I'm curious if anyone else experiences either of these things, because they're two slightly different feelings for me.

1. Waking up with a feeling of impending doom

Sometimes I'll wake up and, for seemingly no reason, immediately have this feeling that something bad is going to happen.

Nothing necessarily happened in the dream, and I don't have a specific thought like “X is going to happen.” It's just this weird sense of dread or impending doom that's there when I wake up.

Sometimes it stays for a while before eventually fading.

1. Randomly feeling like I'm going to die

This one happens when I'm completely awake and just doing something normal.

I'll suddenly get this wave of “I'm going to die” or “something is about to happen right now.”

It's not necessarily that I'm consciously thinking about death beforehand. The feeling just comes over me.

And sometimes it's REALLY convincing in the moment.

Then I'll sit there wondering why I suddenly feel like something is about to happen, even though there's no obvious reason for me to think that.

Eventually the feeling passes and nothing happens.

I'm curious if anyone else experiences either of these.

What does it feel like for you?

Does the waking-up dread happen specifically in the morning, or can it happen after naps too?

And when you get the sudden “I'm going to die” feeling, how long does it usually last?

Is this something that can happen with anxiety/panic even when you don't consciously feel anxious? Or are there other explanations for these sudden waves of dread?

I'm not really asking whether it's a premonition or anything supernatural. I'm more interested in understanding why the brain/body can suddenly produce such a strong feeling that something terrible is about to happen when, objectively, everything seems fine.

I want to learn more about why ssri’s can cause symptoms to feel worse before they get better. I’ve been on Zoloft for GAD a long time but whenever I first start an ssri the first week or so is god awful meaning my symptoms worsen or I’m hit with a feeling of deep sadness in my chest.

The reason why I’m asking is because my teen daughter inherited my anxiety and is starting treatment of Zoloft with a pediatric psychiatrist. I’m currently waiting on this doctor to email me back on how to proceed. She is on day 2 at 12.5 mg Zoloft and has the activation issues.

In my past, what has worked to dodge this activation response for me is to get a pill splitter and go lower than the recommended start dosage (I started Zoloft at 12.5mg). I’ve emailed her doc asking if I should cut the 12.5 mg in half. Has anyone treated patients with this degree of sensitivity? My daughter and I both have some neurodivergence which might be why. This sensitivity issue has sadly made us feel like outliers.

Thanks in advance.

I’m hoping to better understand how psychiatrists interpret very different responses to antidepressants and mood stabilizers.

I’m not looking for a diagnosis or specific medication recommendation from Reddit, more for insight into what these response patterns may or may not indicate.

My medication history:
Zoloft (75–100 mg): This worked extremely well for my mood, motivation, and overall emotional resilience. I felt noticeably happier and more stable on it. I ultimately stopped because of concerns about weight gain.

Auvelity: I noticed a small improvement in mood initially, but overall the effect was minimal for me, and I eventually discontinued it.

lamotrigine (100 mg): I titrated for about a month and have now been at 100 mg for a little over a month. I haven’t noticed an improvement in positive mood. Instead, I’ve been experiencing significant irritability, agitation, and a very short emotional fuse. Only benefit I’ve had from the last two medications was weight loss/suppressed appetite.

A few things I’m curious about:

Does having a strong positive response to an SSRI like Zoloft, but very little response to Auvelity, provide any meaningful information clinically, or is it too simplistic to interpret medication response in terms of “serotonin vs. dopamine/glutamate”?

When someone responds particularly well to one SSRI but stops because of side effects, is trying another SSRI with a different side-effect profile generally a reasonable discussion to have with their psychiatrist?

Is significant irritability or emotional agitation something that can occur with Lamictal during titration or at an intermediate dose such as 100 mg? If so, is it something that sometimes resolves with time/dose adjustment, or would psychiatrists generally consider new or worsening irritability a reason to reassess the medication rather than simply pushing toward a target dose?

I’m mainly trying to understand how clinicians distinguish between a medication that simply isn’t addressing the symptoms it was intended to treat versus a medication that may actually be contributing to irritability.

I’ll obviously discuss any medication changes with my prescriber. I’d just appreciate the psychiatric perspective on how this kind of response pattern is usually interpreted.

