Calling my name

[Bluey_moon]

Has anyone else experienced thinking they hear someone calling their name just before falling asleep? Or hearing thinking they hear someone talking to them? 

[Guest_1055]

Just want to let you know Bluey Moon ,so that you feel not alone ...I have experienced this too.

xxx

[Chicken_Wings]

If you need reassurance every now and then it's ok Skye. 
Maybe there are things you can do to trust yourself a bit more, so you can reassure yourself?

One exercise my psychologist taught me is about controlling these thoughts. It might be helpful for you?

1. Get a notebook, or maybe the notes app of your phone

2. Allocate a time of the day for worrying. Make sure that time has a start and a finish. I made mine 15 minutes are the end of the work day when I got home.

3. When you have a bad or intrusive thought like "i'm going crazy" write it down. Write down the time and the thought.

4. Do not worry about this thought now, tell yourself that you will worry about this thought during your allocated worrying time.

5. In your allocated worrying time, go through the list you made that day. If you need to cry, cry. 

The idea behind this exercise is that you are teaching your brain to acknowledge the thought, but then pass it by rather than get stuck in a loop about it. You already know that your thoughts aren't true and you've proven that when you look back at them you can look at them objectively. 

Eventually you will start getting to your worry time and looking at your list and thinking "i know thats not true" and "why was I worrying about that?

[Bluey_moon]

Thank you Shelley Anne, you nearly made me cry, because you hit the nail on the head, sometimes in this I feel alone. 

Thank you for knowing! 

Chicken wings, I will definatley try what you suggested! Thank you for your advice!

[Chicken_Wings]

Skye, I was just reading one of my favourite blogs (that I also have the book from!) and thought you should have a read.

The woman's name is Allie Brosh and the blog (and the book) is called Hyperbole and a Half.

Allie has depression, thats not all the blog is about, its filled with great stuff, but there is a section where she does a fantastic job of explaining how it feels AND documenting her getting better. That bit is called Adventures in Depression (Parts 1 & 2).

Don't think this is some boring, inspirational thing, she draws terrible pictures and talks about her dog and how she is a bit of a weirdo. It's brilliant.

I bought the book and read it in 2 days and it had me laughing in bed whilst reading.

Anyway, just a thought.

[Dwwmills]

Hi Skye.

A couple of ways you can try to tackle the racing thoughts.

One is to get yourself into a more relaxed state. I found
the relaxation audios connected with that app I was telling you about helped
me. They take about 20 minutes each and they guide you through how to relax and
also take you through a visualisation exercise. There is one about being at the
beach another one about being in a mountain cabin and several others. They
basically teach you to release muscle tension in your body but they also take
you away in your mind so that you can escape some of your thoughts for a short
while. You are meant to use them daily and over time you learn to relax more. I
was very sceptical at first but once I committed to actually following the
audios I found them helpful. It won’t necessarily make you relax for the whole
day but it does let you experience what being more relaxed is like again.

I couldn’t stop the thoughts as such but I use the method of
just drowning them out with something else. Again I used the audios from the website
I got the app from. They cover all different subjects and teach CBT at the same
time. I would just download them and have them on my phone and I would play
them whilst I was doing other things around the house. They’re meant to be
listened to over and over. Sometimes I’d listen intently and other times I just
drift in and out. Overall they helped drowned out the intrusive thoughts but
they also taught me how to deal with them at the same time.

Being tired just makes it so hard. I was tired today I had a
very average day. It takes some energy to be able to challenge and to rethink.
If you are tired that just makes it that much harder unfortunately.

I’d have money on you not being psychotic as well. You’re
far too aware of what’s happening.

It can be lonely at times and I think this forum is a great
place to discuss our problems. Unless you’re going through it or have gone
through it I think it’s very difficult for people to relate to.

Be kind to yourself. You really are doing a good job and it
will pay off in the end.

Cheers

Dean

[Bluey_moon]

Thank you Dean for your advice. I have downloaded that app and started it yesterday, I know it'll take practice, so I'll keep trying! 

Chicken wings also suggested I have a worry journal, so I allocated a time of the day for worries, like 10 minutes and the rest of the time I just write my worry down and allocate it to be worried about later, so I'm going to try that too!

i appreciate your ongoing advice 

skye

[Bluey_moon]

Can I ask you guys something? 

Does/did you anxiety ever cause visual things? I mean like seeing a shadow out of the corner of your eyes but there is nothing there? 

It happens to me occasionally. The other day at work it was a moth, well I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, then I realised it was actually a moth.

Or when I look it'll be a reflection or something. 

Yesterday I was walking back to the car with my kids, and for a split second it looked like someone was in the car, but I think it was just my reflection in the windscreen! It lasted only a second! 

Has anyone else experienced this. 

I think my mind is just in overdrive! 

Skye 

[Bluey_moon]

Thank you chicken wings, I will have a look for that book! 

[Dwwmills]

Hi Skye.

I haven’t had any strange visual things caused by anxiety
but I’m always surprised at how anxiety surfaces. These days I tend to catch my
anxiety at the early stages where I just feel anxious. Before I became more
educated about anxiety this anxiety would build over time to a point where
everyday things seemed like major problems. It could be work, family, health
all my self-worth that my anxiety would focus on. I would tried to solve one
problem to relieve the anxiety but the anxiety would then shift to another
problem. Took me a long time to work out what was happening. When suffering
from anxiety my thinking powers were not particularly good.

I see that you saw White Knights post in the Staying Well
Section. I think he summed it up very well when he said it is about education.
As you become more knowledgeable about anxiety the more influence you have over
controlling it.

I’m glad you’ve downloaded the app. The app alone is
probably not very powerful but the information that it links you to from the “Excel
at Life” site is where the real power is. It helped educate me on the anxiety.
They do have an app there called the “Worry Box” that you can use to track and
store your worries. Another app on the site that I found particularly useful is
the “Cognitive Styles Test”. It runs you through about 150 questions and gives
you results on different aspects of your thinking. It checks things like
anxiety, self-esteem, perfectionism, approval seeking and about another six or
seven things. It scores from low to average and high in about 13 steps and
gives you an explanation of what your score means. Then links you into articles
and suggest apps that may help. You can store the results from the particular
tests and there is a function to compare two different tests so you can track
your progress over time. All these apps have a password function if you enable
it so that you can be sure whatever you put here is private. The apps are
completely stored on your phone so all the information is yours and is not sent
back to the website.

Hope you have a good day!

Dean

[Bluey_moon]

Mm mm, I cause I'm over sensitive to stuff considering my paranoia about scizophrenia. The only other thing that occasionally worries me is I often over think about paranoia. Because of what I'd read previously. About how people with scizophrenia think people are planting cameras ect. Then when I had anxiety bad I thought what would happen if people did that to my jewellery or lamps. The thought makes me nervous even though I don't beleive it! 

Skye