*long post* Deja Vu with anxiety? Anyone else?

[Harley.]

Where do I start here, I have had anxiety and OCD my WHOLE life. There are videos of me as a three year old doing repetitive actions. My parents took them because they were concerned on why I was acting weird. I have faced almost every kind of anxiety out there: health anxiety, Spiritual anxiety, magical thinking, POCD, HOCD, ROCD, Pure OCD, Real event OCD, the list goes on. You get the point.
Now, when I was in Grade 1 I had what is known as a cluster seizure. This is a bunch of seizures together that appear as one BIG seizure. There is no family history of seizures so the docs still don't know why I had this, but I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Now, Praise the Lord, I never had another seizure. But it became one of my MAIN fears with anxiety. That I was going to have another one.
For example, I started to get dizzy with strobes thinking that it was photosensitive epilepsy. Nope...just anxiety.
About a year after that I started to get these bursts of false smells of smoke out of nowhere. This is a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy. But nope, also anxiety. I still get these sometimes if im REALLY stressed. So im used to my anxiety messing with me. However this one is different.
Back in May of last year I started to think about my seizures again, and I started to get worried about them. Shortly after that I was informed that I would be seeing my neuro in a few weeks for my final appointment with her. This got me REALLY concerned and about a week later I had this strong episode of Deja Vu, which again, is a BIG sign of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, I shook it off and moved on, forgetting about it. Two weeks later it happens again. Once again I shook it off and moved on. Two weeks later it happens AGAIN. This time I freak out. I start googling (how dumb I know, im a pretty seasoned anxiety sufferer and yet I did the single most stupid thing you can do) and get myself all good and anxious. At this point I was near a panic attack and I started to worry and freak out. I started to have them more and more frequently. First it was every 5 days. Then every 3, then 2 and so on.
June rolls around and I see two neurologists. Both of which tell me that I am probably ok. However my deja vus end up getting way more frequent. I talk to my neuro and get an EEG booked. It comes back clean, this did calm me a bit, but I didnt actually have a deja vu while hooked up to the EEG. So I brush it off and continue worrying.
Meanwhile the deja vus are still going on strong.
We jump forward to January of this year (big jump I know, but thats the healthcare system for ya) I meet again with my neuro, she is near positive that I am ok, however I am still having the Deja vus. And they are getting even MORE frequent. I then talk to my GP (who happens to have a masters in neurology), and she is ALSO pretty sure I am ok. However they CONTINUE to get worse.
That brings us to present day. I can't go a DAY without having at least several. They last like 2-10 seconds, and I get this feeling ive done X before and I can even see a false memory of me doing X before. But I can't recall the image afterwords. I am scared to DRIVE because of this. And I keep seeing posts on this sub where people were told their dejavus were just anxiety and then they end up being seizures. I just don't know what to do. Has anyone had this with anxiety before? I am so terrified.

 

[eleos1954]

Where do I start here, I have had anxiety and OCD my WHOLE life. There are videos of me as a three year old doing repetitive actions. My parents took them because they were concerned on why I was acting weird. I have faced almost every kind of anxiety out there: health anxiety, Spiritual anxiety, magical thinking, POCD, HOCD, ROCD, Pure OCD, Real event OCD, the list goes on. You get the point.
Now, when I was in Grade 1 I had what is known as a cluster seizure. This is a bunch of seizures together that appear as one BIG seizure. There is no family history of seizures so the docs still don't know why I had this, but I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Now, Praise the Lord, I never had another seizure. But it became one of my MAIN fears with anxiety. That I was going to have another one.
For example, I started to get dizzy with strobes thinking that it was photosensitive epilepsy. Nope...just anxiety.
About a year after that I started to get these bursts of false smells of smoke out of nowhere. This is a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy. But nope, also anxiety. I still get these sometimes if im REALLY stressed. So im used to my anxiety messing with me. However this one is different.
Back in May of last year I started to think about my seizures again, and I started to get worried about them. Shortly after that I was informed that I would be seeing my neuro in a few weeks for my final appointment with her. This got me REALLY concerned and about a week later I had this strong episode of Deja Vu, which again, is a BIG sign of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, I shook it off and moved on, forgetting about it. Two weeks later it happens again. Once again I shook it off and moved on. Two weeks later it happens AGAIN. This time I freak out. I start googling (how dumb I know, im a pretty seasoned anxiety sufferer and yet I did the single most stupid thing you can do) and get myself all good and anxious. At this point I was near a panic attack and I started to worry and freak out. I started to have them more and more frequently. First it was every 5 days. Then every 3, then 2 and so on.
June rolls around and I see two neurologists. Both of which tell me that I am probably ok. However my deja vus end up getting way more frequent. I talk to my neuro and get an EEG booked. It comes back clean, this did calm me a bit, but I didnt actually have a deja vu while hooked up to the EEG. So I brush it off and continue worrying.
Meanwhile the deja vus are still going on strong.
We jump forward to January of this year (big jump I know, but thats the healthcare system for ya) I meet again with my neuro, she is near positive that I am ok, however I am still having the Deja vus. And they are getting even MORE frequent. I then talk to my GP (who happens to have a masters in neurology), and she is ALSO pretty sure I am ok. However they CONTINUE to get worse.
That brings us to present day. I can't go a DAY without having at least several. They last like 2-10 seconds, and I get this feeling ive done X before and I can even see a false memory of me doing X before. But I can't recall the image afterwords. I am scared to DRIVE because of this. And I keep seeing posts on this sub where people were told their dejavus were just anxiety and then they end up being seizures. I just don't know what to do. Has anyone had this with anxiety before? I am so terrified.