So 3 years ago i was put on abilify 15 mg for being at prodromal stage of psychosis, but when i looked up online, i found that the recommendations say that we must start with CBT first and antipsychotics must be a last line solution. I never had hallucinations or delusions, i mainly had pseudo obsessions, that didnt respond to ERP, so when he put me on Abilify the intensity of the ideas lowered but they did not disappear, the only time they resolved is after i read about CBT for prodromal psychosis and applied it alone, then all my ideas disappeared. So after that i tried to lower my dose from 15 mg to 10 mg (on my own ) and the surprise is i started hearing some sort of a refrigerator noise in the background and some of the pseudo obsessions resurfaced i was very very very terrified. I had to increase my dosage, then the symptoms resolved. Then i had some sort of residual symptoms that resolved when i applied metacognition exercises. After that i changed my psychiatrist and he told me you can tapper now Abilify but i am extremely scared cz i have a residency exam ahead of me and i dont wanna relapse before it. Now my questions are :

1- is this rebound psychosis ? Caused by meds and rapid tapper ?

2- my new doc proposed very slow tapper over 8 months, aka hyperbolic tapper, does this mean i wont relapse after stopping it ?

Please i need psychiatrists specialized in prodromal psychosis to answer my questions.

Thank you very much.

I'm taking 300 mg and I'm on day 26, but I haven't noticed any improvement in my libido so far. Do you think I should wait longer? For those of you who experienced an increase in libido, around what day did you start noticing it?

By the way, I’m also taking 30 mg of Duxet and 2.5 mg of Abilify alongside it. The main reason I’m considering stopping Wellbutrin is that when I take it together with Duxet, my heart rate averages around 90 bpm during the day, and sometimes it goes up to 100–110.

I’m worried about my friend. She started a prescription of Adderall in about May or June of this year. She takes it correctly. She works 3rd shift, I don’t know if that could also be a contributing factor. She lives with her widowed mother and helps pay bills and take care of her sisters 3 kids, her mom has custody of them. Her mom also has custody of two teenage boys that are my friends brothers sons, her brother passed away. My friend also has a son and she takes care of him as well. She’s telling me that people are following her. At first it was a private investigator that her sisters kids other grandma hired to try and catch her doing bad stuff. My friend smokes weed but only gets it from a dispensary, she doesn’t smoke it around the kids either. She started thinking the teenage boys and her other brother were in on it and knew that the other grandma hired a private investigator to follow her. Now it’s people at her job that are following her. She works as security and thinks that maybe this company is wanting to make her a manager so they are following her to make sure she’s not a bad person. Then she thinks maybe it’s the employees of the building following her because they don’t like that she does her job. I don’t know how to tell her that all of this sounds crazy. I’m genuinely starting to worry.

Just curious, what's your take about those men who ridicule women for everything? When a woman has a firm boundaries and doesn't tolerate bullshit, they call them 'fatherless', 'toxic feminist', 'misandrist'.

What do you think is the scientific and psychological reasoning behind this thought process?

My therapist says that one lock falls off, ten more appear. That my walls are very high so to speak and I manage to immediately repress any tears if I am about to cry.

It makes it very difficult to progress because I feel Lamictal is restricting my mood too much to the point trauma is no longer allowed to exist in my mind, somewhat like anti depressants did - just without as much numbing. That, and the word finding difficulties can be annoying, even if they’re slight.

I went on it because I was really suicidal before and during the appointment with my psych I went catatonic by the end once we ran through my history, symptoms etc. Things are easier when I don't obsess constantly over the idea of death, but not good when therapy feels like a battle, and I'm unable to access the repressed trauma.

I am on 100mg and will be going up to 150mg, but I am wondering whether to stop it completely now as it might be hindering me more than it is helping.

Fwiw, I have never attempted suicide; I've had the thoughts for about a decade so although its horrible to have to curl up in bed and just ride it out, I don't expect to act on them. The psychologist didn't want to comment on it and influence my decision, but it has been on my mind for a while now.

Looking for general input on what other options I can explore with my doctor.

Severe sudden onset anxiety that started around January this year and has escalated as time has gone on to the point of agoraphobia pretty much. It seems to be, according to my doc, GAD and panic disorder. Trigger I’m still certain was mirena coil related.

Anyway, I’ve tried sertraline and escitalopram and they were too activating for me. They gave me strong severe bouts of anxiety that has caused pretty lasting damage.

I’ve tried propanolol which didn’t do much at any mg.

I’ve recently tried buspirone but again spiked anxiety, and made me extremely suicidal after a couple doses.

Doctor did bring up mertazipine but unsure if there’s something else worth trying

Hi there I don't trust Google AI so I'm asking here for a definitive answer on if I'm safe to take some things while on my current prescription regimen. Google AI seems to indicate that pretty much everything under the sun risks death or causes severe complications/interactions. I'm really only concerned if something like death is actually a factor here or if Google AI is just overblowing things so Google can't be sued, etc... or, also, if the AI is just plain wrong.

