Nightmarish Deja-Vu and anxiety attacks. What's going on?

This is how I feel. I had a dream, or series of dreams, last night and in them I continuously had deja vu. It was really painful and terrifying and when I woke up my head hurt. I am only 15 years old and when I was young I would have deja vu and it would excite me. Now, when I have deja vu it's terrifying. I am diagnosed with depression and anxiety problems, so I think that might have something to do with it.
When I got stressed a few weeks ago, I was looking in my closet for something to wear and I had deja vu. It came so suddenly and I couldn't hardly stand. I felt as though I was dying. I just wanted it all to stop.
This morning I got online and read my friend's status (on facebook).. I felt as though I had read it before. It made my head hurt and I felt insane.
I don't understand this. I don't know if anyone does.
I'm just glad I'm not alone.

Hi, I just wanted to add that for the past two years I had this intense deja vu as well and I couldn't accurately explain it to anyone. It's like I'd be sitting doing the most random things and all of a sudden I felt like I was in some sort of dream and I'd have to try very hard to explain it but I just couldn't and it would make me feel sick and scared. About 2 years ago, I had been having the deja vu for about 6 months and it gradually got worse and worse until  I had my first grand mal seizure. After the first seizure, I had an EEG and MRI and both showed nothing abnormal. They chalked it up to too much stress and didn't think much about it. I was happy because the deja vu was gone but it wasn't gone for long. About a year after that seizure it came back. It was just as bad if not worse. About 6 months after it started again, I had another grand mal seizure. This time they did an MRI again which came back with nothing on it aside from some scarring on my hippocampus. According to the neurologist, this is common in seizure patients. Ever since that second seizure I have a lot of trouble remembering small thins like if I've told someone something already or where I've put something. Since the second seizure I've been on Keppra to prevent the seizures even though I haven't been diagnosed with a seizure this order. The doctors believe it is caused by stress from being in college and working full time - which is possible. Because of this they also put me on an anti-depressent called Bupropin, which is a dopamine inhibitor that helps me worry less and feel less defeated. It's been almost a year since my last seizure and I haven't had deja vu since I've been taking the medicine. I'm almost certain the deja vu was small seizures leading up to the grand mal or something similar because the seizure medicine stops the deja vu completely. I hope this helps anyone that isn't sure what is wrong with them. 

After I get these dajavue episodes it usually takes a couple hours before I can think clearly!  Does anyone else get that.

The anti seizure medication stopped my deja vu completely as well. I too had many, many simple & partial seizures for years (18 - 20 years) before diagnosed. I thought they were anxiety attacks, as I am a bit of an anxious person. Mine too led to grand mal seizures which finally led to my diagnosis. The memory issues, especially wondering if I have told someone something already (!) are some of my chief complaints. I've been wondering if it worsened because of the seizure medication (which can cause cognative issures) or whether it was related to the two grand mal seizures in one night. It's very interesting to read that you experienced the cognative problems BEFORE going on medication. I have been trying to convince my neurologist of this very thing~ Glad to hear your deja vu has stopped.

i have these all the time. after a while i guess you can say control it. i lucid dream a lot and this is where i have deja-vu. in my theory i have, you (entity of somewhat) travels forward in time to go through a moment where you need to know how to handle it. then when the deja-ve triggers its kind of like a side affect of knowing whats happening and going to the "future" 

I found this page by googling "deja-vu" with the hope of gaining some insight into what's been going on with me for the last ten or so years.  My family has long been curious and perplexed by what I explain to them, and what they often physically witness firsthand.  Lately their perplexity has turned the corner somewhat into worry.  I have always described these episodes to them as "deja-vus,"  for lack of better terminology, only because the substance of these physical attacks are so connected to a chain of related familiar "memories" that trigger the physical symptoms.  For example, I might be turning south on a familiar road and maybe having a thought about my cousin, looking a certain direction, and then, in an instant, I will know one is coming.  It starts with this immediate recognition of the engagement and almost a pleasurable feeling of whats coming.  It's like I know I've been on this ride before and I want to go on it, curious of what's coming,(what the chain of associated thoughts will be).  When thoughts/memories kick in, and I'm in the heart of it, however, it becomes like "Ahh sh*t, this suucks, aahh!, curling at the shoulders and holding my heart.  It lasts for about 30 seconds or a minute usually, and is endurable, but it sometimes feels for a moment there like I'm gonna die.  I wouldn't have described nauseousness as what I feel, like some have, because the physical feelings seem more concentrated above the stomach, but actually there is a nauseousness to the feelings in the shoulders and head, though I have never thrown up from one.  The intriguing thing about these episodes is that physically they always play out pretty much the same, but there is variety to the "stories."  I call them stories because the various threads of thought images seem like these brief familiar narratives I re-enter, triggered by some specific combination of where I happen to be looking/what I'm pondering/ feeling at the moment, and they grow quite disconnected from the present "reality,"   I say there is variety to the stories, but maybe there is only variety to the triggers.  The story might as well be the same, because I can't remember anything afterwards.  Its like I am taken into this room for a moment that is very real and then taken back out of it.  But it is really less like a space and more like a narrative.  I always think I might hold onto some of the details, especially in the "deeper" episodes, but then can't.  When I come out of it,(wherever that line is) the content gradually gets away.  I have had a few more powerful occurrences in the past year where when the whole thing is over I don't know what day or month it is.  That has been kind of disturbing.  

