"Simmering" Feeling

[pw89]

Hey everyone,

I have a question. Sometimes, I am not thinking about anything particular. However, I have this sensation of "anxiety/panic/fear on a simmer."

It is strange to describe. Kind of like, I can ignore it if I want to, pretend that it is not there; but it is simply a feeling of fear/doubt/panic/anxiety on a "low simmer" that is present. It makes doing some actions hard, and as I stated, I could just go on acting like everything is alright, doing some other things, but that feeling is still "simmering" in the back of my mind/wherever it is coming from.

What is this subtle, constant, low-key feeling that is "simmering" in the back of my mind/wherever?

Does/Did anyone else experience this?

Is this an effect from OCD? Or is this not a symptom of OCD, and is something else?

Thank You, very much,

-pw

 

[Jayangel81]

Hi

Im having a tough time understanding youre feeling of "simmer"

Is it like when youre mind is in a steady calm but all youre thoughts/anxiety/doubt flood over and oveR?

youre explaination on that type of "feeling" is pretty vague. I try to write off any weird feelings/doubts and stuff as OCD. Most likely it is from our OCD..

 

[marcb]

I think I know what you are getting at. It's "that feeling" that never completely goes away, always in the back of your mind or your "back burner."

Yes, I get that. It's lousy. I was thinking earlier about how much time and energy this has consumed over the past two years, because it has never really gone away (for very long, anyway).

Lately, it's just been getting sicker and sicker. But today I felt a little better (quite a bit). Just the past hour has been rough. The things that my mind thinks of is just beyond what I would consider shameful.

 

[granolagurl]

I know exactly what you're talkin about pw. Even if you're havin a great day you still have that tiny fear in the back of your mind....hopefully it will eventually fade?

 

[gracealone]

Yes Pw, I've had that too. I call it "free floating anxiety." Actually my last big flare with my Panic/OCD disorder started off with just a continuous vague sense of dread. (Which I stupidly ignored.) This manifested itself in physical symptoms also. I had that pang or stab in my gut that you get when something really scares you, some minor trembling in my hands, tense muscles, rapid heartbeat, cold sweats, etc. Then as the OCD took hold all that pent up over abundance of fight or flight chemistry focused itself on obsessions. This is why , I think, we get the obsessions to begin with. Our brain is already misfiring and giving us wrong signals of impending danger when there is none. So it's all too ready to latch on to any sort of unwanted or intrusive thought and use that thought to expend the excess adrenaline. So my experience has been that even when I'm not focused on a particular obsession that feeling of uneasiness that you described so well, can still be there.
It always helps to know that someone "gets" what we are talking about.
Praying for you,
Mitzi

 

[gracealone]

Just the past hour has been rough. The things that my mind thinks of is just beyond what I would consider shameful.

I know Marc "the things" - the thoughts - even the actual images are abhorrent, sickening, dreadful,twisted,shocking!!... and "what kind of person must I be to have such thoughts?!!"
Having the thoughts come into our minds is not something that is within our control but our reaction to them is. They are as reflexive as the "sneeze" you suggested in an earlier post. They do not reflect or define any thing meaningful about who we are. The instinctive response to wage war against them is only caused by that misfiring in our brain that makes them feel so terribly threatening. And it's at this juncture that we have to excercise tremendous willpower and discipline. No matter how awful the thought, no matter how instense the anxiety response is to it - we have to be willing to turn away from it, not run away from it as this is impossible, but ignore it. We have to do this even when our brain throws an all out temper tantrum because we aren't attending to the thought. But every time we attend to it we are as Dr. Philippson has suggested, "putting a mental marker on it." It's like taking a bright yellow highlighter and marking the thought in our brain as something that we really need to deal with.
It's so very discouraging to have one fire burn itself out only to have another one pop up somewhere else.
I have gone through this trading of one old worn out obsession for another new one and it does make it seem like the war will never end. But it will. Thinking that the war will never end is also an OCD thought.
Praying for you,
Mitzi

 

[stacii]

The simmering is the worst. I think it's sort of like obsessing about obsessing. Like you are just waiting for the next spike or for the anxiety to come to a full boil again. I absolutely hate it. It's that vague sense of dread that Mitzi described. Terribly time consuming. I have found that this "simmering" is the hardest part to overcome.

Simmering is such a good way to describe it by the way. I've never been able to put words to the feeling before.

 

[pw89]

So, that "simmering" feeling is a symptom of OCD?

That "simmering" feeling of doubt, anxiety, and fear over nothing in particular, but simply present?

Thanks for the response,

-pw

 

[ObsessedButBlessed]

So, that "simmering" feeling is a symptom of OCD?

That "simmering" feeling of doubt, anxiety, and fear over nothing in particular, but simply present?

Thanks for the response,

-pw

Yes, this happens to me. More like just this sinking feeling in my stomach, maybe a few pangs of anxiety, but the thoughts are not racing around in my head causing me to feel this way. I had that a few nights ago. It's like my body and mind are just waiting for me to jump in and start dissecting why I feel "off."

Distraction helps a lot in this area, and exercise. All that anxiety has to have a place to go, and I've found that exercise gets rid of feeling like you're teetering on the edge.

 

[stacii]

pw89 - unfortunately yes - that simmering feeling comes with the OCD territory...it needs to be viewed and treated as an obsession in and of itself....super annoying, right??