PTSD, Panic attack, or both?
I had a horribly strange night last. I'm not sure if I had a really vivid nightmare at this point or if it was a hallucination. I woke up (I thought) needing to go to the bathroom. But my eyes were all wonky from sleep so I just stayed there for a few moments and decided to look up at the ceiling. Bam! Big ass unrealistic spider-tick the size of a tarantula twitching and coming close. I went from what that crap to holy sh!t panic in a split second and my chest hurt from jumping so fast from cataonic sleeper to run already! But then my logical side kicked in and I looked again and it was gone. From then on I told myself, your just seeing things.
Then I started blinking and it was like I could still see the shape of it only small and I started rubbing my eyes all freaking out thinking maybe I was just seeing a small bug that was on my eyeball! Eventually I just shut my eyes in a mini panic attack and passed out I guess. I remember being so freaked out that I started wondering what else was in the room and imagining just about everything creepy before passing out.
This morning I woke up with a massive headache and I'm wondering was it all just some super-realistic nightmare? I'm not sure, it felt real, I'm pretty sure I was awake. But it doesn't make any sense you know? I guess I should give a little background though. When I was a kid I had PTSD (undiagnosed but it was bad), but it only shows up as a severe panic attack when triggered. I am also very sure I have Severe anxiety, panic, phobias etc.
It's difficult to tell without a doctor's diagnosis/opinion. Sometimes, even though we know ourselves better than anyone else, we may not know the medical inner workings like a licensed psychiatrist/psychologist would.
My personal opinion would lean more towards anxiety rather than a PTSD related incident. Often times when my anxiety is up, I'll end up having hallucinations and just like you mentioned, one moment they're there, and they're gone the next.
I would recommend keeping record of when this happens. For example if you were to record this incident, I'd suggest recording what time it happened, what you were doing before it occurred, if you ate something late before going to sleep, if you were worried/anxious about anything before sleeping, if you watched something or even fell asleep watching anything. And how you felt when you woke up. All of these aforementioned things are important to know when narrowing down a possible cause.
And of course, I suppose it could have been a nightmare as well. It's hard to tell sometimes. Keep track of it and if it keeps happening, it may benefit you to reach out to a licensed psychiatrist/psychologist who can help you explore this further.
Good luck!
@ValentineLove Thank you for replying! I'll try to keep a log. I've never had anything like that happen before and it really freaked me out. I had just gone to sleep for the night and then sometime during I guess early morning I woke up and that happened. That's pretty much all I know. As far as food is concerned I had some orange juice and crackers because I felt bad all day.
Though I'm far from an expert, your situation sounds like sleep paralysis to me.
@crimsonPlum47 It could be. Though I was moving. I could move I was just terrified.
@crimsonPlum47 You know what? I googled what you said and found "hypnogogic hallucinations" its related to sleep paralysis but happens when waking up without the paralysis and one of the things people see are spiders. So thank you so much for pointing this out! It most definitely could be this!
@Sherlock37
Glad I could help!
@Sherlock37 Hey there, sorry to hear that happened to you! I have really weird sleeping patterns (stay up for 28+ hours, then sleep for 5-9 hours, rinse, repeat) and sometimes this happens to me after a prolonged period of abnormal sleep. Have you been staying up a lot, or not resting normally in the past week? Maybe you ate something odd before bed (dairy gives me nightmares, and super acidic things sometimes)? If you start keeping a log of your sleeping, also track the foods/drinks you have before bed, and that kind of thing. People sometimes underestimate the power of food, especially if it's sitting in our gut while we're sleeping. :)