I don't think there is much of a time lapse when I'm "out", though a lot has taken place in my mind in a very short span.  I had a moment on the phone this winter, the person I was talking with was familiar with with my condition, I told her I was having a deja-vu or whatever, she waited the twenty seconds or so as I squirmed about and curled in my chair for a moment, holding my heart, etc., expecting it to be a normal minor version.  When I came back I barely knew I had been on the phone with her and didn't know the time of year.  She had to talk me back into it.   I didn't pass out or drop the phone, it literally hadn't been long.  I had just been to this place I can't get a grip on, for what seemed like quite a prolonged moment but was very short.  This more involved narrative  seems like it builds, more familiar and coherent every time it happens, like I will be able to connect it, resolve it with the main narrative.  But so far it has just created a weird delusional period of overlapping when the experience wanes, and eventually it is all gone.  

I have grown familiar with these and they do not worry me really.  I hope to discover more about the cause or to have them just stop would be fine.  But they are real darn intriguing.   I appreciate everyone posting their experiences, which I hope to read in full.  For the research of others I should note I haven't used any psychedelic drugs or marijuana.  Im 37.  I drank way too much coffee there for a while.  Presently I'm eating extremely healthy, seeing where that goes, though I suspect the origin is more intense than bad food.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, this happened to me as well. In my mid-teens, I started getting these intense deja-vu feelings, along with indescribable, dream-like thoughts and REALLY bad headaches. I'd have to go lie down. Shortly following this period, I started getting full-blown panic attacks. The panic attacks don't really happen anymore, and I haven't had those weird headache-deja-vu things since. But, when I do get a deja-vu, it's almost always a feeling that I'm about to die. That I've been here before, and that this is the last thing I'll ever do. For instance, I was just working on a novel. I left it at a cliffhanger, and decided to stop for now and go downstairs. A thought came in that it was a shame I was about to stop, because when I go downstairs I'm going to die and the story won't be finished. It was more than a regular thought, it was a complete knowing, like I have seen this before. A full-fledged deja-vu happened then, that included everything I am currently seeing, and the fact that I went to look this up online!

Very, very strange. 

Hi all,

Reading through everyone's experiences here is very interesting. I stumbled across this page after googling and reading up on Deja Vu while recalling an episode that I experienced several years ago.

I've always been a fairly anxious person who has, at times, experienced anxiety/panic attacks, however one night in particular frightened me more than any other previous episode. 

One night, several years ago, I was sitting along at my computer, typing a document while listening to the TV, when I suddenly felt an extremely severe sense of Deja Vu that I would later have an impossible time describing to others. The feeling seemed to continue compounding onto itself, persisting for what felt like a very long time, and leading to an intense panic attack unlike anything I'd experienced before. My Girlfriend came home to find me pacing around the apartment, trying fruitlessly to explain to her what I was feeling. My mind felt clouded, I couldn't focus on anything. I was convinced something horrible was happening. We went to the nearest Emergency Room, where a doctor assessed me by asking several simple questions; What year is it?, etc. To my own astonishment, I found myself completely unable to recall much of anything. I couldn't tell him what year it was, or even how I got there. The doctor immediately seemed to assume that I was either on drugs or had a concussion, but I kept explaining to him that I don't do any drugs, and that my last clear memory was simply me sitting at home watching TV and typing.

After a urine test came back clean, I was simply given a valium and sent home. The pill did the trick, and I felt much more normal just a few minutes later, however in the days and months that followed, I did experience a frequently recurring sense of depersonalization or derealization that made me feel like I was outside of my body or dreaming.

I later had a CAT scan which apparently showed nothing abnormal, as well as a visit with a psychiatrist who told me I seemed fine aside from some anxiety.

