Reddit r/depression

My depression is so bad it feels like my brain is melting. It feels like my brain is melting every second i stay alive and don’t kill myself. I genuinely can’t stand it anymore. I feel like my world is ending but this feeling just keeps lasting. I feel like i’m constantly in fight or flight mode but can’t actually do anything. I thought something would eventually give and I’d be happy but it never has. It has been 7 or 8 years and it still hasn’t stopped. I can’t stand feeling like this every day. It feels like I’m dying but i never do. It feels like I’m constantly about to shoot myself except i don’t have a gun.

That was supposed to be a metaphor but it is also true. I don’t have one or I wouldn’t be here.

My brain genuinely feels like it is melting from how much i can’t stand existing. I can’t stand it. Why can’t it all end? I can’t stand it.

I wish I could give some advice, but I'm going through the exact same thing right now, and it's a horrible feeling..

Did you get any help with this? I’m exactly the same. Literally feels like my brain is melting and breaking down bit by bit. Every time I wake up I want to cry because I’m still alive. I know it’s all caused by depression and the only way to “cure” it is medication.. I’m fed up of medication now so I don’t take it anymore but my head can’t take the pressures of everyday life.

No. It hasn’t gotten any better. I’m sorry that you’re going through it too.

r/Anxiety

I have GAD & panic disorder, and sometimes when I get very anxious, I get stuck in this feeling that’s like... in between general anxiety and a full panic attack.

In those states I don’t get the physical symptoms that come with a panic attack, but I absolutely cannot focus mentally on anything, and it’s completely overwhelming. The worst part is that in those states I always hear screaming in my head. It’s not an auditory illusion, I don’t think? Because it’s not like I physically hear it, it just sounds like my internal monologue, except it’s screaming, and I don’t know how to make it stop.

When I'm feeling generally stressed - but meeting a moment of peace - I get this strange, rising sensation of noise inside of my head. It feels like the kind of panic that's felt when something is Going Wrong, or the sort of panicked embarrassment one might feel while being berated or humiliated. It's almost like a noiseless scream, or the "sound" of a tense atmosphere.

There are no words attached to it, and it doesn't quite "sound" like a scream, but when I was younger I'd equate it to sitting in a busy restaurant and trying to pinpoint a single voice amongst a crowd of chatter and noise. It used to feel like scattered laughter, but it's felt more sinister as I got older.

I wondered, briefly, if it was related to panic or anxiety attacks, but it's been happening more frequently when I have moments of peace and tranquility; it's almost like my inner voice or my mind can't cope with stillness and silence and meets it with a sort of kinetic screeching. Like mental feedback, maybe? It makes me want to run, or hit something, or start screaming. Anything to disrupt it. I usually just sit and breathe through it instead, letting it pass in its own time. The duration varies, and I can't force it to stop or interrupt it in any way.

It truly feels like being hunted or something; like the ambiance in a horror survival game when the Big Bad is stalking the player character and your only choice is to hide or succumb. I used to be able to drown it out with loud music, but it's become strange in that any external sound while it's occurring feels absolutely dreadful. I have to turn everything off, isolate, and avoid interacting with media or other people until it stops because there's a bizarre sensation of paranoia that accompanies it.

I am so sorry that you experience this as well, though I must confess it is so beyond relieving to know that someone out there understands what I'm talking about. Everyone I've tried to talk to about this looks at me like I've just confessed to communing with ancient deities or dismisses it as "just a panic attack", when it feels so much stranger than that.