i am having a hard time figuring out if i am am experiencing the first symptoms of schizophrenia or severe anxiety. this is especially frustrating {REMOVED}
here are my symptoms. about a year ago, i experienced my first panic attack. it was pretty much the worst feeling of my life. i thought i was dying and losing my mind and that if i managed to survive the panic, i'd never be sane again. since then, whenever i am in situations that resemble my inital panic attack setting, i freak out and have bad anxiety. i've managed to control the panic so i don't get full-blown attacks anymore. i also spend much of my time avoiding situations where i know i will panic. there is a certain smell that is associated with my first panic attack. i will freak out out if i smell it, and sometimes i will smell it and get scared even when it isn't there at all! i have nightmares constantly about that experience. sometimes, if my food tastes unusual, i'll freak out and think that my food is being laced with the substance that caused my first panic attck. also, before i fall asleep at night, my brain won't 'shut off' and i'll think of all sorts of random nonsensical things. sometimes i swear i can hear my thoughts. i don't hear voices or anything, and this only happens to me before i fall asleep. i can't control it though. and i am scared i'm developing schizophrenia.
i don't take medication. believe it or not, my anxiety used to be a lot worse. now i cn actually control my panic attacks. i also check my pulse constantly, because i know that if my heart stops racing i will not have a panic attack.
please help. if you've experienced symptoms like this and know you are not becoming schizophrenic, please reassure my fears.

Hi there. While I have never had a panic attack...I do have anxiety and I stress way too much. I have the same exact problem at night! I will lie there and not be able to sleep because my mind just keeps going. If I am stressing about something...instead of trying to solve it in the morning, I will try to solve it in my mind instead of falling asleep. I am fed up with this and refuse to take medication, so I resorted to seeing a therapist. She has diagnosed me with general anxiety disorder. She said I'm on the lower end of the spectrum and I just need to reprogram my thinking and learn ways to destress. Maybe you could talk to someone? In my opinion, worrying about worrying (which is essentially what you are doing) is an anxiety problem...not schizophrenia. :) Good luck!

Hi there. I am currently experiencing these same sort of symptons. My mind goes a hundred miles an hour before I go to sleep at night. I think about everything and anything, and sometimes alot of it dosent make sense. My thoughts are very vivid, just like you said you can almost hear them out loud. I too am trying everything else before I attempt meds. I dont think you are becoming schizophrenic. I have a friend who is. He's had it since the age of 18, around the usual time of onset.He is now 35. He's gone through the bible a hundred times thinking that there were messages in there, from god, for him to kill people. He also went through phases where he believed that the FBI was following him around, and that there was some type of conspiracy against him. We live in a small town in Ontario, Canada. There is no FBI here.These are typical signs of schizophrenia. I believe your diagnosis of GAD was on the money. I know its bad. I suffer from it too, and I feel many days like I am going crazy. Im trying hyponotherapy, and deep breathing etc. I'd be more than happy to chat with you further if you are interested.
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All the best

Uncle En

yeah i am not having any paranoid delusions or anything. except when it comes to food, sometimes i think it's being laced if it tastes funny.

Even the food thing is not a paranoid delusion. Paranoid delusions are things that you think and believe. Do you actually believe that people are trying to poison you or do you just get nervous and anxious at the thought of people trying to poison you? There is a difference! Most people with schizophrenia when they have a psychotic break do so in there late teens early twenties. When a psychotic break happens the person can not distinguish the difference between reality and non-reality, so there is usually not much anxiety because in that persons head everything is fine. Are you following? So, if you are anxious all the time, you can't possibly be schizophrenic. It just doesn't work like that. Now, you may do some research on Pure OCD or Pure O. This is when intrusive or negative thoughts come out of nowhere and cause you a great amount of stress and anxiety such as what if someone is trying to poison me. I have Pure O and I have also had the obsession about being poisoned. Of course I knew that it was pretty unlikely that anyone would want to poison me, but the thought itself was enough to send me spiraling towards a panic attack. If you still doubt that you don't have schizophrenia then go see an anxiety dissorder specialist. He/she will set you straight immediately, but if you do have Pure O it won't stop the intrusive thoughts. I used to stay up until the wee hours of the morning obsessing about nonsense. I now take Xanax daily (2mg). It helps with the anxiety, but doesn't help much with the thoughts. I battle that with meditation, health, and exercise. I also keep my mind busy with books and games and anything else I can find to occupy my time. The worst thing you can do with OCD is sit still and think! I would go get a diagnosis and consider your options from there. I will warn you ahead of time. Antidepressants don't usually work very well for OCD and especially Pure OCD, so beware. You may be one of the lucky few who can take the, but for most it makes the intrusive thoughts worse and thus the anxiety worse as well.

Good luck,
OE

I agree with the others. What you've been experiencing is 'cued panic attacks' things that remind you about your initial panic attack - ie the smell - cue other ones. This is quite common in panic disorder. I think it's anxiety too. Hearing your thoughts doesn't mean schizophrenia. It's your mind racing. You can't shut it off. That's anxiety. I've experienced that too.

But unlike the previous poster, anti depressants did help with my obsessive thoughts. Normally if i'm obsessing about something I'll have the same thought over and over again, every 2 - 5 minutes or so. When I was on an AD - Zoloft - i'd have the thought but then it would go away and wouldn't come back unless I actively looked for it. But I'm off zoloft now, and I don't think it's the way to go. SSRIs make you feel numb. It's like living in a fog, being on them.

So you need to tackle it with therapy. And look at your diet because nutrition plays a big part in our mental health. Patrick Holford's written books about mental health and nutrition. Maybe have a look for them in your library. in the meantime perhaps you need a relaxant like xanax or something to help you in the short term, or there is a natural relaxant called valerian you can get in the chemist or health food shops but be careful, it stinks.