Weird feeling of everything moving very fast

I just came across this forum after googling this because I just had my most recent "episode" today. I have had it since i was a kid aswell and i remember i used to try to explain to my mom what was happening but i just couldn't. I just accepted it as something that happens. I was absolutely shocked to see other people with EXACTLY the same feelings as me, all of us thinking we are alone in it. I havent seen anyone come out with a definite diagnosis or anything but i am very interested in talking with others who experience this. thanks for your time guys

Hi. The time speeding up thing first started happening to me around 2005.

I found online its supposedly a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy.

So, I had to reply. It feels like talking into a void. But here goes; ME TOO!
I am really surprised that someone else has experienced that same, time altering feeling. I honestly felt as a child it was a bit of a super power, I would try to hone it down to a certain task or see how long it would last. It never even crossed my mind that it could be... well, maybe a bad thing. So far I'm okay, going on 26 having mostly only experienced that fleeting feeling in childhood. I remember coercing myself into that state whenever possible, you know those moments when you were all alone, figuring it all out. Whatever that meant for you.

When I first started reading the replies, I thought... oh, they mean something totally different but... moving forward in others experiences I realized there are a few of us that know exactly what it means. I've yet to experience, or need to experience that burst of what felt like will power, moving me through time. Stability helps I think. My childhood was rocked by instability. No sexual abuse but mild emotional traumas experienced by many of us with hard working, overly stressed, controlling parents, or mothers in my case considering we had too many step fathers to count any as a father. I hope it had nothing to do with that, I hope it really was just my spirit summoning strength to survive, whatever that meant to me at that time. You know, things are not always as bad as they seem. Wow. I just remembered again I'm not eight years old anymore. Life is wonderful and full of unexpected surprises. ENJOY the ride.

This used to happen to me all the time when I was young - like around 10? - exactly as you described it. I think at first I just thought it was normal, and that the world was just moving really fast, and then one day I thought to ask my dad about it, and he told me that nothing was going any faster then normal. I used to really hate it. It scared me a lot, and there was never really anything I could do to make it more bearable. I tried doing everything extra slowly, but that just brought attention to how fast everything was going. I tried doing everything extra fast to keep up with it; but you can't keep up with it and it just goes even faster and made my heart pump really fast and was even scarier. I tried sitting really still in a quiet place, but then my ears would start buzzing with the silence. After a while I just learnt to wait them out. I don't think I ever thought of the breathing thing. They slowly became more and more rare though. I'm 18 now and I hardly ever get them anymore. I think I had one for the first time in ages the other day, but it only lasted for 1-2 minutes instead of the 10-20 they used to last for. I knew what it was though, so it didn't freak me out as much as it used to. I think I may have had the optical allusion feeling a few times to, but not as bad as you're describing it (or maybe it was, I can't really remember?).
I've never thought to look this up until now (not thinking that anyone else had experienced it). The reason I'm looking it up now is because I was reading a story where the main character has diagnosed bipolar disorder, and the author described him experiencing this sped up, fast forward type of thing during his manic episodes. I experienced on/off (mainly on) depression (undiagnosed because I couldn't bring myself to talk about it or admit to it until the last year or two) for about six years. It wouldn't really be a stretch to think I'd been experiencing manic depression (bipolar disorder) instead of clinical depression. (I'm pretty sure I'm better now though - haven't had an episode in at least six months).

It's kind of reassuring to know that there are other people who have experienced this fast forward thing too. I hope things get better for you. If you manage to figure out why it happens, do you think you could reply and let me know?

So I just saw a neurologist last week and explained to him what he calls "episodic conditions"...

He asked me a lot of questions and gave me a nerve test for a hand tremor I was having.
Separate issue...

Anyway - I had an MRI and EEG test done. This was to test any underlying causes of my symptoms. He was testing for epilepsy, but also a range of other neurological disorders - Motor Neuron Disease, Parkinsons, brain tumors, etc..

When I told him I've had this episodic conditions since I was a child, and still have not had any seizures, he said most likely it isn't epilepsy. He said if it was, it would have happened within a few years of my first episodes.

