more frightening the longer you go…so be carefull.
Well, I’m back on, so maybe it’s just taking a few days to get adjusted. The longest I’ve gone was two weeks when my psychiatrist dropped out of sight and that was fucked up.
Well…now it makes a little less sense…two weeks is about how long it takes for you to get over the withdrawl…but it may have been early on. Hmmm…nothing safer than see your doctor ASAP just to be safe.
Just chiming in to say me too as far as zappiness after missing a few days of my SSRI.
But generally speaking, there are smells and sounds (songs particularly) that can take me to a panicky place, maybe just trying to process a surge of emotion or nostalgia or something. I don’t handle extreme emotion well and tend to fight-or-flight so a nostalgia trip like a musty book or turpentine or something can weird me out for a moment.
And if this is related to SSRI withdrawl, maybe you could convince your Pdoc to write you a (one or two month only) Rx for the equivalent of 6 weeks worth. If you fill that monthly once or twice, you’ll have an emergency stash for when your pharmacy spazzes and runs out.
Or switch pharmacies – they really should be running out of something as widely prescribed as Paxil!
Sounds a little like temporal lobe epilepsy. Not saying that’s what you have…
Seriously, though, you’re on meds. If you’re having weird neurological symptoms, you need to call your psychiatrist and report it immediately. If you are going to take psychotropic medications, you need to get with the program and realize that monitoring yourself and reporting these things to your doctor is important.
I say that kindly. It took me awhile to realize that I needed to tell my docs everything that was going on, no matter how trivial or unrelated I thought it was. You’re not being a whiner by doing this–you’re taking responsibility for your treatment.
Best of luck. My bet is that it’s a meds thing that can be easily fixed.
