Overwhelming Fear/Terror..help please.

I am feeling more than anxiety but fear and often terror about what lies an hour ahead, a day ahead, a week ahead etc
My mind feels tortured, unless I distract myself which isn't easy to do, my mind projects ahead and goes on a continuous loop and I have frequent panic attacks and overall at the moment I feel so weak and frail and worn out by it all. Iwas started on quetiapine last week but when I take it, I get sleepy and have a snooze and then wake up with fear and it starts all over again.
I have to return to work tomorrow after a few days off and obviously won't be able to take the quetiapine at work if it makes me drowsy so am so scared about breaking down at work. Will these feelings ever end?? I feel like self harming but resisting the temptation so far as know the feelings will still be there afterwards if I'm lucky enough to survive. So desperate...

I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. I spend most of my life feeling the way that you described. I have an intense fear of everything. I try to stop all of the intrusive thoughts but it's a struggle. I find myself thinking of the same things over and over. Now this sounds a bit silly but it's been helping me sometimes.. When I can't get rid of a thought. I throw it out. I pretend to reach inside my head, remove the thoughts and toss it violently into the imaginary trash can and I pretend to kick it away from me. It has helped.. it really has..as ridiculous as it sounds. You have to tell yourself..once it's in that trash can it's gone forever and can't come back. If I find myself going to the thought again I think Oh no no no.. I can't think of it because it's not there anymore and it's in the trash. Give it a try. Anything is worth trying.

Totally know what you mean!

This is why I can't take drugs! All they do is make me sleep. Than as you said would just wake up and feel the same. I have no idea how you change these sort of things. I just got bad news today and I feel like this summer is just going to be unbarable. I don't know what I am gonna do.

And the freak outs begin.....

I fell asleep with quetiapine as well, so I asked to be taken off it and try something else instead. Lorazepam works well for me (worked well, I should say, I don't take it anymore). You have options - if a drug doesn't work for you, you have the right to ask for something else that DOES. Medication should be there to help you live your life as you need to, it shouldn't dictate how your life works.

Lilycat's idea about throwing the ideas out is a good one - we were taught something similar in DBT (but that was wrapping it up in a box and putting it on a high shelf - trash is better!).

So I would ask for an appointment asap to get this sorted quickly - if you've only been on it for a week then it should be relatively quick to change you onto something else. Good luck. I wish I could help with managing the fear/panic but it is a difficult one. All I can suggest is doing what you're already doing, and keep trying to distract yourself. Or try to be logical and write down a "fact" versus "fiction" list for each worry that you have. Write down exactly what PROOF you have that the event you are imagining is likely to happen....not what you think but real proof. So if you are worried that your car will crash, your evidence against is that you haven't crashed before, or that it was in at the garage just x weeks ago so you know it's working properly....things like that. When you write it down like that, you can see more clearly that your fears are irrational. Sometimes just writing it down helps, even if it's just what's going through your mind. Get it out on paper then burn the bit of paper, or tear it into tiny pieces. Good luck.