# Constant Mind Chatter



## JenS

Hi all. I'm having a really hard time distracting myself from constant mind chatter. Random thoughts just popping/racing in my head all day long, espeically when I try to fall asleep. The doc tells me I'm not schizophrenic, but that's what I'm worry about ALL the time. I don't hear voices or have delusions, but I can't seem to control what I'm thinking about. Does anyone else have this? It's just really hard describing it. It's like getting spammed with junk email constantly cause some of the thoughts don't make sense, and I say why did I just think that? I'm hoping going to work will help today, but that's when the depersonalization kicks in as well. Ugh! This thing is hard. Just want to stay positive though Any feedback would be appreciated. I'm glad to have this forum, and I know we can all succeed in beating this.


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## Aridity

Lol,I have exactly the same shit. Sometimes it's very intense and sometimes it's not there. Especially when I'm trying to sleep,they're rather thoughts then voices I also hear snippets of songs I heared that day or throughout my life,like really fucking random ass thoughts really damn weird. I'm also thinking I'm getting Schizophrenia but in the back off my mind I know it isn't,but you're still worrying.


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## JenS

Thanks Aridity. Glad you understand. It's just really had to break the cycle. Hopefully, I'll just accept for what it is. I know it will pass. Had this before, just not so bad, and YES, it passed! which gives hope. They are totally fu*cking randam thoughts (sorry, but I don't like to swear in public I'm old-fashioned that away, plus 53!  LOL


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## Teresa

WoW.. I get that too... And forexsample when Ive been a lot on english sites... The words and frases in my head are english.. allthough Im danish :-/

And I do also have random songs and lyrics in my head.. Its like everything is stuck in there :-/


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## gill

Yeah, i get this at times. It feels like my thoughts are racing away from me, out-of my control. I guess it's just part of anxiety, pretty disturbing at times though.


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## Walkingzombie

I'm the exact opposite. At this point in my dp I'd love to have some mind chatter. I never have any inner monologue going on in my head.


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## chrissyd

Hi, i was going though the same thing at one point of my DP. I'm at a stage now (11 months) where fingers crossed it feels like im slowly slipping out of DP where i'm only noticing it a few times a day and going the majority of the day not even thinking of it, whereas before it was 24/7,

As for the mind chatter i went through exactly what you were describing it was one of the worst parts of DP in my opinion especially at night where sometimes i found it impossible to sleep with loads of racing thoughts and even sometimes images (in my minds eye) when i closed my eyes, quite hard to explain. Anyway all of that has gone now. I think it's caused by constant thinking and worrying and your mind gets caught up in a cycle of non stop thinking and when you want to shut off, your mind which is now stuck in this routine keeps on going and coming up with the weirdest random shit...very scary i too thought i was going schizophrenic at one point but trust me you are NOT. i'm sure everyone here at one point thinks they are going schizophrenic but unless you are hearing actual voices i'm sure you're okay.

One thing i would highly recommend to anyone with dp/anxiety is hitting the gym, it's totally helped my recovery and this is honestly the best i have felt in 11 months i've had ups and downs along the way but this really feels like i'm coming out of it now and i think the gym has helped that so much. it just gives me a distraction and i know it sounds a bit vain but i'm constantly checking my body and seeing the improvements and its all i seem to concentrate on now lol i'm not an ego maniac or anything but i suppose it's a healthier obsession than thinking of dp all day and it really does give me a welcome distraction and i just generally feel and look a lot better because of it .

But trust me when i say this the mind chatter will pass just try to slow your mind down and distract yourself and it will soon go and as for thinking you have schizophrenia...get rid of this thought as soon as you can, i've been there and as soon as you start to obsess about it it becomes worse and worse until you almost convince yourself you're going to get put in a mental institute. it's just an irrational though, you have DP, which is a form of anxiety and trust me when i say this it will get better. it may not feel like it right now and when people said it to me when i was at my worst i couldn't see it but now i'm almost laughing in the face of DP if i ever feel a bit disassociated it just say to myself this is ridiculous, it's going to pass just ride it out, distract yourself, or whatever it won't harm you in anyway and trust me it works!...get out of the cycle of DP/anxiety/more intense DP and so on....go DP/HAHA this is stupid/less DP/NO DP







Find a distraction a hobby anything just to keep your mind off these sensations and constant worry and as i am realising now just how ridiculous i have been over the last year, i know it might be easy to say now and i know it can be really difficult but i can promise you worry about it is just a waste of time, when you stop worrying that is when you are making progress and i just wish i realised this sooner!