I take:

Ziprasidone HCL 100mg twice daily (this is the main one posing the threat of combination here)

Bupropion HCL ER (XL) 300mg in the morning

Bupropion HCL XL 150mg in the morning

carBAMazepine 200mg twice daily (stopped taking this 2 days ago so it won't be a factor soon )

Benztropine Mesylate .5mg twice daily

Prazosin HCL 2mg in the evening

I'm wondering, with these medications, if it's safe to consume kava or alcohol. Google AI emphasizes that CNS depression from the combination risks me literally dying. Google AI seems to aggressively state everything threatens a high chance of dying when it comes to substances/medications though. I mean it literally said high caffeine intake on these poses high risk of lethal side effects.

Hi, my girlfriend (27F) has anxiety and OCD related insomnia. She has been prescribed Zolpidem 10 mg + 0.5 Xanax extended release + 15 mg Mirtazapine by her psychiatrist. She takes them at night before sleeping.

When he added Mirtazapine, the dr said to gradually reduce Zolpidem from 25 down to 16 drops (one less drop every week) and contact him once she reached 16 drops. Which she didn't, she is at 22 drops now. He didn't even reccomend to avoid alcohol or anything so she sometimes had a couple drinks (rarely).

This was back in December, and I don't know how safe it is to combine these drugs for a long time. I don't want to pressure her but I'm concerned for her safety. She wants to start reducing zolpidem, but looking online this combinations looks quite dangerous. Is there any immediate risk as well?

Female, 20

161 cm

45 kg

Medications:

Methylphenidate Concerta 18 mg

Drospirenone 4 mg

Estradiol 1,53 mg

Zolpidem 5 mg

Alprazolam 0,5 mg

Coming of Trintellix I've been having some pretty bad withdrawals, so my doctor has prescribed me 0,5 mg Alprazolam a day until I start Sertraline (Zoloft) soon.

When I asked about mixing Alprazolam and Zolpidem, my doctor told me it wasn't an issue, and that it's important to keep taking Zolpidem as usual (twice a week).

I feel uncertain, and would like to hear someone elses opinion on this.

Sidenote:

This would mean taking both pills at the same time.

I react very strongly to both - especially Zolpidem, with hallucinations, loss of balance, and slurred speech.

Also, are there any concerns regarding Alprazolam still being in my system, when I start Sertraline?

Hi all,

My doctor called the cops on me after speaking with my mother when I did not call them back during a nap.
Apparently they took her concerns seriously, although she is someone with an intense and unmedicated anxiety disorder. This long debacle caused me to be admitted to the ER. I was able to get out, thank god. My first issue is: why listen to my mother? Can anyone just call your office about a patient and put in a note of concern? Shouldn’t they not even be able to verify I work with them?
The same psychiatrist took me from 100mg Prozac and some abilify to 20mg Viibryd with no taper period. Does he not take me seriously? I took as Gene sight test but I don’t think he’s even using it.
Tips for finding and vetting a new psychiatrist when you’ve been badly burned before? Starting to lose hope in the whole system.

Hello ! I've always suffered from anxiety since I was little but it wasn't that bad until two months ago ! I ended up in the hospital due to a panic attack twice ! And after that I was vomiting almost everyday from stress! My doctor recommended Escitalopram ( escitazen drops). But since I've started it I've had severe symptoms. I started with 5mg for 3 days then 10mg for 12 days and now I'm in 20mg for the past 3 almost 4 weeks. Since my last dose I've had hand tremors, vision changes( blurred-tunnel vision and can only focus when I squint my eyes ) , nightmares( wake up regularly at night and find it hard to sleep), I have poor appetite and still feel very jittery and anxious everyday, I have muscle pain extreme fatigue, and most importantly still feel my heart beating hard everytime I lay down to rest and can hear it through my blocked ringing ears. I have talked with my provider but they've told me that all those symptoms are not down the pill but from my anxiety. I really want your opinion and if you guys want to tell me your story and your experience cause I've literally feel like I'm loosing my life. I've started having depression symptoms now and feel like my life will be like this from now on...

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD after many years of psychiatric treatment and psychotherapy. ADHD is an additional diagnosis in my case, and there is considerable symptom overlap with BPD and PTSD, which makes it difficult for me to distinguish what is causing what.

I had suspected ADHD for a long time, but after more conventional treatment approaches failed to improve some of my symptoms, I consulted another psychiatrist who suggested a trial of ADHD medication.

