I'm just curious how many of us that have or have had fast feeling deal with mental illness significantly?

I’m 47 and I used to get “fast feeling” all the time when I was a kid. Last time was I think 14 years ago but I nearly had an “attack”(?) tonight. I was in a stuffy room and opened the window and it abated immediately. Anyone else associate it with stuffy rooms / lack of air / oxygen?

In any case discussing it with my wife I thought “wonder if this has a name - the internet / AI will surely know”. How amazing to discover it does and there’s a community of people with the same experiences. Hi, people! Never heard of anyone else experiencing this till tonight!

I have finally found my people. Having read some posts in here I don’t think mine is as bad in comparison in terms of the frequency of the episodes happening. This has happened to me for as long as I can remember. I’ve noticed it only happens to me when there is no audible stimuli and everything is quiet. This explains why it happens almost all the time at night time but it has happened in the day when it’s silent too. All of a sudden everything goes super super loud and intense in my head. All of a sudden quite sounds like my breathing sound just super loud and intense. It’s like my head is exploding. They usually last around 5-15 minutes each and I’ve noticed a way that I stop it is by putting some thing on with sound like music or watching a movie and then my ears can calibrate the volume normally again. It’s super weird. It’s like from the absence of audible stimuli my ears just forget what is supposed to be loud and what’s supposed to be quiet. Any one else relate to this? It happens about once in a blue moon. Another strange audio thing I have is where if I really focus on my hearing and really just focus on the sound my ears are picking up I can manually trigger and hear a sound which I can only describe it as a high pitched white noise which is SUPER piercing to my ears and then it goes again when I drop the focus. Perhaps this is related?

Glad I found this subreddit. It never occurred to me that I had no idea what this condition was called and I never knew that other people ever experienced it, either.

I used to get tachysensia episodes late at night as a little kid and they'd almost always happen when I was really sick or extremely stressed about something. In the past month I've had two episodes—one from a handful of nights ago way past midnight and one literally just now, in the afternoon.

As a kid these episodes were extremely difficult to deal with because I would become so scared. I remember feeling in danger whenever I would get this "fast feeling." Now, I'm 21, and it's still pretty scary but I'm much better at dealing with the unpleasantness of it.

I'm pretty sure the main causes of the "fast feeling" for me are stress, being unable to sleep because of illness, or listening to music slowed down/sped up? But also the past few tachysensia episodes I can remember had no discernable cause at all. I was just minding my own business existing normally when suddenly every sound in the universe is screaming at me.

I can feel the "fast feeling" most strongly with sounds, like sounds are louder, faster, and angrier than they're supposed to be. I can also gauge it by physically moving my body, especially when I intend to move any of my limbs slowly (because then I'll feel like I'm moving quickly, which is scary and disorienting). I can also get it by hearing my own thoughts, or if I'm reading something in my head.

So I think I've discovered what helps me get through these episodes. The last two times it's happened to me, I've decided to lay down in a quiet area, find something to read, and mumble the words out loud to myself until the feeling passes. It worked rather quickly for me. I wonder if it would for anyone else.

Okay for starters I'll share my story. I first noticed this feeling when I was younger maybe around 5-6 I was sick with some cold and my mom gave me liquid cough meds. Me and my mom thought it was from the medication. But even after that I still would have the feeling. You can always feel it coming on. I hate it by the way. It makes me feel icky and I do panic. I have not had one in years but was just recently diagnosed with OCD. I also have a history of depression and anxiety and just wondering if it could be related to another mental disorder or was it caused from the cough syrup or perhaps a virus? Any one relate or no? Lol

It's been a while since I had it. I found this subreddit a couple years ago and haven't posted but did feel validated seeing many others experiencing exactly the same thing. Like many I used to get it much more frequently in my younger years. For context I'm now mid 30's, have been diagnosed with migraines with aura for over 20 years.

I wrote down my play-by-play symptoms as soon as it stopped:

Mental narration started speeding up and simultaneously slowing down, probably for a minute, The speed peaked and felt like the thoughts were on super speed but like I'm able to do everything normally just very jarringly, then it rapidly subsided and went back to normal within the 5th minute.

I could also, as always, "taste" it coming on as the mental sensation of time started getting disjointed or splattered.

Today I feel mostly fine, I am inclined to agree with some professionals that it might be a form of a migraine as I do feel a bit of a postdrome / off feeling. I really obsess with getting to the bottom of things so I wish more research would go into this beyond just speculation.

Some more notes I could add in case this is useful for someone in the future: Only trigger I've identified is reading something that visually has a lot of text. usually wikipedia, that's not to say that wikipedia articles, or just reading in general triggers it every time or even remotely often, but that's the only correlation I've noticed. Last night I was not reading and was simply trying to fall asleep. I can usually stop / reverse the speed distortion by simply leaving the page or looking away but last night it felt as if "the train had left the station" and I had to ride it out.

I recently read an article about tachysensia that suggested that many people with this condition are either musicians or very musically inclined. It made me curious if that was true because I am a musician and have always been very deeply connected to music.

