Feeling confused and lost all the time

[SunshineRainbowDaisy]

I have derelization and Depersonalisation but lately it’s been getting worse. I’m 19 years old and this is scaring me. I feel so confused and lost mentally I forget where I am and I feel panicky my heart is racing a lot lately.

I want to go to the doctor but my mother keeps saying that it’s all in my head that I’m fine. I don’t feel like my limbs are attached to me my hands feel foreign and my legs are the same. I’ve been dizzy and have had head pressure and numbness.

I would like a ct scan of the brain and or mri but with people telling me it’s all in my head it makes me feel like I’m wasting the doctors time with this.

I keep going over and over in my head what if it’s a brain tumor or a seizure or something else life threatening I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want bills but I don’t want to die either.

[Paxiled]

Just for the record, there is no evidence a chemical imbalance exists in people suffering from mental illness.  If there is one, nobody's found it yet, though they're still looking.  So if there is one, we don't know which chemicals and where they're coming from.  As to the post, you say you have derealization and depersonalization but say you havenn't been to a doctor.  So I'm wondering, have you been diagnosed by a psychologist with this?  Or are you self-diagnosing based on surfing the internet?  These terms are labels representing effects of mental illness, but there are a lot of things out there that can be wrong that might feel like those things but aren't those things.  You don't say if you've been  a long-time sufferer of anxiety or depression or if your anxiety is a result of feeling these things you're describing.  So the proper first step when you feel off is to get a thorough work-up from a physician that tests for as many of the things as possible that can cause what you're feeling, such as nutrient deficiencies, thyroid or other hormonal imbalances, blood sugar problems, drug use, sleep disorders, etc.  Only when physiological causes are ruled out do you know as best you can that it's a mental problem.  At that point, especially at your young age, the usual thing for a doc to do until recently was to send you to a psychologist who specializes in anxiety treatment to see if you can work it out.  If that didn't work, the psychologist would then refer you to a psychiatrist for medication or you would try something else, such as lifestyle changes or other forms of medicine, but you'd try something.  You're likely to get a few answers on here, and I'd say if you're concerned your parents aren't responding to this with the proper urgency and you need their support to get help, then have them read the responses you get here from those of us who have had this problem a long time.  When I was young, and I'm in my sixties now, anxiety and depression were considered by most Americans to be cop-outs and laziness.  That allowed them to fester until they were really hard to fix.  I woldn't advise that course.

[Paxiled]

I should add, if you're in a decent sized college, there should be a health center there for student use.  

[nirvana123]

I had therapy for two yrs. before therapy I would feel like I was gonna die, cancer, brain tumor etc. I would be in and out from the hospital and clinics, had Ct scans, ultrasound and more test. I was fine. I ended up getting therapy. My therapist told me sometimes in our brains we have chemical imbalance which cause us to feel emotional and physical and feeling out of place. Is why they call it mental illness.

[SunshineRainbowDaisy]

Thank you for your detailed replied I’m going to make an appointment next week

[SunshineRainbowDaisy]

Thank you nirvana, I have yet to have a ct scan so I think once I do and they can rule out a brain tumor then I’ll see a therapist again for right now though I’m totally convinced I’m dying.

Thanks for reply

[Paxiled]

nirvana, your therapist was either speaking colloquially or just isn't well informed.  The chemical imbalance theory was really pushed hard by Eli Lilly when it first came out with Prozac many years ago now, but it wasn't true then and isn't true now.  This doesn't mean there isn't a chemical imbalance, it just means if there is one nobody knows which chemicals are involved and from which part of the body the problem is originating from.  Now, there is more evidence in psychoses than there is in the illnesses that affect most of us, such as anxiety and depression.  Why this is important is that it makes medication a whole different story and more in our control -- the meds don't in fact treat the cause of the problem, but they do make the problem less severe for us symptomatically when they work.  But it also means to never give up on trying to find an actual fix.  Eli Lilly got a lot of people believing that serotonin imbalance caused mental illness, but again, this hasn't proven to be true and wasn't true when they said it the first time.  Again, the main importance of this is to know that we don't yet have medication that can cure mental illness and so there's always the need to keep trying other means to find that elusive fix and know that when we use medication it's not the end of the search.  

[nirvana123]

Paxiled, smh. I don't know what are you trying to prove here? Mental illness is something We'll forever  deal with. Therapy helps by giving us tools that helps us fight our battle with depression and anxieties or etc. medication obviously doesn't cure our mental illness but helps reduce it. We do have some type of chemicals imbalance. Mental illness can be from genetic, traumatized event, or from many other things. no matter what situation we're  in, there's help. Once we have a better understanding about our mental issues we learn to cope and control.

[nirvana123]

Sorry you are feeling this way. I understand that feeling I feel like this everyday. Lost and confused, this world is not real. I start to panic and feeling like losing control and I fear more. It's weird feeling. I do suffer from anxieties. Ur mom is right about it's all in our heads. We have chemicals imbalance that makes us think and feel this way. Therapy it's a good way to go. Another thing that helps me calm down is praying and trying not to think about it. The more I think the more it gets to me.. I'm not taking medications. But sometimes I feel like I need to. But I'm hoping for the best. And I really hope you can find peace in ur mind. Try to consider therapy ..  I'm 99% sure you are healthy and fine. It's our head that plays tricks on us.

[SunshineRainbowDaisy]

Thank you