That sense of dread and impending doom

Posted , 14 users are following.

After another week of up -and-downs, anxiety and panic attacks mixed in with moments of almost being a normal person, I thought I'd post about the weird feelings that come with this virus.

I'm so convinced it short-circuits the nervous system and sends everything haywire, because nothing else explains the bizarre and sudden onset of panic attacks. Maybe it inflames something that sends out bursts of cortisol? The fear is insane.

Does anyone else wake up with this all-pervasive sense of dread, as if you're doomed? It's so awful. On the logical side, I know I'm not dying. That I will get through today, and tomorrow, just as I've done for the past seven weeks. But then the agitation and anxiety inside of me is convinced of something entirely different - that I'm living on borrowed time and this is really the end and it's just that no one else has discovered it yet.

I have moments where I can put this feeling in perspective, and I'm grateful for those. But then I have moments - lots of them - where it consumes me. That's when the panic attacks tend to set in. I had one so bad a couple of days ago I almost fainted.

I hate this virus. HATE it.

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18 Replies

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  • Posted

    hey, I had exactly the same symptoms. I wasnt diagnosed for the first year of being ill and then they just said, it might be this, but might not as well. I remember thinking im gonna have a heart attack from how frightened I was, cuz I didnt know what was happening.

    Also mononucleosis is one of the few and the most likely condition to cause alice in the wonderland syndrome, which basicaly alters your perception of reality and its said its because it somehows causes signals in the brain to go weird. Also epilepsy is known to cause the feelingg of impending doom , so it makes sense that it happens with mono as well, if it haywires the signal.

    take care

  • Posted

    Hi Emma,

    I felt that way all the way through the virus. I think you are right about the cortisol, because it is higher in the morning and morning through late afternoon were always my worst time. Then in the evening I would feel better. Best of luck this will get better with time.

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