I Just Had A Nervous Breakdown Of Sorts

Not looking for sympathy or anything, just wondering if anybody else here has experienced anything like this. I’ve been working really long days on stage rehersals the past month and have been stressed out of my mind because of echonomics, building a career etc… Then yesterday, after 11 hours work my body just… swithced off somehow. I was shivering uncontrollably, something that felt like electric rays went through all of my body, especially my hands and fingers, and I was cold sweating. And today I nearly broke down outside due to the noisy traffic, and again inside just because of the sizzling sound of the bacon I was frying.

I know I have to see a doctor to find out what’s the real cause of this, but since my reaction is obviously related to sound, and I WORK with sound every single day… What can I do? Wear earplugs or something? Have anybody here experienced anything like this before? In any case, what helped?

Asking you guys since I’ve been here a few years, and you’re like me here because of the love of music creation… :)

Funny thing is, mentally I’m all good, it just gets a hold of me physically and lets go the second I calm down and remove the source of the anxiety…

I’ve had some incidents involving uncontrollable shaking. Happily, it’s been a good while now since last time. This was not induced by sound though. Just plain old stress.

What used to help me stop the shaking was concentrating on breathing. And what has kept it away, i guess, is realizing that things usually work out for the best, the end of the world is not nigh, one just needs to relax a bit.

Yeah… Relax and don’t panic is the key :)
Sounds like you are simply just stressed. Then strange things can trigger these things.

When it happens you just have to accept and recognize what it is. You know it will pass. So no reason to panic.

Just try to sleep more, relax. Do something else. Try to exercise a bit.

This is probably just a small warning. But if it happens again, and you know for sure you are not stressed, then you should consult a doctor (or perhaps do that now anyway)

I’m pretty sure most ppl have or will experience something similar to what you just did.
You can let your doctor confirm this if that will make you more relaxed.

cheers!

yes man, make sure youre eating right & healthy. since this seems to be being triggered by sound , maybe a good box of earplugs would be good for you.

i do have experience with earplugs.
however body chemistry probably being different i can only tell you how they effect me. as the only way i can sleep is with earplugs
ive found these type of earplugs work best for me:

these type:

lots of irratation, if i try to use these types i will get scabs in my ear canals.

i hope this helps you.

Thanks, guys…

I just went shopping with my girlfriend for some groceries, and I’m often really stressed out in stores, but tried some earplugs I had laying around, and it calmed me down. So, a non-healthy stress factor combined with what appears to me as agoraphobia (which, by experience is damped by listening to music on tight earplugs, shutting the world out) and WAY too much computing seems to me as my layman diagnose for the day.

And plugs + more breaks + meditational techniques would be my perscription for now. :)

i hope you dont do drugs

i’ve been ultra stressed out lately too because of work, money issues, relationship, family problems, etc… but never experienced anything like this, except for one time about 10 years ago after a breakup with a girlfriend… but it was very much just an enormous emotional stress at the time kind of thing.

sounds like you could use some serious relaxation. maybe play some trackmania and listen to some enya? :P

Valid statement, but I neither drink, smoke or do drugs. My drugs are music, gaming and the internet. :rolleyes:

Chill out. Trackmania. Got it! ;)

hmm, i notice enya conveniently missing from this statement :(

Seriously man, you gotta get some weed.

indeed

whenever i feel intensely stressed out like it seems you are, it helps to remove myself completely from the atmosphere which triggered it. so if i go on a songwriting binge drinking a lot of coffee along the way, it really helps to move to the opposite end of the active-passive spectrum (i.e. activities of a masturbatory nature, eating comfort food, listening to relaxing music passively, playing video games, doing nothing). Then once I’ve had my fix, I inspire myself to re-evaluate my life by listening to audio lectures ad reading philosophical texts.

system format complete

These are more addictive than drugs… at least for me! :dribble:

What you’re experiencing sounds like either an anxiety attack or a panic attack… they’re closely related… and they are often caused by malnutrition or improper sleep patterns. Try aiming to get between 6-8 hours of sleep a night, stay away from caffeine, and make sure to eat 3 balanced meals a day (if you don’t eat breakfast make sure to snack before bed) … if you already do all of this, then it’s possibly time to see your family doctor about it… I’d personally try to stay away from medications, but getting a checkup might be an idea, and your doctor might have non-drug suggestions for dealing with it. If you’re getting hear racing, breathing into a paper bag is supposed to work wonders…

… strike all that… it just occurred to me though that your symptoms actually seem to be much closer to epilepsy… and that being the case, you should SERIOUSLY go see a doctor ASAP. Epilepsy can be triggered by many different things, often by flashing lights and such, but it would make sense that sound could also be a trigger. There are effective treatments for it, so don’t worry ;)

I would suggest seeing a doctor too. And if you do not feel comfortable with the one you are going to then go to another. It’s important to find one who has experience in that field and does more than just subscribe some pills.

