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

I am having an episode now. It is comforting to hear others have been through it. Can anyone let me know what worked?

I am in the same boat at you, been having this for 12 years now and reading this gave me so much hope. I am struggling to find answers and to move on with my life. I'm tired of being sick

hello, i have recently/almost on a daily basis, been having extreme accurate episodes of deja vu, i t has only been happening over the past 2-3 months, although i had (at the same time it started happening) done a larger quantity of ketamine in a short period of time, i am not a heavy nor a lightweight. i am a 17 year old male

I am a 52 yr old female and have experienced this occasionally for the last 16 years. I had an episode yesterday which prompted me to search online, so am relieved to find others who also experience this. It's happened to me the first time in the shower, when I felt as though there was a crackling or electrical interference sound inside my brain. Yesterday it was a case of a feeling of dread, linked to a dream or deja-vu feeling of anxiety, feeling like I was on 'pause' for a few seconds although was at work, so don't know what they made of it, although nobody said anything. I felt clammy, skin crawling, and had to go to the toilet urgently after the second bout yesterday. It happened about 4 times yesterday, the last time being when I was driving, which was scary. I did not sleep well the night before and whilst I have been stressed at work, I think it was more to do with lack of sleep. However, am going to see my doctor about this as I am sufficiently concerned and now realise it's not my imagination, so thank you to everyone who has posted their experiences. Just one thing to add is that I don't suffer from depression, but the feeling of dread yesterday left me feeling really bad, as if there was an imbalance. I don't smoke or take any recreational drugs and have a couple of coffees a day.

Yikes...why would you do this to yourselves.

I've been diagnosed with anxiety & mild depression for the last 2 months. I am worrying about things before they've happened, such as, when I'm in the car I think it's going to break down, if the heating makes a noise I'm convinced it's about to blow up etc. I've also been having these episodes like de ja vu. My heart starts to beat fast & I feel like I'm in a dream. I get dizzy & start to breathe fast & feel shaky. They can happen any time, even when I'm sitting watching tv. Is this an anxiety attack?? I'm taking fluoxetine. The doctor also gave me diazepam but only briefly.

Sounds like epilepsy. I started having similar episodes at age 12 and was diagnosed at age 14. Currently I take Keppra and no longer have deja vu/derealizarion/anxiety. My memory is poor though, which I think is also due to temporal lobe epilepsy.

I had the same about a year ago intense Deja vu combined with what I can only describe as a sudden rush through my entire body and a feeling of terrible anxiety. They are scary and cool at the same time, after the first one I wanted another! However I have now had three in the last three days and I don’t like it, they leave me light headed, a little tired a little nauseous.

Nightmarish Deja-Vu And Anxiety, I started experiencing these Nightmarish Deja-Vu 2 years ago, as if I m reliving a dream with the feelings of dread and confusions, my GP referred me to see a neurologist and I had to give my License away as my GP had the suspession I might’ve Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, I had EEGs, Sleep deprived EEG and MRI scans which found nothing Saw two neurologist both gave me a clean bill of health, told me it could be due to my life style and doing unsocial hours at work, Cut a long story Short was able to get my Driving License after 14 months suspension was prescribed Citilopram 20mg which worked for a couple of months with odd episodes of Nightmarish Deja-Vu And Anxiety, But my situation got worst started having these Nightmarish Deja-Vu 4-5 times a day with severe anxiety, was sick of my life, had an appointment with a new GP at my surgery and that CHanged my Life :) , had a very good conversation, he had studied my bio history in full detail He asked me if I am willing to try Pregabalin (Lyrica) 50mg twice a day which is a very low dose, it changed my life, I have my life back feeling 10years younger, cured both, no more anxiety nor Dejavu, never felt so good in such A long time anyone who is suffering from similar conditions should read this ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** posting of web addresses is not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