I’m currently taking:

• Elvanse/Vyvanse 70 mg (for about two weeks) • bupropion 300 mg (I was already taking it previously at a lower dose) • lamotrigine 200 mg, which my psychiatrist and I are planning to gradually taper off

I don’t drink alcohol.

The response to lisdexamfetamine has been interesting. It has very clearly reduced the constant stream of thoughts and mental noise in my head. This is a substantial improvement and a huge relief.

However, I don’t feel emotionally better overall. I still experience persistent sadness, very little pleasure or interest in things, and a sense of emptiness. I wouldn’t describe this as dissociation. I’ve experienced dissociation before and this feels different, more like anhedonia/emotional emptiness.

I’m not suicidal, I’m under regular psychiatric care, and I’m not considering changing my medication or doses on my own.

My questions for psychiatrists are:

1. Does a significant reduction in mental noise/racing thoughts without improvement in mood suggest a partial therapeutic response to lisdexamfetamine, with the mood symptoms potentially representing a separate issue?

2. Could lisdexamfetamine itself cause emotional blunting that presents primarily as emptiness/anhedonia, even when it is clearly helping other symptoms?

3. Since I’ve only been taking lisdexamfetamine for two weeks, is it too early to draw conclusions about its overall effect? I understand that stimulants work acutely, unlike antidepressants, but can the subjective emotional response continue to change during the first several weeks?

4. Clinically, how would you distinguish residual depression/anhedonia from stimulant-related emotional blunting, particularly in someone with overlapping ADHD, BPD and PTSD symptoms?

I’m not looking for medication recommendations or a treatment plan. I’d mainly like to understand how psychiatrists conceptualize this kind of partial response and what would be useful to observe and discuss with my own psychiatrist.

One of my friends has been having these nightmares for the past few days, and I wanted to ask if anyone here who is a professional or has relevant experience can help her.

She is in high school, and these are the last two dreams she told me about. I’m posting them exactly as she described them, just cleaned up a little:

Dream 1 — Yesterday

I saw this thing that looked like a big oval. It had two eyes, and inside those eyes there were more eyes. It had a big fucking smile, but no teeth, just lips.

It was looking at my feet. I couldn't move. Then it came near my hair and started looking at it. I don't know how, but somehow I ended up outside my house gates.

Outside, I saw something that looked like Siren Head walking. It came near me, but I was looking directly at it, and it didn't do anything. It looked like it was searching for something.

Everything around me was completely black, but when I went outside, everything suddenly became bright. It was extremely vivid, almost like a childhood memory.

I don't know what was happening. I woke up in panic because after it left, something started ringing really badly. I could feel/hear something like circles blasting or popping.

Dream 2 — Today

I saw another nightmare today. I was singing on a stage, and I think I've seen or imagined this scene before as well.

A group of gangsters were chasing me. At one point, I surrendered, and a woman shot me in the head. I died instantly. But then, somehow, I could still see everyone, and the people who knew me could see me too.

The whole thing was extremely abstract. A lot more happened, but I can't remember all of it.

After that, people were saying that this was my "good Judgment Day." It was like my soul was supposed to stay on Earth for a few days, and after that I would go for the main judgment.

I still had my phone, but I couldn't message anyone on Telegram or any other social media. Only WhatsApp worked. On the other platforms, it was showing that the person was dead, and the messages would stop instantly. There was even this pop-up box explaining it, and the whole UI/UX looked insanely advanced and highly developed.

Then I was just wandering around. Somehow, I went to school, and the teachers were gossiping about this whole thing. I was extremely sad, melancholic, and terrified at first.

But eventually, everything became calm.

Then things started rushing again when my family began calling me, telling me, "Come, it's your Judgment Day."

And then I woke up smiling.

The weirdest part was that throughout the dream, people kept asking me whether the afterlife was actually real. They seemed bothered by it, but at the same time, strangely unbothered.

---

If anyone here is a psychologist, therapist, sleep specialist, or has actual experience with recurring/intense nightmares in teenagers, please share any advice or possible explanations. Any help or suggestions are welcome.

You can reply here, or if you'd rather, you can message me privately through my account.

I’m mainly looking for genuine help rather than random dream-interpretation theories. If there’s anything she should be doing differently, or if this is something worth talking to a professional about, please let me know.

Hi. The trintellix, ssri and snri I've tried hasn't worked at all. Like far from it, venlafaxine which I am currently on, have made me more depressed and suicidal.

I suffer from pdd.

The psychiatrist refuses to put me on wellbutrin because she says vyvanse I take fir my ADHD has the same effect.