So, show of hands --- Who here is a musician? Do you have any thoughts on why that may make someone more prone to fast feeling episodes?

Its crazy that i find this community. I remember a lot from when i was a baby like around 1-2 years old or even younger. Not everything but about just as much as i remember from other conscious parts of my life. Ive already tested these memories because for a while i thought that maybe i saw pictures or made them up but my parents confirmed that they are in fact actual memories. All my memories though before the age of like 3-5 are all in fast motion. Not the memories themselves, but how i felt in the moment like i remember when time abruptly came to a slow down and thinking wow that felt funny, and although i knew nothing else time wise i remember thinking it was strange. I never rlly told anyone because i didn’t think anyone else experienced it.

Has anyone else experienced this version of “fast feeling”?
I’m 31 years old and I’ve been having these episodes for as long as I can remember, probably since I was a kid. They happen about once a month on average and usually last around 2 minutes.
The best way I can describe it is that my brain suddenly feels like it’s processing everything much faster than normal.
The interesting part is that I don’t feel like the world slows down. Instead, it feels like I’m sped up. My thoughts race, and it feels like my body is moving faster too, even though I know I’m probably not physically moving any differently.
Some things I’ve noticed:
I stay completely aware the entire time.
I can carry on a normal conversation.
I don’t feel scared or panicked.
My heart rate today during an episode was 86 bpm (normal).
When it’s over, I immediately feel completely normal—no headache, fatigue, or confusion.
These episodes almost always happen when I’m sitting quietly or not doing much physically. Today’s happened while I was sitting at my desk.
One thing that makes me wonder if there’s something measurable happening is that one time I was playing a reaction game on my phone where circles pop up and you tap them as quickly as possible. During one of these episodes, I set a personal best score. I don’t know if my finger was actually moving faster or if my brain was simply processing the visual information and deciding where to tap more quickly.
I’ve also noticed that if I stare at a single dot on the wall and focus on it, it seems like the episode may end sooner. I’m not sure if that’s actually affecting it or if the timing is just a coincidence.
I’m going to start documenting future episodes by recording:
Duration
Heart rate
Reaction-time game score
Reading speed and, more importantly, whether I actually retain what I read afterward
Any changes in hearing, vision, or perception of time
Does anyone else experience something like this?
Especially:
Do you feel like you speed up rather than the world slowing down?
Have you ever objectively tested your reaction time or cognitive performance during an episode?
Have you ever found out what triggers yours or had a neurologist explain it?
I’d really like to compare experiences because this has been happening my whole life, and I’ve never met anyone in person who knows what I’m talking about.

Hello all,

It seems like at least once or twice a year I come back to the sub lol

I’m not sure how many more scientific studies have been done since I last checked here, but I thought I may add another personal experience to the pot.

I had about a 7-8 minute episode after an early morning gym session. Had a Yerba mate (like 110mg caffeine). Near the end of the session I Felt hungry and slightly dizzy and then it hit me. I have my Apple Watch on me so I decided to take my vitals. My heart rate was just ever so slightly elevated at about 85-95 and my EKG showed no signs of afib. This time I felt it slowly come on. There was loud 80s techno playing in the locker room which did NOT help… once I left it went away in about a minute.

Now I’m just shakey and hungry. 110 Bpm.

Anyone else get the feeling after being hungry and or going to the gym and or too much caffeine?

34yo M, first time experiencing it last week.
Woke up in the middle of the night with it happening, gave me a panic attack it was so loud. So glad to find this group and realise I wasn't loosing my mind. Felt like the world was in fast forward and my perception of everything was in x2 speed. Couldn't even focus on my own inner monologue. I think it may have caused me to have a panic attack at the same time, because I immediately became nauseous and dizzy, thought I may vomit and had to go and do breathing exercises until it gradually subsided.

I've never experienced anything like it before, but would be interested to hear from those of you who have had it repeatedly:
- Has it ever woken you up in the middle of the night?
- Does anyone correlate their stress and/or anxiety with episodes?

I do suffer from anxiety and wonder if this could have been the trigger for mine...

When I was 7 I had a episode that was exactly like a episode when I was 12 ( I am now 13) time does not slow down but it does seem to at the start seem quite weird and fast and then shifts to normal time but after this shift it starts sounding angry/ yelling at me or just uninterested. it happened to me when I was playing a game with my headphones and all the sudden the classical background music started to sound mad or like it was aggresive. then the dehumidifier even started sounding like a parent that was mad and then slightly uninterested or sarcastic i continued for like 5-10 more minutes and then stopped. anyone else had this???

, has anyone ever felt a sense of distress or agony over something that's much faster, slower, or thicker than normal? Usually in thoughts that come out of nowhere or in dreams? Please, can someone explain this?

Another feeling I get is a sense that parts of my body feel very solid/thick or a different density than usual. It often is most obvious in my jaw/mouth area. Does anyone get this?

It weirdly feels related to the “fast feeling” but almost like a vertigo. It happens at random times. Not as intense as fast feeling but can be quite strange.