Eventually the episodes largely went away, and I have since realized that I was actually under a great deal of stress at the time of my symptoms, even though I may not have fully realized it. I still suffer from some minor episodes now and then, but the realization that I (probably) am not dying from a brain tumor or having a stroke has made me much less anxious about all the strange sensations.

Anyhow, just sharing my experience. Glad to see I'm not alone, as I hadn't really spoken to anyone about it in much detail before.

Cheers.

This sounds very much like my partial seizures. A neurologist can help you.

So I randomly googled this because it was freaking me out and I'm so glad I found this. I'm 16 and I've been having these feelings for about a month now. It happened in the car one morning and it's been the same feeling ever since. I'll start to think about or remember something, and I'll try to grasp at what it is, but then I'll get this intense panicking pain in the middle of my chest and I can't breath for a second. It scares me so much and I don't know what it is. I'm glad I'm not alone even though I'm sorry this has to happen to anyone because it sucks majorly.

My daughter has had these episodes for the last two years and had an MRI and EEg which both are normal. Through conducting my own research I have found that these episodes are called PNES Psychogenic non epileptic seizure which are induced by stress. It is your body;'s response to stress like a fight or flight syndrome whre the body is saying I have had enough even if you don't feel that stressed There is some info about it but not much Hope this helps you

WOW!! You can only imagine how shocked and thrilled I am to come across this discussion! I was beginning to worry that I was the only one experiencing this- here's my story!

My name is Josif and I am 28 years old. I started experiencing, what I've tried to explain to people as "random flashback memories of dreams", about several years ago!

I've experienced deja vu before, ever since I was a kid and like most every other person in the world, but this is something completely different. My "episodes" are triggered by an image, a sound, a phrase, the way a person says something a certain way in a conversation - its always random, never repeated by the same trigger twice - then suddenly I start getting flashes of scenes, people, sounds, and conversations that I've never actually had in reality but rather I feel like I've dreamed them sometime before. It is accompanied by dizziness, strange phantom tightness in my chest, and churning of the stomach. It all just hits in a slow rush at once, and you feel you have to breathe deeply and slowly because normal breathing just isn't possible. I often just sit still, clench my fists, close my eyes and wait it out! At most, it only lasts about 10-20 seconds, but it feels like an eternity in the moment. As I come out of it, I still feel heaviness in my chest and dizziness and an overall "icky" feeling-  but after a few minutes I am back to normal. I have had these "episodes" happen while I was driving and I had to pull over.

When I first experienced this, I was terrified! I didn't know what was happening to me! It was the strangest, most scary thing I had ever encountered. While the flashback images/sounds/etc. of the dream are not scary at all, the overall experience of them is off putting and uncomfortable. 

I've tried paying attention to what triggers it so I can make any sense of what is happening to me after, but even when I remember what was said or what I saw or heard, it doesn't matter because that trigger is never used again. Naturally, because the triggers are always different, I never know when an episode will come on! This can happen at any time, anywhere.

I've never done any drugs or had depression or any mental illness or head/brain injury-so it is quite out of context from many of the other responses to this feed!

I've often wondered if I should see a doctor, but many of the people who have posted here that had gotten a brain scan done have had nothing show up as abnormal.

This is quite an interesting occurrence that many people obviously are having, but I am glad I came across this discussion to see that I am not suffering alone. I will probably still go see a doctor just to make sure I'm fine!

Really nice description, and about exactly the way I experience. You mentioned no drugs, depression, etc. How about stress or emotional concern? I have noticed two of my recent episodes have both occurred during semi-difficult phone conversations concerning a relationship. I have also noticed more intensity over the past year, which I am beginning to associate with relational pressures. Not simply with one person, but more overwhelmingly socially complex. The recent episodes, while being the same in nature as you describe, have been taking me back into the same story (imagery/memories/feelings.) Though they are elusive, the theme is a definite "revisit", -- not feeling like some traumatic flashback though. It seems completely foreign, but more cohesive and meaningful than mere mental dada, more assertive than empty. I have been praying for more insight about this. I also have wondered how many of those who have posted might be creative/sensitive types, as they tend to internalize so much, live in their heads, and leave the processor/projector constantly running.

You might want to see a Neurologist and consider simple or complex partial seizures. Your description sounds very much like mine and it took me over 18 years to be diagnosed. Wish I had found this site years ago. I'm glad you found it! : )

Mine used to be very similar to this but with very slight symptoms. They stopped for several months and now they are less dream oriented but the symptoms have gotten much worse but stop when I notice people around me or something brings me back to reality