Dread

[Chupacabra 44]

One of the themes I just don't seem to come across here is the concept of dread. I'm FULL of dread. Anyone else?

I googled for ten minutes yesterday and need to read plenty more. I saw that dread runs with anxiety not surprisingly, but I saw that it apparently runs with bipolar, which I was unaware. For myself, I have plenty of anxiety and bipolar.

If you suffer from dread do you have any coping strategies? Any big pharma meds or alternative remedies seem effective?

I'm finding my dread gets worse and worse as I age. I have cortisol dysregulation which probably just amps up the dread. But, what's the cart and what's the horse? (Thanks for that expression, dad)!

I think my dread is a factor in my becoming so reclusive over the past six years.

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Yes. I have OCD. If I don't get things exactly right (the details are specific and strange) then I suffer from a horrific sense of dread and foreboding. There is no treatment for me. I tried a higher dose of Prozac and it disassociated me to the point where I was a danger to other people. And immersion therapy (or whatever it's called), don't make me laugh. Clearly invented by someone with no concept of how the disorder works.

Instead, I use it. I have given myself over to it and I let it guide me. it motivates me to do stuff, just so I can work through those lists and complete those plans. It works, but it comes at a price. Unfortunately, I have no alternative.

No of that probably helps you Chupa, sorry. I'm starting to be of the opinion that I shouldn't advise, only share my experience and people can take from that what they may.

 

[Mr2005]

Yes the feeling in the pit of my stomach is one of horror and devastation. It doesn't help that I abruptly stopped my meds two months ago. This has been gruelling

 

[Xocoyotziin]

Yeah, I've been getting a lot of dread for awhile, especially right after I wake up. It usually starts at night when I run away with certain thoughts.

I sometimes find that grounding myself and focusing on something happy that I love, like a "totem", helps, but not always. In a dreadful state it can feel futile or I'll analyze it and it turns fake. But generally, a favorite movie or a stuffed animal from childhood, something infallible I feel I can depend on. It's like setting up a counternarrative or presenting yourself with counterevidence, no there's still this and that that are pure, this way of thinking isn't the absolute truth, I actively try to remember feelings and experiences that run contrary to whatever's got a hold of my mind in that moment.

This is easy though because the source of my dread is usually the idea that reality is some kind of conspiratorial ruse meant to collapse around me/us and that the meaning of everything, at its core, is essentially unchangeable evil. Having even a single "ally", even if it's an inanimate object, is enough to alleviate my dread because it at least partially disproves the thought. But it doesn't address the problem of dread, it's just how I cope when it happens, and if the source of your dread is different there may be different ways to deal with it.

Just what sort of works for me idk.

 

[purplesmoothie]

Yes, I think dread is my main reason for wanting to die.

 

[XYZ]

I suffer from generalized anxiety and have been afflicted by it, since the tender age of 12. When one is ill for as long as I've been, dread - i.e. intense fear - is an inevitable consequence.

You ask why no one talks about dread here. I've never bothered to make that distinction, and I almost always use anxiety to refer to both dread and anxiety.

There is however a significant difference between the two concepts and I am glad you brought it up: Dread, unlike anxiety, does not properly belong in medical science. Dread belongs in the field of metaphysics. What makes dread a metaphysical category is that it is a spiritual crisis. Dread is to me much more than apprehension, dread is the spirit falling into utter despair. It is an irreversible state of being.