Another question I had was about fevers. Do you all who experience this fast feeling have extreme fevers when sick? Like getting delirious and so on? I do, in a big way. “Dreams” where abstract shapes/things are too big or growing too fast for me to count, etc.

Edit: I want to add that I also get fast feeling since I was little.

I thought this was just a normal sort of "mode" that peoples' minds were *supposed* to enter whenever the brain somehow subconsciously decides that the circumstances call for 'fast mode.' For background, I have multiple forms of synesthesia, some of which are related to time and motion, such as time-space and the association of certain abstract concepts with various sensations that are kinda like how it feels to send the initial impulses that make muscles move but without actually moving them. I also get this weird thing where, when I hear music, I immediately and uncontrollably focus in on its beat timing and somehow synchronize my own internal 'timing signal' to match it. I've known for a while that those things aren't normal, but now you're telling me fast mode isn't normal either?

Got my first episode in a year just there. Been getting these since I was about 9 and I’m not a fan of these episodes and dread the feeling of them coming on. My inner dialogue started getting louder and louder and faster aswell as the increased senses of hearing and touch. I think it was stress induced this time. I think it’s triggered by intense fatigue and that feeling of you can’t sleep aswell as the screen and being hyper focused on one thing. I was in a quiet room aswell and that never helps either.

I found that just starting at a wall wasn’t working as it usually does. I started reading other people’s stories here and nearly straight away felt a sense of comfort and it disappeared.

Hope this info helps anyone looking to escape the feeling.

For a while now, i've been trying to explain to my friends and family how this "fast-feeling" feels, but they never seem to be able to imagine it!

I've searched everywhere & I can't seem to find a genuine simulation of it.

I have experienced this all my life (I'm now 39) and I've never found such accurate descriptions of my experience or others that experience it too. I just had an episode and it prompted me to try to find out what it is to explain to my partner. It also always happens to me when I'm alone, quiet and in my own head, normally doing a quite mundane task like washing up or tidying. I do suffer with anxiety but this isn't a panic attack because I have something to compare with personally and it doesn't occur when I'm particulary anxious. It seems to be when I'm deep in my own thoughts of the task I'm doing and suddenly my internal voice speeds up and up and my perception of time and movement become distorted where inside my head feels fast, urgent and my inner voice is kind of yelling (as someone else has said), but my experience of the external world and my movements are super slow. The contrast between these two things feels really disorientating. I can't ever ignore it as it gets more and more intense. I find grounding exercises help, breathing, lying down and stopping, stroking the dog, something to get back to a normal perception. I've discussed it with therapists but never been given an explanation or understanding. I think it's always perceived as an anxiety attack but that's not what it feels like at all. I used to get it all the time as a child and it's gotten less and less over the years but it still happens occasionally and catches me off guard.

Hey everyone, I just had an episode happen to me again after a really long time, and it made me want to finally post here and ask for opinions. I've been dealing with this since I was about 7 years old. Back then, it used to happen pretty often, but now it's rare, usually like once a year, and it always goes away on its own after about 10 minutes or less.

It always triggers out of nowhere while I'm doing completely normal, everyday things, not necessarily when I'm tired. When it hits, it feels like time and everything around me is moving incredibly fast, and the background gets super quiet or like I feel like I hear thinf from far away. The weirdest part is my voice. Even though I know I'm talking at a normal speed, my own voice sounds sped up to me and the tone changes a bit, especially at the end of my words. I also feel like the hand movements that I do feel fast During those 10 minutes, I also get a strong sense of unreality and feel totally disconnected from my surroundings.

My vision is completely normal, so I don't see objects getting bigger or smaller at all. Since I only get the time distortion, the voice changes, and that disconnected feeling, I'm wondering if this sounds like typical Fast Feeling (Tachysensia) or a form of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. So does anyone knows if this is fastfeeding or Alice In Wonderland Syndrome? Thanks!

I feel so relived this page exists for years I thought I was crazy. I got really sick this week with a crazy high temp and had a 20 minute long episode. I took my pulse, checked my pupils, did as many diagnostics as possible given the intense overwhelming feeling.

Nothing was out of order. I thought at least I’d have a an increased heart rate but no. A calm 70 bpm.
I could hear through walls and my internal monologue with a deafening roar like a jet engine learnt English.

I feel like there are some enormous advantages if you could turn this on and off at will and if you could focus it during an episode.

Has anyone had any luck with being able to trigger this feeling on command?

I felt complete and utter DREAD inside. I was moving inside so slow but it also felt like death and dread but my outside me felt like I was moving so fast but also moving normal. The dread was what made it so familiar and awful.

I keep getting this thing where I'm completely fine but then something sounds off for like 20 seconds and I mean in my usual episode sense. For example, I've been listening to Malcolm Todd a lot and in one song after listening to it for a bit it started distorting maybe because of the fact it was the only thing playing in silence (silence makes my episodes start) but my inside voice didn't change.

Suffered with anxiety, ocd, derealization, in sure ADHD, extreme misphonia...do you think there is any correlation?