For me it was Pregabalin (lyrica) cures both anxiety and Dejavus

I've suffered from déjà vu brought on anxiety attacks since 2012, I was 24. These attacks come out of no where, there's no stress, drugs, alcohol, or sleep deprivation involved. I'm doing an everyday thing like typing an email or having lunch with a friend and all of a sudden, it's like my brain surges and my body reacts by having my left shoulder through my hand go numb, I get nauseated, dizzy, and I start to sweat. I start to visualize bizarre things from my past, a video game character from my childhood, an old crush, all in a span of seconds. I then spend the next minute trying to control my reactions, stop myself from being sick, to calm down. I get them a few times a year, but have experienced years where I'll have nearly a dozen.
I used to try to figure out what triggered it, but by thinking everything I was thinking before, I've caused relapses... I don't do it anymore. I've always figured it was something in my brain chemistry causing them, and I only wish I knew how to prevent them.

When I was younger I used to have these terrible episodes that felt like extreme deja vu and hallucinations. It always ended with an extreme migraine... it would happen to me atleast once a month... hasn't happened in years and maybe smoking weed helps prevent it. Always when I thought it would never happen again it would happen.

Wow, for almost a year I have been struggling with this and I had know idea what it was from. I have the exact things happen to me, but every time I get the Deja vu feeling I see the exact same thing. It’s never different , and by the time it’s over I can’t ever remember any of it and when it’s happinging All I want to do is lie down. And I get this feeling of my head is filling up with smoke or it’s foggy feeling. I get very nauseous and I have to lay down for some time. And then after awhile I feel better.
I’ve gotten mris and cat sacans for other reasons. But is there an actual word for this feeling ?

Quadism93476
i get these exact same feelings the moment i wake up until i fall asleep i feel as if my whole life is deja vu event, (even reading these posts) I've had this feeling for about just over a week and i was diagnosed with anxiety about 2 months ago.
I feel as if something terrible is going to happen and im going to die.

I realize this post is a year old but i was curious to here if you still have these feelings if not how did you get it to stop????

The moment I found this thread over a year ago it was a huge relief to know that there are other experiencing these symptoms.  It felt so strange and other worldly to me to describe to any of my family or friends and absolutely no one understood what I was going through.  So i'll go ahead and explain what my experience has been like. 

About 2 years ago I was taking a shower in the morning and noticed a very strong sense of dream recall.  It wasn't extreme that first two times but it was enough to make me say to myself "wow... that was strange... I've never experienced anything quite like this before." and it gave me a bit of anxiety.  However, after the brief moment it had occured I was able to go back to my normal daily activities without giving it too much thought.

Not long after that (I'd say maybe 3-4 weeks) I was again in the shower and had an extreme version of this.  In a matter of moments I went from being my normal self to being completely engulfed by a very strange and intense dream recall coupled with a variety of very unpleasant/strange physical symptoms of chills, rising stomach as though I'm on an elevator, nausea, fear, anxiety, giddiness, confusion, and panic.  During those brief 15-20 seconds I was fully aware but mentally consumed by these conflicting emotions and this scene that had been playing in my head.  This was then followed by immediately struggling to recall exactly what I had just recalled and not being able to really reconnect to what I was feeling/seeing in my head.  It's similiar to that feeling after waking where you can recall your dream for a few seconds but within a minute or two those you completely forget it.  

What was worse is that directly afterwards I was consumed with a feeling of what I later discovered was derealization.  I panicked, I struggled to get dressed as fast as possible, and I ran upstairs to the bedroom while feeling completely disconnected from my surroundings.  I knew I was home it just didn't feel like my home.  Nothing felt familiar to me.  Everything just seemed different.  I looked out the window and while I knew it was my street it just didn't feel like my street anymore.  I had to call my girlfriend into the room afraid I was having some kind of stroke, seizure, or mental break of some kind.  After she was able to calm me down I felt completely drained and exhausted.  Even though I was calm however, those feelings of things being dream-like or unreal were still persistent.  This took weeks for me to return to normal.  My work and private life suffered greatly during this time.  I was able to function and hold it together but It was hard, I thought I was never going to feel like myself again.  

