Always thinking of the worst-case scenario...

SeñorAmor

I have a recurring issue I can't seem to shake. A lot of the time I find myself imagining the worst possible scenario for the situation I am in. For example: on my way to work this morning, I drove through a construction site. Near the side of the road, a crane was hoisting a huge I-beam. The only thing I could think of was what if the cable snapped and the beam fell on my car. Then I expanded on that and thought what if it landed in the backseat where my son was not 10 minutes ago.

I have these "waking nightmares" all the time. I call them nightmares because oftentimes I get full body shivers after having imagined such a terrible occurrence. It creeps me out and I don't know why I think such terrible things. Most of these involve the death of my wife and/or son, and I end up wondering how I could go on if something happened to either one of them. It's actually made me hyper-aware of my surroundings and when I have these weird thoughts, I imagine how I'd react to protect those around me.

I'm happily married, have a beautiful 4 month old son, own my home and have a decent job. There are no reports of mental issues on either side of my family, and for all intents and purposes, I lead a pretty boring life. I've never had any tragic family occurrences in my life so far and I'm not prone to having random eerie thoughts like this 99% of the day. It's that 1% that freaks me out.

Any thoughts?

I'm not crazy.

ceres

My husband has this, he calls it optimism. He says that if the worst that can happen doesn't, then your day is probably going pretty well.

I have it also and I think he's nuts. It's scary, seemingly worthless thinking, and it makes me feel completely morbid.

I think it's probably BECAUSE you feel like your life is going so well. When you have something to lose, you worry a lot more about losing it than you would when you don't. I'd only worry if it's bad or getting to you enough that it's impairing your function.

SeñorAmor

ceres wrote: »

it makes me feel completely morbid.

Exactly how I feel. It's disgusting some of the shit the mind comes up with.

Thanks for the input, ceres. Somehow I feel a little better about myself now.

Ruckus

This is potentially something a psychiatrist could medicate you for as well. I seem to remember Jerry mentioning once that he has some sort of anxiety disorder.

SammyF

Is this a recent issue or something that's been happening your whole life?

3drage

I do quite a bit of driving and find myself often times thinking about major accidents of cars in front of me and how it might all play out. I think it's just a natural instinct to sense and assess danger and its possible outcomes so you'll be prepared somewhat if it actually happens.

Fagatron

3drage wrote: »

I do quite a bit of driving and find myself often times thinking about major accidents of cars in front of me and how it might all play out. I think it's just a natural instinct to sense and assess danger and its possible outcomes so you'll be prepared somewhat if it actually happens.

Part of the reason we're so successful as a species is the ability to play things out in our head without them actually happening. You think about enough potential outcomes and you've essentially predicted the future and prepared yourself for it.

You can seek medication for it, but honestly unless this is a serious issue for you I wouldn't, it is a pretty normal thing.

Daemonion

I do this all the time. No shame here.

Actually, more than once this "morbid foresight" has helped me out.

Arivia

I was just looking through some stuff and this hits all the notes for generalized anxiety disorder, especially if it's interfering with your day to day life.

Talk to a mental health professional: no shame in it, and they can help a ton.

Fagatron

Arivia wrote: »

I was just looking through some stuff and this hits all the notes for generalized anxiety disorder, especially if it's interfering with your day to day life.

Talk to a mental health professional: no shame in it, and they can help a ton.

Unless you are some kind of mental health professional you don't have any business making these kinds of assessments. Reading the DSM-IV will make anyone think there's something wrong with them.

OP, feel free to contact a therapist, but, and this is my opinion here, do take care in selecting a doctor that isn't going to want to find something wrong with you or medicate you just for the sake of doing so. This is a pretty normal thing you are experiencing, that is advantageous as long as it isn't debilitating to you by causing you great emotional harm or distracting you from things you need to be paying attention to. It would be a shame if you got with a shrink that loaded you up with anti-anxiety meds just because. We over medicate as a society and anxiety disorders seem to be becoming a sort of "pop" disease like ADD.

Rare Rabbit

Welcome to the wonderful world of anxiety disorders, like Fagatron said go find a good doctor and tell him/her what's going on before you start attempting some crazy homebrew self treament. While it may be over-diagnosed it sounds pretty much exactly like what you're explaining and considering how commonplace anxiety disorders are I'm hedging my bets. I'd probably be inclined to stay away from medication initially and try therapy or whatever your doctor suggests first as it can be easy to fall into the trap of going on and off different medication's without wholly committing yourself to treating the disorder.

People do get over anxiety disorders in time but therapy and treatment speed things along a great deal. The most important thing is not feel ashamed or inadequate about dealing and talking about it with your doctor (And eventually your partner/family) and simply treat it like the disease it is. It's easy to carry on with life whilst treating something like this but trying to simply live around it undiagnosed is not.

Take this as an opportunity to improve your mental and emotional health for the betterment of yourself as a human being.