Best of luck!


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## RamonX

I also have this sometimes but maybe not really random in my case. What I have all the time though, and it feels related, is an urge to give attention to everything that comes to mind.
Everything has to be worked, permutated, set upside down etc. For instance I try to read à lot of things backwards, or I scramble words up in my mind like interchanging the first letters of syllables in my head (like coleslaw becomes soleclaw). People say I have a great sense of humor, but I think part of that is that I am constantly making weird connections.
I feel there are two major driving forces behind this. First à constant restlesness that compels me to do something in my mind.
The other reason I think is something called low latent inhibition. It is a scientific concept that describes à function in our brain that filters out irrelevant information. We would all go completely mad if we were aware constantly of all the information that reaches our senses from the outside and inside world. Latent Inhibition makes it possible to read à book without being distracted by every car that drives past, every bird that whistles, the sound of our own breaths, and very important also thoughts that come into our heads.
Low latent inhibition means that this filter is less active. The downside of this seems to be vulnerability to à range of psychiatric disturbances. The upside of low latent inhibition is that it contributes to creativity, which sometimes is described as the ability to combine elements of concepts that are in general not associated with each other. Hence originality.
I think it is possible that DP and DR are also caused partly by low latent inhibition. It would be interesting to find out how many of us here have similar thoughtpatterns as mentioned in this thread.


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## Jayden

I could have written this myself. Glad to know I am not the only one. Random thoughts, words, phrases just pop to mind without feeling like you thought of them. Just random racing thoughts, I totally know EXACTLY what you are going through. This is one of the reasons why I thought to about schizophrenia.

I have dug myself a BIG hole over obsessing over SZ. I am pretty sure I have a bad case of Pure-Obsessional OCD about SZ.


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## JenS

chrissyd said:


> Hi, i was going though the same thing at one point of my DP. I'm at a stage now (11 months) where fingers crossed it feels like im slowly slipping out of DP where i'm only noticing it a few times a day and going the majority of the day not even thinking of it, whereas before it was 24/7,
> 
> As for the mind chatter i went through exactly what you were describing it was one of the worst parts of DP in my opinion especially at night where sometimes i found it impossible to sleep with loads of racing thoughts and even sometimes images (in my minds eye) when i closed my eyes, quite hard to explain. Anyway all of that has gone now. I think it's caused by constant thinking and worrying and your mind gets caught up in a cycle of non stop thinking and when you want to shut off, your mind which is now stuck in this routine keeps on going and coming up with the weirdest random shit...very scary i too thought i was going schizophrenic at one point but trust me you are NOT. i'm sure everyone here at one point thinks they are going schizophrenic but unless you are hearing actual voices i'm sure you're okay.
> 
> One thing i would highly recommend to anyone with dp/anxiety is hitting the gym, it's totally helped my recovery and this is honestly the best i have felt in 11 months i've had ups and downs along the way but this really feels like i'm coming out of it now and i think the gym has helped that so much. it just gives me a distraction and i know it sounds a bit vain but i'm constantly checking my body and seeing the improvements and its all i seem to concentrate on now lol i'm not an ego maniac or anything but i suppose it's a healthier obsession than thinking of dp all day and it really does give me a welcome distraction and i just generally feel and look a lot better because of it .
> 
> But trust me when i say this the mind chatter will pass just try to slow your mind down and distract yourself and it will soon go and as for thinking you have schizophrenia...get rid of this thought as soon as you can, i've been there and as soon as you start to obsess about it it becomes worse and worse until you almost convince yourself you're going to get put in a mental institute. it's just an irrational though, you have DP, which is a form of anxiety and trust me when i say this it will get better. it may not feel like it right now and when people said it to me when i was at my worst i couldn't see it but now i'm almost laughing in the face of DP if i ever feel a bit disassociated it just say to myself this is ridiculous, it's going to pass just ride it out, distract yourself, or whatever it won't harm you in anyway and trust me it works!...get out of the cycle of DP/anxiety/more intense DP and so on....go DP/HAHA this is stupid/less DP/NO DP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Find a distraction a hobby anything just to keep your mind off these sensations and constant worry and as i am realising now just how ridiculous i have been over the last year, i know it might be easy to say now and i know it can be really difficult but i can promise you worry about it is just a waste of time, when you stop worrying that is when you are making progress and i just wish i realised this sooner!
> 
> Best of luck!