Since that fateful day 2 years ago, this has become a part of my life that seems to come and go.  I can go sometimes weeks or months without an episode.  Some are stronger than others where I'm slower to fully recover and come back to earth a bit.  Some are weak and I can start feeling myself again within a few hours or the next day. 

A few episodes in I gone to the ER one day where I was given a CAT scan (which was normal) and was later referred to a neurologist.  The neurologist was a bit puzzled but suspected possible epilepsy and I was given an MRI as well as a 48hr EEG to do at my home.  All of those were also normal, however, I had not had an episode while I was using the EEG unfortunately.  She offered a low dose of Kepra during our next visit which I declined to take since I had been doing so well for those few months and didn't want to deal with any of the side effects.  Of course the episodes began reoccurring again and am yet waiting to return to the neurologist to further investigate or try meds. 

So to sum this up a bit i'll report on some of the things I've noticed over the last two years as well as a little bit of my history.

1) This always seems to occur in the morning hours and only while I'm taking a shower/getting out of the shower/brushing my hair.  After realizing this I started showering at night.  When I couldn't shower the night before (as silly as it sounds) I started washing my hair in the sink in the morning very quickly, and brush my hair.  After about 10 minus Id quickly hop in the shower and wash my body in about 30 seconds and just get dressed quickly.  While doing these things I've never triggered an episode for some reason.  Time would pass and I would shower the old way (because I'd get a bit too confident about my episodes and who doesn't like a nice hot shower) and it was always a gamble.  50% of the time somehow this triggered an episode.  

2) After each episode I would almost always have a sense of derealization that last as little as a few hours to as long as even a month.  During these periods I am highly depressed, anxious, and have thoughts of not wanting to be alive (even tho I am normally extremely fearful of death).  I also have a very high threshold in regards to fear during these recovery periods.  I am almost completely fearless or worry about putting myself in any kind of dangerous situation.  However I am in no way suicidal during this time. 

The best way I can describe this process is with an analogy.  You know when you turn on a computer and when it first starts up you can still do some things but it's still booting up programs and its running all slow?  That's how it feels to me.  It feels as though I'm sluggishly moving through life without all my programs running in my head.  As though my brain is still rebooting and I'm left with half of my normal functionality. 

3) I started writing my dream recall episodes on paper I leave in the bathroom to try and reconnect with what I was feeling/visioning during the episodes.  The recalls are never anything unpleasant and just strange.  They are definitely dream and not memory recalls I believe because they are usually so off the wall or sci-fi related like its some kinda movie I had watched or something.  Even though when I'm writing it down and still feeling it after a few moments I cannot ever fully recall or reattach myself to what was happened.  Once it is over it is lost.  

4) This started during an extremely stressful time in my life at the age of 32 years of age (I'm also male).  During the time when the symptoms first appeared I was changing jobs, my girlfriend of 5 years had just cheated on me a few months prior, I was going through the break up, and I had picked cigarettes and coffee back up which I had quit for 7 years.  This is also important because while I had moved on from the stressful job and girlfriend problems and am now quite happy, I still have not given up the cigarettes or coffee because during these attacks they somehow help me cope. 

5) I do drink alcohol however I'm yet to find any correlation whether it causes me any issues the day after when I do.

6) I believe I had these episodes as well when I was a child.  I would tell my parents "everything feels dream like as though I'm stil dreaming or in another dimension".  I'd say that as an analogy though, I never believed that I really was dreaming or in some other dimension.  I've never had any psychotic symptoms or delusions - but I do have a history of anxiety, OCD, and panic attacks.  I've never experienced any kind of abuse as a child and had a healthy upbringing with a very large and positive family.

7) My issues with this as a child abruptly stopped when I hit puberty.  I was completely without any kind of depression, anxiety, ocd, etc.  I was a very healthy teenager with a healthy social life.  It wasn't until I tried marijuana at 19 would I have similar episodes in which I abruptly stopped and felt normal again.  

That's everything I can think of at the moment.  Sorry for the long drawn out post but I wanted to contribute my thoughts and experience with this whole situation.  I wish everyone else dealing with these issues well and hope to discuss more about it.