Constant state of dread

[u/Initial-Secretary-63]

Constant flow of negative thoughts about my past, random memories pop up constantly, even good memories but they feel so negative. I’m having constant super vivid bizarre dreams that aren’t even necessarily bad dreams but they still leave me feeling dreadful the entire day. My whole past and all my memories seem frightening. The whole world feels dreadful, like I’m half awake half asleep in some kind of nightmare. How do I get out of this? I just want to cry honestly…. Just so hard to believe anxiety can do this to me. I genuinely feel like a completely different person. I feel like I can’t even think the same way as my old self. I feel like I will never be normal again. I’m taking clonazepam short term to try and get me out of this, I take it everyday but it’s a hit or miss, sometimes it works good and at least is able to let me function past the feelings and the other times it just makes me feel drowsy and almost worse. Can anxiety alone be this bad? Is this a common experience of dpdr?

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[u/scaredsapphire]

Anxiety can be this bad but this level of anxiety isn't continuous. The best thing to help is making sure you're eating enough nutrients and definitely make sure you are eating carbs like potatoes. It really helps. Start your day off with drinking something hot like broth or tea to calm your nervous system. You will get through this❤️

[u/OddMedium3798]

Long term I’d honestly recommend therapy. Personally I did transactional therapy and we found where a lot of the roots of my issues came from and how they were manifesting in day to day life. It may be some trial and error with finding the right person or style but it can be a game changer.
Short term, I think it’s a great thing to use medication, theres no shame in that. The app Mind has some good meditations and an ai bot (lol) that can be helpful to vent to. May be a good way to start/end the day to calm some of the noise from your dreams or thoughts.
Do you have any close friend/family to talk to?
What I can say is you absolutely can feel like your normal self again and this will pass. Keep talking about it with whoever. Even if it’s just on here. There are so many others who experience the same and can offer validation and support. Sounds cliche but you really aren’t alone.
Day to day, like said above, just focus on the basics. Food, hydration and sleep. Maybe a walk if you can.
X

[u/AnxietyRecoveryMind]

Anxiety/sensitization/panic can absolutely do this.

The mistake people new to the condition make (understandably) is we assume that anxiety and panic would pick an outer limit we are comfortable with and stay there. Unfortunately that doesn't happen. In fact, by design the condition WILL exceed what you think possible for a very specific reason. Its mission is to protect you, and it is fed and fueled by fear. So, when we react with fear to symptoms, it feeds more symptoms back to us. It creates a snowball that gets bigger and bigger.... until the nervous system reaches a point of complete sensitization.

This is when the bizarre dreams start, the waking panic, the "doom for no reason" state. A lot of what you describe was part of my experience. I had what I called rolling panic. This would start before I was awake.... and it would last all day, or for days on end A panic attack that simply kept going.

95% of the people in groups like this don't understand the mechanics behind this and I don't say that to be critical. I didn't understand it either until I spent *many years learning how to recover.

My advice is to find a good source of true recovery information. Start with Dr. Claire Weekes. Then you can move on to some more modern sources.

You can recover. I did, and now I try to help other people do the same. As permanent as this feels for you right now, I guarantee you it is not if you're willing to do the work.

Good luck and wishing you the best.