RESULT - absolutely nothing. He said my brain was "perfectly normal"

As relieved as I was - I am still at a loss to what these "episodic conditions" are...?

I had one an episode 2 weeks ago while my eyes were closed and had to hold on to something so I wouldn't lose balance.

Back to square 1.

I get the same feeling also. Have had it since i child, first when sick although i remember it being slightly different, as in i no longer get that far away feeling now. I find that i get it when i have not eaten and/or dehydrated and there is a constant noise. For example i am a draftsman and i am around computers at work, the constant taping from colleagues typing or clicking of mice sets it off. I also know moments before it will happens, i get a random feeling of it kicking in, i start listening to music when i feel this and it stops. I get rid of it by having a conversation with someone or watching television. Same symptoms also, the most noticeable is everything sounds extremely fast, and moves fast. i only ever have one 'episode' per time. i never have following episodes that day. and i see everything more vividly and in a sharper contrast. Im no doctor but im going to go with a possible theory of this being something to do with our serotonin levels. I dont think it has anything to do with stress and anxiety because i feel right as rain when these episodes occur, its just life as usual.

I am very interested in this and will be following this thread with avid observation.
Email me if anyone needs to

Cheers

i know its kinda late posting on this topic. but this has happen to me too and a lot but mostly when i'm mad or nerves or when i'm just staring into nothing.
i feel like the world is moving but its my eyes. i just wanted to know if you found a way to stop it or something.?

Hi everyone.. I got the chills when I read all your posts.. I used to have this when I was in my early teens.. sometimes it would occur right after I had a fever.. but I sort of knew when I was going to get "it". I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would hear and see everything going fast and slow at the same time.. even my own thoughts or my own words.. It scared me... and it was an uncomfortable feeling.. I also felt like my bed had pins or needles.... One day I wrote a note to myself so I could read it as soon as I was having one of my "episodes". It said something like "You can control this, you are the owner of your mind. only you can stop it".. sure enough that night I awoke and reached for the letter to "me". Never again did I have this happen to me. I always wondered what it was and somewhere I read that it could be a mystical experience, an out of body experience or tapping into another dimension.. hey who knows.. if Quantum Physicists still don't understand half of what they're studying.. all is possible.. good luck to you all.

I get things like this before a migraine.

like ostinbooks too, i had migraine headaches with that feeling, along with a blind spot on my eyes that moved across the room before the headache came on

I must add to my previous comment that it's not like racing thoughts.. it's literally like a record sped up.. and then a record slowed down.. I have never done drugs, not even marijuana.. I don't take any kind of medication with the exception of aspirin of advil for headaches once in a while (mild headaches).. I used to have a lot of fevers when I was a child.. to the point I had to have my tonsils removed.. I;ve never suffered of depression or any anxiety issue.. Well, just had to add that

I've always had the same experience -- exactly as Toller described it!

My brother used to get it also, and my father. And a friend of mine and his father also had it. From what Toller described, I wouldn't be surprised that this was genetic.

It's the strangest experience, though. Everything does speed up. And your sense of size and depth is completely skewed. I noticed it would come sometimes when things were very quiet, but that's not always the case.

If anyone else has similar experiences, please email me!

I just work from sleep to use the bathroom and when I returned to my bed this feeling slowly started to creep up on me. I use to have this somewhat often as a child and I have not had an episode for years now. I got on the computer to google this and I found this great forum (hello all ) I'm going to try and go back to bed but I am looking forward to reading all of the replies to this thread.

Sounds like it might be an anxiety attack, alot of people here experience them but i don't know much about them even though i do get them too sometimes. maybe others here can help you?

No, I don't have these myself. Your therapist feels it's physical and your doctor feels it's emotional, have you seen a neurologist, yet?

They can test for Migraines(because some people with Migraines have 'aura' feelings before the onset of headaches and not all migraines are alike), and they have Visual Evoke Potentials testing and Auditory Evoked Potentials testing, that can be performed to rule out pretty much everything or rule something in. They can run some MRI's and make sure, for certain, if it's 'just high blood pressure' or maybe something else?