Anxiety attacks are/can be very difficult to deal with. Sometimes we are unable to pin point the cause of them ... they occur sometimes with no apparent reason why.

Déjà vu is an illusion - a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.​

The best thing to do is dismiss them. We all have dejavu experiences at times ... it is a matter of to what degree we allow them to effect us ... control us.

I am in no way making light of the matter. I've had a few "chronic" experiences myself ... but have learned to dismiss them. If I can't determine a reason for the anxiety then I dismiss them. If I can determine the cause then I do my best to address what is causing it and find a resolve to it and also pray to the Lord for His help in resolving the matter.

May the Lord being peace to your mind ... Amen.

 

[Diamond72]

I started to get dizzy with strobes thinking that it was photosensitive epilepsy.

You need to watch out for that. Lots of people have a problem with flashing lights.
Flash lights have a strobe mode because of it's ability to draw peoples attention.

 

[HopeSings]

Where do I start here, I have had anxiety and OCD my WHOLE life. There are videos of me as a three year old doing repetitive actions. My parents took them because they were concerned on why I was acting weird. I have faced almost every kind of anxiety out there: health anxiety, Spiritual anxiety, magical thinking, POCD, HOCD, ROCD, Pure OCD, Real event OCD, the list goes on. You get the point.
Now, when I was in Grade 1 I had what is known as a cluster seizure. This is a bunch of seizures together that appear as one BIG seizure. There is no family history of seizures so the docs still don't know why I had this, but I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Now, Praise the Lord, I never had another seizure. But it became one of my MAIN fears with anxiety. That I was going to have another one.
For example, I started to get dizzy with strobes thinking that it was photosensitive epilepsy. Nope...just anxiety.
About a year after that I started to get these bursts of false smells of smoke out of nowhere. This is a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy. But nope, also anxiety. I still get these sometimes if im REALLY stressed. So im used to my anxiety messing with me. However this one is different.
Back in May of last year I started to think about my seizures again, and I started to get worried about them. Shortly after that I was informed that I would be seeing my neuro in a few weeks for my final appointment with her. This got me REALLY concerned and about a week later I had this strong episode of Deja Vu, which again, is a BIG sign of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, I shook it off and moved on, forgetting about it. Two weeks later it happens again. Once again I shook it off and moved on. Two weeks later it happens AGAIN. This time I freak out. I start googling (how dumb I know, im a pretty seasoned anxiety sufferer and yet I did the single most stupid thing you can do) and get myself all good and anxious. At this point I was near a panic attack and I started to worry and freak out. I started to have them more and more frequently. First it was every 5 days. Then every 3, then 2 and so on.
June rolls around and I see two neurologists. Both of which tell me that I am probably ok. However my deja vus end up getting way more frequent. I talk to my neuro and get an EEG booked. It comes back clean, this did calm me a bit, but I didnt actually have a deja vu while hooked up to the EEG. So I brush it off and continue worrying.
Meanwhile the deja vus are still going on strong.
We jump forward to January of this year (big jump I know, but thats the healthcare system for ya) I meet again with my neuro, she is near positive that I am ok, however I am still having the Deja vus. And they are getting even MORE frequent. I then talk to my GP (who happens to have a masters in neurology), and she is ALSO pretty sure I am ok. However they CONTINUE to get worse.
That brings us to present day. I can't go a DAY without having at least several. They last like 2-10 seconds, and I get this feeling ive done X before and I can even see a false memory of me doing X before. But I can't recall the image afterwords. I am scared to DRIVE because of this. And I keep seeing posts on this sub where people were told their dejavus were just anxiety and then they end up being seizures. I just don't know what to do. Has anyone had this with anxiety before? I am so terrified.

I have many thoughts that I wished I didn't have. I forget the thoughts as best i can. It gets easier for me. My mind isn't as bad as it was so there is surely hope.

 

[Diamond72]

I see two neurologists.

The best book I have read on this is: "The Language of LIfe" by Debra Neihoff. This helps us to understand how our brain works.

I have a defibulator and I was getting shocked when I was eating pizza. So I understand a little bit of how PTSD plays into that. Even the experts do not understand the autonomic nervous system (unconscious) nervous system very well. But Debra does have a grasp on how the brain communicates with itself.