Does anyone else find that anxiety pretty much switches thier brain off?

[LEMisdisappointed]

I have general anxiety disorder - but im not doing too bad, in fact, after a crap year im gradually getting better.

What i have noticed is that if i start to get anxious i simply cannot think, even if i don't feel particularly anxious.

A big trigger for me is food shopping as we have had financial difficulties. Today in tesco - managing quite ok with the shop, using the self scanner thing that you use as you go round. I got about 3/4 round and my brain just left the building - I ran out of bags, couldn't really figure out what to do about it, didn't really feel THAT anxious so had to phone DP who was in the coffee shop with DD (i like to shop alone so send them to the cafe) to come and get me some bags sothat i didn't have to break my routine around the shop. Then i managed to finish the shop, although really just wanted to get out of there - got to the checkout where yo have to scan it and found myself just standing there, had scanned the scanner but didn't realise i had pressed the wrong button - the assistant came and asked if i had anything I couldn't scan, no, i had pressed the btton to say i had - thanked her, but she had to finish the transaction for me - apart from putting the money in, but I even struggled with that Then went to McDs wth DP and DD and just stood at the counter when the poor girl serving me said to sit and they would bring the food oer as something needed cooking. DP had to call me .

Then i sat down, worked out exactly how much of the shopping bill was stuff i had bought for my mum and how much change i needed to give her, in my head before DP had time to gethis phone out to use the calculator, about £30 worth of shopping mixed in with ours so not an easy sum.

Does anyone else just sort of zone out in this way? im not sure zone out is the right word, i am aware of everything, know i need to do stuff bt can't quite figure it out. I am on citalopram if thats relevant. This only tends to happen in anxiety inducing situations. DP calls it being away wiht the fairies.

Anxiety and compulsive behaviour certainly do 'take over' the brain electrochemically, which is why some drugs which have been developed for epilepsy and seizures can be used as mood stabilizers, extremely effectively.

I would say it's more like having an electrical storm inside your head, rather than being 'away with the fairies'. The neural pathways which lead to anxious and compulsive thoughts and behaviours are so well worn and so explosively charged that no other signals can effectively get through, so to speak.

If you feel your symptoms are not well controlled on the citalopram at your current dose, please go back to your prescribing doctor and tell them. Please don't feel you have to just carry on trying to function well on willpower alone, because you don't. No-one would evere expect a diabetic to control their insulin levels by virtue of their own willpower, and GAD and depression are no different. You have every right to be able to do your shopping without feeling unwell.

for you OP.

Thanks, the irony is that i am doing much better on the depression front, but sometimes i just feel like a child and need someone to do things for me I am a 43 yo woman with two DDs and a PhD .

i have just finished a counselling "run" (by virtue of the fact my counsellor left) and that focused on self esteem issues. But if i don't get this bloody axiety sorted out its going to hold me back. I think i might start making a not of when this "confusion" happens. I notice it at other times, but its mostly surrounding things that stress me.

This has definitely happened to me. I am not on medication though, but I do believe I have some anxiety disorder.

I can look back to stressful times in my life, and it was like I "zoned out". An example - a friend of mine gave me her wallet to look after. Was really stressed at the time. She asked me for it back. I can't remember her giving it to me, or what happened in the interim period. I find it pretty frightening that my brain just checked out. It was awful as I couldn't explain to her what happened as I didn't know either. I think it damaged our friendship tbh.

I put it down as a survival thing, but the poster up there is probably right about the electrical signals.

My counsellor explained it as a function of the adrenalin that takes over rational brain function. It's so you don't stand there dithering about the best course of action when a bear attacks you, you just run like fuck.
Handy in bear attacks, not so great in Sainbos.
Tell your GP, you may need your meds adjusting.

I've just had gp prescribe citalopram for anxiety and depression and I know just what you mean. My younger dd is in nappies and a few weeks ago I actually forgot to put one on her. And I didn't then remember not doing it, line you usually do. It's just gone from my brain. It's very unnerving.