Apart from that I would also recommend earplugs atleast in the night. I sleep with plugs for years now and I feel my ears arr more relaxed because of that.

effective treatments for eplilepsy? i havent heard of any…

i hope that this is not eplilepsy though!

Not on purpouse, but Enya for me is Chill Out by genre. And since I have similar stuff (Rolf Graf, Xerxes (bit of a stretch, but it’s chill) and Enigma) ;)

But, yeah, I seriously hope this isn’t epilepsy, but I’m still giving it a few days before going to the doctor. Trying relaxation techniques… Earplugs don’t really help me much, because I can hear myself think too much. My mind races, I get no real calm when it’s too quiet…

Noticed today at work that, during rehersal and right after, I has this amazing calm because of the focus I retained along with the trust of working with a great assistant (they gave me one today, I’m working for fantastic people!!), so I’m mostly thinking this is stress related after that experience. SO I’m not too worried as just having my girlfriend sleeping right next to me calms me down.

I have the best support, seriously! Everybody at work, at home, my friends and you guys. Me worry? Naw. :D
Thanks so much for caring, guys!

Whenever my brother is under enormous stress, he gets serious
stomach aches, like feeling nautious and hungry-like at the same
time… the mind has great subconcious influence on the body.

I can relate to certain sounds having tremendous effects on the
state of mind, some daily sounds used to drive me nuts and make
me feel sick. Smoking some weed and reading a book does the trick
for me and although I don’t want to push drug habits onto others,
(as a matter of fact, I’m trying to stop smoking weed… it costs too much)
don’t underestimate the effects, they are the same as any medication,
even chances on cancer seem to be comparable.

I suggest reading a book, it’s a great way to ‘escape’ reality for a bit
and drown yourself into another world that has nothing to do with your
own set of problems. Reading Dostoyevski made me realise my own
problems are as big as a mosquito’s fart… although I should add that
you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of small things like
mosquito’s… imagine sleeping in a room with just one of those nagging
basterds… earplugs work well there and with that, the circle is complete.

Now I should get some sleep. Another great stress-remedy. :)

Other things that help with anxiety are writing and drawing … but mostly just whatever random crap is on your mind … do this in a quiet private environment if possible and don’t show anyone if you don’t want to. I’ve seriously written nothing but random junk to get out of an anxiety attack before… and it completely works. The reason it works is that you will eventually start organizing your thoughts because it’s human nature to do so when writing. It’s free flow creative therapy at it’s best… I can’t even recreate the effects with music. Scribbling on paper works well too when you can’t compose yourself enough to write… it helps get your anger out, and can also help you get nasty thoughts out.

i have experienced a similar phenomenon several times, but the worst one was when i was at my moms house…

i was in my mothers driveway listening to tech itch out of my headphones on my mp3 player trying to chill out because i felt really anxious and felt really panicky and worried… kinda sick to my stomach, so i was zoning out listening to tech itch and paying attention to the bass line, all of a sudden all i could here was the bass as if it were band passed, and it just kept looping, but i took off the headphones because i was feeling light headed and confused, and i could still hear the bass line looping as if i had loud headphones on, and i could not hear anything else… i couldn’t hear the traffic in front of the house or anything, all of a sudden i couldn’t see and i felt really drunk or dizzy and all i could hear was pink noise, so tried to get inside the house and i told my mom to call the ambulance, and i don’t remember anything after that. i woke up and my mom told me i had a super crazy seizure and that i was flipping around all over the place… i f****ed my back really bad and bit through my tongue and the side of my cheek. but all my anxiety had subsided and felt better than i had felt in a few years. it was better than drugs… kinda creepy. some times i start feeling like this with certain kinds of music or when i am in a movie. i hate anxiety.

i went to the hospitol the another time and they told me that i was only sleeping 3-4 hours a night and eating about a meal a day, they said i was too stressed out from other issues i had been dealing with, i know it sounds stupid.

i feel your pain. its probably not even the same thing, but it seemed so similar that i had to mention it. it hasn’t bothered me in a while as i have been taking better care so i think its ok now though. you gotta take care of yourself and dont forget the details!