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I had a massive fear attack last night when I was almost asleep, 4 times in a row. It s never happened to me before, what is it?
So last night I at about 4:30 am, I had gotten up to stoke the fire (we have a wood stove) and was trying to go back to sleep. After a while I was on the brink of sleep, and suddenly had a huge surge of fear. I haven t ever felt that much fear before. It went on for a few seconds until I was fully alert, and as soon as I was fully alert I wasn t scared at all. This happened to me about 4 times in a row last night. Even weirder, is that I would feel the fear but I wasn t mentally scared. It started to make me irritated after a while because I couldn t go to sleep. The thought that was causing the fear was of the clown from it. I haven t seen the movie though. In my mind I even imagined blowing a hole through his forehead with a handgun and chopped his head off with something to try to combat the fear, but it didn t help much. I haven t ever experienced anything like this before, I would like anyone and everyone s input on this. Thank you.
I do not and have not ever struggled with any mental disorder, depression, anxiety, ptsd, or anything like that. I am a 17 year old guy.
2 Answers
- CactiJoeLv 73 years ago
So, you watched a scary movie with a clown in it? Or saw the trailer on TV? Sounds like a panic attack. Could be a spiritual attack. The entity using an object to scare the poop out of you, weaken you. Read the book, "The Demonologist" (Ed and Loraine Warren) and you'll see how the devil uses fear and objects in their attempt to possess. Or you just had a panic attack, let it go.
- RWPossumLv 73 years ago
It may be that you had what's usually called a panic attack. What happens is that a person is nervous and gets spooked by how nervous he is, and then he's spooked by how spooked he is. It all happens very quickly, in about a second. When it happens, the person is afraid of it happening again.
People say this will happen out of the blue, for no reason at all. On the other hand, it's a safe bet that the person having this problem is undergoing a lot of stress.
You can't go wrong with stress reduction, and it might help with your problem.
A lot of people say breathing slowly is the best thing to do when this happens. Remember that I said slow breathing, not deep breathing. If you have a problem with catching your breath - what's called hyperventilation - deep breathing actually makes it worse.
An exercise that's easy to remember is square breathing. A therapist who treats people with PTSD says that this helps combat veterans suffering from PTSD. Breathe slowly through your nose - in to 4, hold to 4, out to 4, hold to 4, and so on. Slow breathing for 20 minutes twice a day is even a treatment for anxiety and depression.
Also, it might help if you think about what panic disorder is. A panic attack is just your natural responses to things that seem threatening, not some kind of monster. You're not afraid of fast heartbeat when you run, and there's no reason to fear it with an attack.
A book by a very popular author - When Panic Attacks by psychiatrist David Burns.
Here's an answer with a variety of good things for stress, some costing nothing or next to nothing.