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## JenS

chrissyd said:


> Hi, i was going though the same thing at one point of my DP. I'm at a stage now (11 months) where fingers crossed it feels like im slowly slipping out of DP where i'm only noticing it a few times a day and going the majority of the day not even thinking of it, whereas before it was 24/7,
> 
> As for the mind chatter i went through exactly what you were describing it was one of the worst parts of DP in my opinion especially at night where sometimes i found it impossible to sleep with loads of racing thoughts and even sometimes images (in my minds eye) when i closed my eyes, quite hard to explain. Anyway all of that has gone now. I think it's caused by constant thinking and worrying and your mind gets caught up in a cycle of non stop thinking and when you want to shut off, your mind which is now stuck in this routine keeps on going and coming up with the weirdest random shit...very scary i too thought i was going schizophrenic at one point but trust me you are NOT. i'm sure everyone here at one point thinks they are going schizophrenic but unless you are hearing actual voices i'm sure you're okay.
> 
> One thing i would highly recommend to anyone with dp/anxiety is hitting the gym, it's totally helped my recovery and this is honestly the best i have felt in 11 months i've had ups and downs along the way but this really feels like i'm coming out of it now and i think the gym has helped that so much. it just gives me a distraction and i know it sounds a bit vain but i'm constantly checking my body and seeing the improvements and its all i seem to concentrate on now lol i'm not an ego maniac or anything but i suppose it's a healthier obsession than thinking of dp all day and it really does give me a welcome distraction and i just generally feel and look a lot better because of it .
> 
> But trust me when i say this the mind chatter will pass just try to slow your mind down and distract yourself and it will soon go and as for thinking you have schizophrenia...get rid of this thought as soon as you can, i've been there and as soon as you start to obsess about it it becomes worse and worse until you almost convince yourself you're going to get put in a mental institute. it's just an irrational though, you have DP, which is a form of anxiety and trust me when i say this it will get better. it may not feel like it right now and when people said it to me when i was at my worst i couldn't see it but now i'm almost laughing in the face of DP if i ever feel a bit disassociated it just say to myself this is ridiculous, it's going to pass just ride it out, distract yourself, or whatever it won't harm you in anyway and trust me it works!...get out of the cycle of DP/anxiety/more intense DP and so on....go DP/HAHA this is stupid/less DP/NO DP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Find a distraction a hobby anything just to keep your mind off these sensations and constant worry and as i am realising now just how ridiculous i have been over the last year, i know it might be easy to say now and i know it can be really difficult but i can promise you worry about it is just a waste of time, when you stop worrying that is when you are making progress and i just wish i realised this sooner!
> 
> Best of luck!
> 
> Thanks Chrissy, you say it all perfect, and I've had it before too, and Yes, it does pass. It's just scary right now. I agree about dstraction, hobbies, staying busy. Had a much better day at work yesterday and the worry fades. Doesn't completely disappear, but it was a good first step. Glad you are doing good!!


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## dpsince2002

I know what you mean. When my dp started, it was this awful, constant-seeming cacophony that seemed chaotic, but also like there was all of this complex logic going on that I couldn't look away from--yes, I was losing my mind, and, no, I wasn't real, etc., and all of these racing thoughts were proving it completely, even if they were moving too fast for me to pick them out. It's gotten way better since then, like it may still be there, but it's turned way down.


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