Anxiety and feeling like a prisoner in your own mind.

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I should start by saying I've always had a bit of a hard time identifying what I feel. I often, for example, know I'm feeling loads of negative emotions but I'm not sure what those emotions are. Not sure if it's anxiety, depression, sadness or something.

Right now I'm worrying about my mental health (I often obsess about it). I know something's not right and not knowing what's "wrong" with me makes me feel very anxious (or at least what I think is anxiety). I've felt like this for the past 10 years but more frequently for the past 3 years or so. I feel like I'm thinking about these things over and over and over again. It's like those thoughts are on repeat and I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own mind. I sometimes feel like I'm losing control over my life, that I'm a mess. The only physical symptom I've got right now is an unpleasant feeling in my chest/stomach.

Besides feeling like a prisoner in my own mind and besides the unpleasant feeling in my chest/stomach I sometimes show symptoms such as my heart beating faster, sweating, headaches, restlessness etc. I don't always show these symptoms but my anxiety (or whatever it is) is always there. It's on a constant level but then the level of anxiety occasionally rises and I then feel all the feelings (mental and physical) I just mentioned. I also feel down and like I can't stop thinking. My head is filled with thoughts. Mostly the same thoughts over and over again. Every day.

Questions:

1. Are these anxiety symptoms or something else?
2. Is it "normal" to have constant anxiety (never feeling peaceful) but then occasionally getting anxiety attacks?
3. My anxiety attacks never surprise me by the way. I always get them because I've been thinking and obsessing too much. Is that normal?
4. Does anyone else ever feel like they're a prisoner in their own mind?
5. How can you tell the difference between for example anxiety and depression?

I't anxiety (maybe also depressions, it's hard to tell, but what you describe mainly anxiety)




no



no, propably anxiety connected to some OCD-traits I whould guess.



sometimes, a bit, yes.



Depression you don't want to stand up again, you feel worthless and the futur without hope. It's more like resignation a bit.
Anxiety you think too much, think the situations over and over, you sweat, have a fast hart beat etc.

Last edited by Raziel on 31 Jul 2012, 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

It sounds familiar, and I have both anxiety and depression. With proper medication, I have a huge amount less depression, and still have anxiety but it is far more manageable than it was a year ago. My thoughts were super fast, super repetitive, and completely unhelpful. Getting some sleep helps (if you can get the thoughts to shut off), getting some therapy or Rxs can help, your life can open up again and be what you want it to be instead of a prison. Even if you can't see how that could possibly change.

Rxs?

Oh sorry, I meant prescription medicine. Inititally some did not work for me, but now I have a combination of the correct amount of Zoloft and also xanax. Good luck.

Why OCD-traits?

Because OCD can entail obsessive thoughts which can cause anxiety because they are in one way or another unpleasant but you can't help it.

But aren't OCD obsessive thoughts intrusive thoughts? Thoughts about things like other people getting hurt or about hurting other people etc? The thoughts I've got are truly obsessive (and intrusive since I don't want them) because I obsess about them pretty much every waking minute of every day and they won't go away. Never thought of them as OCD thoughts though. My obsessive, repetitive thoughts are about me being mentally ill and not knowing what mental illness I've got. Do you know what I mean?

Yes, that's why I would say it's mainly an anxiety issue with OCD-traits.
Because you think obessivly over and over it and can't help it, but the mainproblem is clearly your anxiety.
Anxiety and OCD are strongly connected. A lot of people are getting anxious and then obsessed with something because they want to control their anxiety.
But in those cases you usually just diagnose the anxiety, but it is kind of helpfull to keep in mind to what it is also related to, to understand it better.
At least that's a bit my kind of view.

I can see it very clearly in my family. My grandma has strong OCD and nearly no anxiety (sometimes she is nearly like Mr. Monk ) . My mother has just some OCD and anxiety traits, but nothing that needs to get diagnosed and I tend to have full blown anxiety with obsessive thinking, routines and so on. The diagnostic label changes every time, but the route is exactly the same, but repressenting itself different in every person in my family, because those diagnoses are all somehow connected.
It actually helped me a lot to understand that.