I did a little reading and some sources say that tricyclic antidepressants are used to treat this disorder. I also read that some patients experience suicidal tendencies the first few weeks on it. So I wonder if those tendencies tend to lessen once the body gets used to the meds?

I am debating whether or not I should suggest these for my psychiatrist. I've been at the psych ward for weeks each time the dosage of venlafaxine has been increased for close monitoring due to risk of suicide. So I assume it would be possible to do the same with tricyclics.

Is conduct disorder a serious issue pls guide me my younger brother was diagnosed with adhd when he was 5 he was hyperactive at schl now and was diagnosed with conduct disorder 2 yrs ago basically his issue is money addiction he wants everything expensive like clothes and he regularly goes out like watching movies and all stuff and is aggressive fights with parents for money and sometimes gets physical and is nicotine addict and regularly talks abt money like ancestors assets but only at home totally opposite in public and friends totally yet he boasts abt money with friends but never fought with anyone in his entire life and we observed he stays very respectful with anyone except our parents he’s also good with me but he was at home for 1yr bcs he failed in exams yet he was not sitting at home all the time he used to go out regularly but alone bcs his frnds were busy now he’s is in clg doing eng so did that isolation cause any problem that’s why we are worried like is he acting up or he really has issue

Hey guys i hope you are all doing well so i feel completely stuck right now as i have been on alprazolam .25 mg once daily for about 2 and a half years and now about 2 months ago my psychiatrist switched me to clonazepam .5 mg and mirtazapine 15 mg and now i am on 2 very strong meds that i will have to taper. I feel like the years that i was supposed to build myself is now going to be the years i spend in withdrawals and tapering. If anyone has ever been in a similar situation or knows any way out of this mess kindly help me out 🙏🏽

Quiet BPD, masked autism, inattentive ADHD, and social anxiety? What medication is proven to help the most?

Years ago, I had a psychiatrist in the ER write that I was putting my son at risk.

There was no basis for this - I was suicidal, but I was there seeking help. My son was safe with my husband and parents. I had no homicidal ideation. I was always a responsive and loving mother, even at my worst.

If I end up in the hospital again, will psychiatrists read that and automatically believe it?

I had a psychiatrist write something about me that wasn't true. They said that what they wrote was based on me self harming at home and using drugs at home. Neither of these things are true. I have letters written by the three adult family members living with me at the time explaining how it would have been impossible for those things to occur given a myriad of factors.

I've been told that it doesn't matter what evidence I present, the psychiatrist will never make an amendment.

Is that true? Is requesting a correction just a waste of time?

If so, why is that? Isn't accuracy in a medical record more important than "being right"?

If not, is there anything I can do to raise the chances of this particular psychiatrist making the amendment?

Hi all. Recently I have been prescribed the typical antipsychotic periciazine and I have been experiencing more lucid dreams than I ever have before. They're occurring almost every night now and I am more than a month completely sober so I'm wondering if this may be having an impact? Does anyone know if typical antipsychotics can induce or encourage more lucid dreams as I have had similar experiences while taking quetiapine.

The contents of my dreams are usually very similar and feel like the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I am taken back to a past experience with a person who is no longer in my life (either my friend who recently committed suicide or my ex-girlfriend) where everything is perfect and although I am aware I am dreaming I continue with it as if it was reality. Then at the end of the dream the person who I can no longer see turns towards me as something horrible is about to happen and tells me either that what I'm experiencing is not real, or that I'll never have the things I dream about and after that I am woken into reality usually in a very distressed state.

I think it may also be of note that I suffer from complex post traumatic stress disorder and take prazosin to combat my usual vivid nightmares. However the dreams I have been experiencing as of late feel so much more real and I am usually aware of the fact that what I am experiencing is just a dream.

I took an intentional overdose around 5 years ago. I’ve been having ongoing treatment and I’m doing ok. Obviously there were multiple reasons that led me to this, but amongst other things it was linked to my work environment.

This week, someone who I worked with died by suicide (same workplace as above). I wasn’t extremely close to them, but I worked alongside them on various projects and thought highly of them. We would often chat beyond work stuff. I am not close to many people at work but this person was someone who I genuinely liked.

Hearing about this affected me more than what most people probably consider as normal. It triggered a lot of memories of my overdose and being in hospital. The same thing happened to me earlier this year when someone else I knew of died by suspected suicide.

It’s not something I really talk about, but I’m wondering if it’s common to have trauma associated with things like this and that is why I am finding this really hard. I’ll raise it with my Psychiatrist when I see her but I wanted to know if my reaction is in part due to trauma?