Weird feeling of everything moving very fast

Hey I know how you feel I have the same exact thing happen to me.and don't worry about it happening more frequently because u go through different phases. I am just happy that I am not the only one experiencing this. So thank u for this article.

Thanks for posting this cos you have put words to a FEELING I've had on and off since being a child. Interesting to find out what it actually is! It is a horrible horrible feeling though, I can relate!

I had this feeling today, 01th march 2014, Did anyone else have it? Yes this might sound weird to ask, but i just want to know haha. Oh, i've had it since i was 6, Im currently 16. I wonder if it might have to do with our lifestyle? Of course, i don't know what you guys do with your life, but i have noticed that I Myself spend most of it infront of a computer, or a TV playing video games. If you guys do so as well, maybe that could be the thing?

Well, I found this site and discussion by simply searching Google for "Feels like Everything is Moving Really Fast". [Preemptive Edit for Clarity]: Today, every interaction with other people has seemed very bizarre. It's as if everyone is speaking at double their normal speed (or my brain is processing things at half speed). Thankfully, I was holed up in the office doing paper work at my own pace most of the day, so it was somewhat manageable, but it's really screwed with me. Now that I'm home, this feels worse around my wife and toddler. Anyone here with kids knows that under normal circumstances, a 2 year old is like a blender without a lid. Today it seems more like he's the Tasmanian Devil. On speed. ------------------ I think today is the first day I've noticed it, at least enough to put a description to it. Basically, I've got General Anxiety Disorder and started experiencing (mild) symptoms of depression. I've been taking Lexapro for the GAD, with 0.5mg of Klonopin on hand to take as needed for the occasional panic attack. About a month ago, I was put on Wellbutrin for the depression, and using Klonopin to help normalize while getting acclimated. During the first and second week of starting Wellbutrin, I did experience some feelings of disassociation, derealization, and depersonalization. Today has been a rough day. Extra hard to focus, and just an overall high stress feeling (for no real reason). I only took .125mg of Klonopin today, which surprisingly took the edge off enough I could function and try to work on some paperwork (till I fell asleep at my desk. again. Kinda felt better and accomplished more after I woke up though )

Feeling better today. My brain still feels like it's lagging a bit, but I'm more coherent and focused than I was yesterday. No Klonopin yet today, maybe I can make it through without any. My body still wants to take a nap, but that's been a regular feeling for quite a while now *grumble*. Going to try changing up my diet a bit and see if that helps. Psych appt this afternoon. I'll see if she has any insight on this.

I am glad to hear you are doing better today. I have experienced these symptoms myself, it is the anxiety that is causing this, also why you want to take a nap too. You can help with this by meditating or doing something mundane which will slow down the build up of cortisol that is bringing on these symptoms. Once you get that to stop and dissipate, you will find it easier to concentrate and not be tired too.

I just read through this thread. for those looking for definitive idea or name for this well its kind of individualized. what I mean by that is each person will get their own diagnosis of what this is and some people get many names for what this is based on their own life situations, health issues,....what ever...

example in me

if I am having work stress then when whats posted in this thread happens to me its called stress and anxiety.

if I am in manic phase of my bipolar disorder when whats posted in this thread happens to me its called mania

if Im in depression phases this kind of thing is called depression in me.

other things this has been called in me based on my own health, life style, work what ever....

psychosis
eating disorder symptom
sleep deprivation
anemia
heart related problem
Multiple Sclerosis related symptom

my point is those looking for a definitive answer to what this is with in your self you will need to contact your treatment providers, they will be able to help you narrow down what this is with in you at the time that its happening for you based on your own situations.

My experience is very similar to lonegael's. Derealization DOES feel physical - I believe it is, and that we're just not at a point yet of being able to see the function of derealization on an MRI. I suggest you google "derealization forum" - there's a good one online. And you'll find plenty of people on this forum who have the symptoms you've described.

I think we are a rare breed but glad to find others. I have had this feeling as a child also and tonight in my 33rd year as a man got one again for the first time for a decade at least.

It is not a panic attack (I've suffered from them nothing like it)

Why does it happen to us first as children?

If it is repressed memories/trauma? we all must have seen and felt something really disturbing as infants - I found my grandmother dead on her birthday when I was 5, and then my uncle died of aids, my grandfather then had an affair with my dead uncles wife, my mother became an alcoholic and my father became emotionally distant, my sister moved out.

I would also like to point out that I was told that I had worms and overdosed on sugar when i was a child.

So grateful to find this forum though.

Hi, I have had these 'episodes' as a child and today at the age of 36 it hit me again out of nowhere...feeling I was totally mad as I tried to explain what had happened to my OH, I decided to take to Google to try and shed some light on this and prove I am not going totally mad (not yet anyway) I came across a lot of articles regarding AIWL syndrome (Alice In Wonderland Syndrome) and it described what had happened to me perfectly. Maybe some of you have had the same feelings? Maybe worth a look!

This is my first time posting, as well. I was just wondering how old you were when you started having your episodes. I remember having them as a child, and I think I may still have them now, but my body may have adjusted to it.

Does anyone know if this is associated with ADHD? I've never been tested for it and I'm pretty sure that I do.

Yes it could be all of these things but have you ever considered Alice in Wonderland Syndrome? It really sounds a lot like it. Typical symptoms include:

-Distorted time perception; time moving quickly or slowly.
-Distorted touch perception, e.g. a feeling that the ground is 'spongy' under the feet or that the sensation received from touching something is simply incorrect or unrecognized.
-Distorted sound perception.

If you believe you may have it I suggest going to the doctors.
I have it and what you are describing used to happen to me all the time when walking to school..
I really hope you find out what happened!