Your doctor, when he says it's all in your head, seems dismissive of your concerns to me. And kudos to your therapist, for suggesting physical issues and it's not just your emotional brain.

Hope you get some answers.

I have the same issue with "fast spells" I describe them as being in a VHS tape and someone holding down the fast forward. Strangely enough I thought it was a family disorder only. I am relieved someone else not related to me has these episodes.

I haven't had one in years and just had one today.

That i know of no one i've every met has had this issue except me. Have you every met anyone else that has had these symptoms?


Email me.

YES OH MY GOD!
exact same thing, right down to the weird fast speech, like a muffled crowded room, sped up. I really thought I was a total anomaly on this. wow. and it's not like anxiety at all, though it makes me anxious. and it happens extremely rarely and doesn't seem to be triggered by anything. wow. I have nothing helpful or constructive, I'm just really excited that this is a thing, not just me being weird.

Hey. Not sure how to use this site very well. Do you still have this happen? Something very close to this would happen to me when I was young. Now I'm older, I can control it. Let me know please. Thanks

I am quite familiar with this. Just happened actually, and lasted approximately 30 minutes, and it caused me to google it. I have never gotten a concrete answer/diagnosis, but from all the people I have consulted(mother who is an RN, Neurologist), the best answer they can give me it that is has something to do with the eyes and how your eyes perceive physical movement.

It used to happen frequently as a kid(I'm 27 now). I'd say once a month or more. About an hour or so after a nice long videogame session it would start to kick in. I find it hard to believe that it is only eyesight, because there are certain subtle physical feelings I get when it hits full blast. I tend to get mild tingling sensations, and feel a bit of a rush of bloodflow to the brain.

Since puberty it happens once or twice a year. I think some of the posts on here are not experiencing quite the same thing as the original poster. It starts very subtle, where you can "sense" or "feel" a change in your mind(perhaps the rush of blood to the brain), but the physical "speed" of things is unchanged for a minute or two.. then soon you start to notice that sounds around you are louder (like a fan on low that you normally don't hear unless you focus your hearing on it, the fan suddenly sounds a little louder and faster), objects seem to act faster(like the blinking of an alarm clock that was unplugged and flashes 12:00), and your own body movements seem to be sped up ten-fold. You can wave your hand across your face and it "seems" like it went at 50mph, you can walk around and you feel like your walking faster than you've ever walked before. It's important to note that when these things are happening I am cognisant that I am not in actuality walking faster or waving my hands faster, it is merely a TIME PERCEPTION DISTORTION. I can get a little freaked out by it, but that's only because I cannot comprehend how it starts or where it comes from. I do not think this is panic/anxiety related at all.

I don't get a racing heartbeat, it can feel that way to some because of the aforementioned tingling/odd sensations you get in the head/body. It does seem more related to your own physical movements than exterior stimuli. The more I move, the faster things seem to get. It has lasted as little as a few minutes, as long as 45 or so. It does seem to fade slightly then poof things go back to normal. The process of it "starting" comes on more gradually than how it goes away.

I find it very perplexing that I can instantly "feel" the change in my brain when it starts, yet it is very acute and does not hit full-blown "speed up" for another minute or two. I don't remember much as a child, but I can distinctly remember this feeling and I know exactly what it is when it starts.

I've always found this to be very strange, but the one common theme was that after 4-8 hours of videogames was typically when it would happen as a child. It does seem to be random in adulthood.

The comments about inner ear could be on the right track, as it may have something to do with the equalibrium. But an eye/time perception distortion has been the best explanation I can give, considering the main symptom is your own physical movements "feel" fast but you also are aware that they are not in reality.

Thyroid is an interesting comment, I wouldn't mind getting that checked.

Hope this helps.

