19M dealing with intense anxiety, ADHD symptoms, OCD tendencies and constant fight-or-flight — sleep paralysis, chest tightness, almost no attention span. Has anyone actually gotten better from this?
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I’m 19M and I honestly feel like I’ve been going downhill for years, especially after my first sleep paralysis episode. Before that I wasn’t some genius student, but I could at least sit down, study and function normally. After that, my grades started slipping and I began zoning out a lot in class. Over time my attention span became almost nonexistent. Now I can’t focus on reading or listening for more than a minute unless it’s something extremely interesting. I make detailed plans in my head but never follow through. I start learning skills and quit within days once the excitement fades or I notice a flaw. If I don’t see quick progress or money potential, I lose interest completely. I doom scroll 12 to 14 hours a day and stay in bed most of the time. I’ve never felt disciplined. I talk loudly, interrupt people, overexplain things and daydream constantly, making scenarios in my head. I zone out even during prayers and only pray after my parents remind me repeatedly. I forget simple things like my keys but remember random details like exact conversations from years ago. I’m emotional, impulsive, overthink everything, can’t handle criticism well, and my mood can change within seconds. My friends say I can be rage baited instantly. I want things perfect and probably have OCD traits. I often act first and think about consequences later. Even before anxiety got bad I struggled with focus, but after it everything became much worse. My anxiety feels very physical. I get chest tightness, heart palpitations, random body shivers and internal shaking. During arguments my whole body trembles, and even after it’s over I stay on edge, scanning every road and every person like something bad is about to happen. It feels like my brain is constantly in surveillance mode. I’m scared to drive because I think I’ll crash into someone. I’m afraid of stray dogs biting me. When I walk outside I sometimes feel detached and not fully present, and I trip over small things. My sleep is terrible. I rarely sleep more than 4 to 5 hours and it never feels refreshing. My brain just doesn’t shut off. When I’m about to sleep I get sudden falling sensations or feel like the bed is moving. I’ve had multiple sleep paralysis episodes. After the first one my academic performance dropped and never really recovered. Heavy bass music energizes me a lot, but sad music pulls my mood down fast. I’m not good at sports like cricket or football, and even in e sports I react slowly and get eliminated quickly. My confidence has taken a big hit. Medication hasn’t been straightforward either. I’ve been on Reline, an SSRI, for 15 days and haven’t noticed any change yet. I tried alprazolam for two days. The first day I slept after about an hour. The second day I couldn’t sleep even after three hours. Ritalin once made me fall asleep for about 20 minutes. Vyvanse increased my physical anxiety symptoms like palpitations and tension. Tea and coffee also make me more anxious. It honestly feels like my nervous system is stuck in fight or flight mode and my brain never powers down. I feel like I’m failing in different areas of life and slowly declining. I just want to know if anyone has dealt with this kind of mix of anxiety, ADHD type symptoms, OCD traits, constant hypervigilance, sleep problems and emotional dysregulation and actually improved. What helped long term? Did you focus on anxiety first or ADHD first? I don’t want to just be sedated. I want to feel stable and functional. I just want to live life as a normal person. I want to grow as others of my age but I don't think that I would be able to do it. As I've heard that anxiety still exists even if you try to control it and ADHD is not curable. Can anyone help me out who had the same situation were you able to get out of it or still struggling like me.
Details
- Subreddit
- r/Anxiety
- Author
- u/adhderlookingforhelp
- Posted
- Feb 12, 2026 at 2:08 PM UTC
AI Analysis
- Condition
- anxiety, ADHD symptoms, OCD traits, insomnia/sleep paralysis, hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation
- Geography
- us likely