Escalating fear

Hello,

I'm pretty new regarding real bipolar symptoms I can identify...lately my fears have been escalating and I've been obsessing over some things that after much thought don't make much sense, i.e. my fear of darkness is kinda out of control (I can't sleep without a light on anymore and I run from the bedroom to the fridge and back when I have to get some water in the middle of the night because I think there will be some entity chasing me until I shut out the darkness). Also, my teeth are sensitive again so I started obsessing about having worn down my tooth enamel with my electric toothbrush and now am afraid to brush my teeth too vigorously.
Finally I was refilling my water bottle and kept thinking there was a snake under the big bottle of water that would bite and kill me.

I've recently started taking Lamotrigine and was supposed to take Qetiapine for my depression but haven't because I know it'll make me gain weight and I'm terrified of it

Please, is there something wrong with me? I haven't called my doctor yet and I don't know if I should be alarmed about this.

Hey there,

Sounds like a typical case of bipolar with psychotic features to me. I'm afraid of the dark because I feel there's a demon in my closet or monsters under my floor. I have mild hallucinations where I smell lots of things that aren't there and I frequently hear police sirens and cars beeping at me, so I'm a bit paranoid about driving. I also see people staring at me out of the corner of my eyes. I'm on risperidal for psychotic features now and my hallucinations and delusions have calmed down enough that they don't cause much of an impairment, and I'd rather deal with very slight oddities than go up a dose. Your doctor can prescribe an antipsychotic that will most likely help. Don't be alarmed, it's pretty common. Let me know how everything works out!

Have you considered that you may have an anxiety problem? When I'm not on my anxiety meds, I feel afraid of everything. I get a little delusional, too. Kind of like how you believe a snake is waiting to bite and kill you. My mind runs through a whole spectrum of fears when I'm not on my meds. I get the worst mental images about what could happen to me or my loved ones.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I've been through similar. Did you ever consider maybe trying an anti-anxiety med?

Hi, there! I'm new to anxiety issues. I had no idea that fear of darkness can be related to an anxiety issue. I can't sleep with complete darkness in my room. I just cannot. Thanks to my wild imagination of some monster standing inside my room. I thought, it was pretty common among people.

I run from the bedroom to the fridge and back when I have to get some water in the middle of the night because I think there will be some entity chasing me until I shut out the darkness

I go through that exact thing. Well, I hope you get some relief. Let me know if anything works out. Which I sincerely hope for.

Thanks for replying. I sincerely hope it's not BP with psychotic features. I've suffered from anxiety from some time, I've just never been medicated for it and hadn't even considered it. I'll be calling my pdoc soon, I really need to sort this out before I scare myself to death.

This is just my personal experience, but it is different for everyone, and it should for sure be addressed by a doctor.

I have very mild psychotic features, and they come and go in episodes. For me, the difference between anxiety and psychosis is that anxiety is "what if...". What if there is a tornado or bad storm? What if someone breaks into my apartment? What if something has happened to my best friend who isn't answering my texts? Those are all things that could happen, and something has given me reason to believe it might. I live in tornado alley, so there may be a tornado. There have been break ins at my apartment, so it's possible someone will break in there. My best friend always answers texts, so if she does not, something could be wrong.

Psychosis, on the other hand, is believing that something HAS happened when it has not, whether it's reasonable or not. For example, I used to believe that someone WAS in my apartment, hiding and ready to kill me. It caused anxiety I suppose, but the belief that something was happening that was not, indeed, happening, told me I was experiencing psychosis. If I, for example, believed that a tornado WAS happening when there was not one, I would probably be experiencing psychosis.

Just my two cents. Good luck to you.