You describe that sensation very well (and I agree with you, I don't think it's related to anxiety), and I WANT a nice explanation like the eyesight thing, but when this has happened to me, about half the time it starts when I'm lying in bed with my eyes closed. So ??? (Also, sounds feel fast as well, not just movements). That's interesting that with you it correlated with video games, but it doesn't now that you're an adult. Very mystifying. And I totally know what you mean about the "brain change" before it really ramps up.
I love hearing about everyone's experiences with this. The more people that comment here, the more curious I get because it means this is happening for some actual reason, and isn't just a random freak occurrence.

OH and on the thyroid note: I've had my thyroid hormones checked many many MANY times, and they're always steady and normal. So the thyroid cause, at least for me, is out.

The spell I had last night was in darkness laying in bed for about a half hour after a day of work, followed later by watching two movies on my iPhone at a close proximity to my eyes.

It tends to happen in darkness, or with eyes closed, because your eyes/brain are going from excessive stimuli to no stimuli. This is why I am fairly certain the eyes are a main cause. The reactions/feelings in the brain and touch/hearing senses leave more to discover though...

It is almost as if your eyes have been focusing too long, or focusing excessivly on something "abnormal" (like the framerates of TV, computer, video games), and then your eye focus going back to the "real world" for a time causes a perception distortion with what you see and perceive as slow/fast. What the brain thinks is fast on a computer/tv screen is different than what the brain thinks is fast in the real world aka you physically walking across a room..

Next time it happens, jot down or think back to what you had been doing in the 12-24 hours prior to the spell. Also think of your intake(food,beverage,chemicals,meds)... I have never noticed a theme related to intake and the onset of the spells, but it is worth noting as a possible genesis..

The last time it happened before last night was in the winter after writing a very long article on a message board, probably 5-6 hours worth of staring at a computer. Not saying that the genesis is the same for everyone, but the common theme for me is exposing my focus to excessive stimuli for long periods of time.

I would bet you that a % computer programmers tend to get this problem as well. I used to build websites as a kid and it would happen after long coding sessions..

It doesn't happen to everyone who uses a digital screen for hours, so what is the unique difference with our eyes/brains?? That is the biggest question.

Glad I could be of service. I tend to think of myself as a semi-expert onthe topic, as it has happened probably over a hundred times in my lifetime, the majority in my youth.

Your comment about why it would happen more in childhood.. seems like a simple answer: my brain was undeveloped, thus a lesser ability for my brain/senses to adjust to the change in focus.

The people who report this happening before/during/after a fever is interesting. This may have something to do with the senses/brain in a weaker state, thus more prone to speed perception distortion.

Ah, I see what you mean about the eyes. Yeah I can see how that makes sense. Very interesting that there isn't a noticeable or consistent "trigger" that we all identify. I like your suggestion of tracking stuff that was going on before. I've tried doing that sort of retroactively, but haven't come up with any useful correlations. Also, I stare at a computer screen 12 hours a day most days, but this happened to me mostly as a child, when I was on the computer much less. So why does it clearly affect you and doesn't seem to affect me, yet we experience the same phenomenon? I am so mystified.
Also. WOW over a hundred times! That's intense!

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe I'm not alone in this! My mom and I both have what we always describe as "everything going really fast." When my mom was younger she used to get it when she was sick (I guess with a fever), and then when I was a kid it also happened when I was sick with a fever. Now I get it when I'm not sick though. I'm 22, and it happens to me multiple times a year.

It normally only lasts about 5 minutes, and I just close my eyes and try to sleep when it happens.

I get the weird shape thing that toller was talking about too.

I've never had any seizures, and neither has my mom so I don't think it is a form of epilepsy like some other people have suggested on here.

I'm just glad I'm not the only one.

I have tried this several times myself. When I was younger, I would get it at night, and that was a really scary feeling, and would cause me to wake up my parents to calm down. As the years went on, I have actually found joy in this "disassociation" (had no idea this was a thing!), and I try to enjoy it like it's a rollercoaster.

But yeah, it's weird how it can happen at any time! My advice would be to try and embrace it, like these clever people suggested, and not worry too much about it