Part of the reason we're so successful as a species is the ability to play things out in our head without them actually happening. You think about enough potential outcomes and you've essentially predicted the future and prepared yourself for it.

You can seek medication for it, but honestly unless this is a serious issue for you I wouldn't, it is a pretty normal thing.

Although the Amygdala has helped the survival of our species it shouldn't be going haywire on the drive to work, frequently worrying about the safety of your family to the point of physical distress in routine situations is definitely NOT normal behaviour (And is a very common trait of an anxiety disorder).

Go to a Doctor.

3drage

It's far too easy to get drugs these days to inhibit normal functions.

DHS Odium

I do this as well, all the time. It get's even worse when there is the slightest snag, like someone late to something, even if it's only a few minutes, and I can't reach them on their cell, I immediately run a play through of the worst case scenario (car crash) or something. I also have generalized anxiety disorder.

ceres

Yeah, I think the jump to a mental health disorder in this case might require rocket boots.

Dark_Side

ceres wrote: »

Yeah, I think the jump to a mental health disorder in this case might require rocket boots.

Not necessarily, the op is kind of light on facts. But as someone who has struggled very badly with anxiety and has been diagnosed and treated for it, his story hits a lot of the bullet points.

But as already pointed out, the important question is does it impede function? If you find yourself unable to shake the scenario and it affects the rest of your day or week. Then yeah, probably should seek professional help.

SeñorAmor

Holy responses, Batman! Let's see if I can cover everything in one reply...

a) No medication. I think that's the easy way out. Everyone's on some sort of medication nowadays. Until I am no longer able to perform day to day activities, medication is right out.

b) I honestly don't know how long this has been happening. Definitely not my entire life, but probably more than a year.

c) Fagatron, I agree. Like I said, it's made me hyper-aware so it's like I'm always planning for the worst, just in case, but that doesn't sound healthy, now that I typed it.

d) I don't think I'm that far out of it that I have a mental disorder. At least not yet. ;-)

SammyF

I feel as though I perceive an unfortunate equation between a potential minor psychological disorder, syndrome or imbalance and a deep, personal failing on your part as a human being, SenorAmor. If that is in fact that case, I'd ask you to take a step back and consider that some sort of temporary condition of this nature is not any more of a personal failing than having a case of the flu. It's often biological in nature and also incredibly common. There's nothing so shameful in it that it's not worth checking into.

Having said that, do I think there's anything that needs "fixing?" I don't know. I was hoping you might have a time-frame about when this all started because maybe it would coincide with your becoming a parent. Being anxious as a new parent is not at all uncommon.

Having a waking nightmare about an I-beam smashing into your car and crushing your son to death even though your son actually isn't in the car, on the other hand, isn't terribly common because it's an irrational fear. There was no possible way your son could actually have been injured in that circumstance because he wasn't physically present.

Combine that with symptoms of an anxiety attack, and I think it's worth considering at least seeing a therapist for a few sessions to pin down whether you're prone to irrational anxiety and, if so, when that anxiety might have begun to manifest itself. After discussing these "waking nightmares" in more depth you may have a better idea of (a) whether this is a problem you feel the need to address or not, (b) what the nature of that problem is, and (c) how you'd like to address it.

Best of luck!

Rare Rabbit

SammyF wrote: »

I feel as though I perceive an unfortunate equation between a potential minor psychological disorder, syndrome or imbalance and a deep, personal failing on your part as a human being, SenorAmor. If that is in fact that case, I'd ask you to take a step back and consider that some sort of temporary condition of this nature is not any more of a personal failing than having a case of the flu. It's often biological in nature and also incredibly common. There's nothing so shameful in it that it's not worth checking into.

Having said that, do I think there's anything that needs "fixing?" I don't know. I was hoping you might have a time-frame about when this all started because maybe it would coincide with your becoming a parent. Being anxious as a new parent is not at all uncommon.

Having a waking nightmare about an I-beam smashing into your car and crushing your son to death even though your son actually isn't in the car, on the other hand, isn't terribly common because it's an irrational fear. There was no possible way your son could actually have been injured in that circumstance because he wasn't physically present.

Combine that with symptoms of an anxiety attack, and I think it's worth considering at least seeing a therapist for a few sessions to pin down whether you're prone to irrational anxiety and, if so, when that anxiety might have begun to manifest itself. After discussing these "waking nightmares" in more depth you may have a better idea of (a) whether this is a problem you feel the need to address or not, (b) what the nature of that problem is, and (c) how you'd like to address it.

Best of luck!

Excellent points SammyF, couldn't have phrased it better myself (In fact I tried making the same point with the big bad "disease" word in my post :?). I think the stigma attached to addressing mental health is still alive and well and is partly to blame for the general ignorance displayed towards mental disorders.

In response to SenorAmor's comments;

a) Medication doesn't necessarily treat mental disorders but help sedate symptoms when it impedes day to day living so there's definitely no reason you'd have to if you don't want to.

b) Like SammyF stated mental disorders can be temporary and relatively out of the blue without any genetic disposition.