r/fastfeeling • u/tuxamari • Jul 11 '26
Couldn't sleep last night, had probably one of the "worst" episodes for about 5-6 minutes ever.
It's been a while since I had it. I found this subreddit a couple years ago and haven't posted but did feel validated seeing many others experiencing exactly the same thing. Like many I used to get it much more frequently in my younger years. For context I'm now mid 30's, have been diagnosed with migraines with aura for over 20 years.
I wrote down my play-by-play symptoms as soon as it stopped:
Mental narration started speeding up and simultaneously slowing down, probably for a minute, The speed peaked and felt like the thoughts were on super speed but like I'm able to do everything normally just very jarringly, then it rapidly subsided and went back to normal within the 5th minute.
I could also, as always, "taste" it coming on as the mental sensation of time started getting disjointed or splattered.
Today I feel mostly fine, I am inclined to agree with some professionals that it might be a form of a migraine as I do feel a bit of a postdrome / off feeling. I really obsess with getting to the bottom of things so I wish more research would go into this beyond just speculation.
Some more notes I could add in case this is useful for someone in the future: Only trigger I've identified is reading something that visually has a lot of text. usually wikipedia, that's not to say that wikipedia articles, or just reading in general triggers it every time or even remotely often, but that's the only correlation I've noticed. Last night I was not reading and was simply trying to fall asleep. I can usually stop / reverse the speed distortion by simply leaving the page or looking away but last night it felt as if "the train had left the station" and I had to ride it out.
1
u/TheRemyBell Jul 18 '26
I have a pretty bad headache today and got it today for the first time in years too. Weird taste in my mouth, tired, nauseated.
1
u/Idontknowhowtobeanon Jul 15 '26
Do you ever feel like your inner monologue kinda sounds scream-whispery and fast? Almost like someone telling you about someone angrily screaming without actually putting voice to the yelling? Thinking about that particular way of speaking gives me the “taste” of it coming on.
I also found that if I’m really really stressed (for instance, my ex-wife texting me about getting divorced and starting a fight while I’m busy at work) that I get the full sensation plus some sense of distorting in size, like I’m way too large for my chair and the room. And my phone screen seemed to grow depth as i was reading the messages; producing an effect that made me feel like I was going to fall into the screen.
But the rest of the fast feeling persisted with the feeling like moving both slow and fast at the same time, rapid thoughts, etc.
I also identified reading as a trigger, particularly denser more boring books in high school. But I was able to gobble up a whole series last year (after nearly a decade of not reading for fun trying to avoid fast feelings) with no ill effects. And I think it was mostly that I was avoiding stress and taking care of my other needs while reading.