Hi Toller,

Have you considered consulting with a neurologist. It might be neurologically related and wouldn't hurt to have a consult and neurological exam done. Hope you find an answer to this problem soon.

New user, late to the party, or just in time. I dont know if this comes off as a rant, these are some of the thoughts that have come to dominate my mind, I dont know if the trauma and the weird feeling of everything moving very fast is connected [pre-edit]

Today I experienced the speeding up of reality in my bed, I wont go into the experience as you cover it pretty good, it feels like playing Quake3 with a very narrow Field of View.
I had just come in from a cigarette and lay down in my bed
the day leading up to the increased point-of-view episode has been me going through my child hood (once again).
I was sexually abused as a child (by a marginally older child) and when I tried to to talk to my mother, she made it clear that she was not a person who could be talked to, this accompanied by her passive agressiveness, constant negative attitude, father not here. I think most of my psychosis and nerosis come from the very sharp policeman attitude of my mother, like growing up with a psychotic, ready to flex her anger at you for any slight, question out of bound or really any kind of reaching out when I think about it. Growing up there was only my mother, and she taught her child that she cannot communicate. Now a teary eyed man sits in front of his computer and writes.
I realize I have pressed down the trauma of sexual abuse since I was young.
As a kid I reasoned for myself that If I told no one, no one would know, and no thing had happened.
These episodes of entering the sped-up mindset happened many times in my childhood going through my teen years and now most recently today. As It happened I had just come through a day of being tearfilled with the emotions of my past, and earlier in the day getting a mouthful from my mother again.

Hi,
I have felt some of those same symptoms w/ every thing moving fast & all but i also get repeated echos of voices in my head ( I'm not crazy) & I feel as if I'm having an anxiety attack so I just sit still till it passes it happens to me maybe once or twice a year. & it last for 1-10 mins also. & like you & can get it any where w/ a group of friends or if I'm by myself. It seems to get stronger each year.

Hi all,

Danish male (28 y), living in London.

I think you describe the feeling very well. My first memory of this was when I was very young. I was playing on my gameboy, and I was lying a very quiet room playing away. I could feel the "gradual" activation of the session. I kept on playing though and surely enough it came to me.

Everyting feels very fast, sounds are louder, more intense, and even listening to quiet songs is way too intense. Things also seem softer, like touching my skin. It's very hard for me to explain, but it's very disturbing. My sessions usually lasts between 5-10 minutes. They would happen more frequently as a kid but not as powerful. Maybe it's because they're not as frequent anymore that they feel more powerful these days. I did not have an incidence for a few years when I had one a few months ago. I don't remember what triggered it, but it was the most intense one to date.

Noteworthy incidents was when I was playing the gameboy, one time when I was in a laundromat and the centrifuge was spinning. I was hungover, and it triggered. Another time it triggered was during a fight with my ex-girlfriend. So they are all clearly stress related.

I can more or less control whether or not I want it to trigger when it comes. Meaning that I can try and stop it from happening. I usually sit down on the floor, close my eyes, hold my hands on my ears and try and block out all sounds and light. That helps sometimes. I do something very similar when I try to snap out of it.

I always thought it was some sort of epilepsy, but I don't know anymore. I am very happy to see that other people have experienced the exact same thing as me.

I looked over the Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, and it could maybe be related to that, even though the wiki page (Oct 2014) does not mention anything about speeding up, but only things seeming smaller, larger and things moving slower. I always tell people in my surroundings what I'm feeling when I get the "seizures". I think that's important. I asked a doctor about it too once, but she didn't have any conclusive things to say. She said it might be small brain aneurysms, but then how can I "control" whether or not I want to trigger it or not?

I would like to point out that I was very sick as a child, and that I would get very hallucinating when I had fevers. I saw alot of weird things. My mom tells me about it from time to time. Maybe it's related? I'm not sure. I am also quite prone to depressions, and I have had eating disorders in the past aswell. I have also had panic attacks, and I can assure people that they are very distinctly different from the "fast attacks". I don't think that the seizures are mentally triggered though. Vision is very likely. I have 20/20 vision, with a slight colour blindness though, so it's not like I'm stressing my eyes too much. I also work in front of a computer everyday for many hours.

I'm sorry if this post is very confusing. I just wrote it out as it came to me.
Amazing to read that you all have experienced the exact same thing as I have.

I will try and follow this thread as new posts come in.

I have had this for a long time and have yet to find a reason as to why it happens. Nothing I've noticed in my over 34 years has provoked it, it's a sudden onset with no clue why. I as well have yet to find a way to get back to normal other than wait it out. The worst is when it happens while I am driving, I had it happen on a cross country with my wife and kids, I had to pull over because I was unable to concentrate on the road because of my mind racing. It only happens a few times a year, maybe 3 or 4 but it is a definite inconvenience. Maybe it's time to bring it up to the Dr. I thought for a long time I was probably just imagining it and was the only one. Glad to see I'm not.

As so many of us know from MH issues, the mind and body are one. The mind stores information in the body and vice versa.

Think holistically.

I've had the acceleration thing happen too.....I also have this spinning thing that happens sometimes.....like someone is sucking me out of my body from the back.....

I've never bothered to explain this feeling to anyone as it's not easy and I wouldn't expect anyone to understand. It doesn't happen as much as it did when I was a kid but I just had one tonight. It's only ever happened when I'm lying in bed and I can always make it stop when I want by talking out loud. I don't know what it is but it doesn't worry me. I've considered every possibility mentioned in these posts from an anxiety attack to some kind of superhuman heightening of my senses. It's such a relief knowing that other people get this. I feel it's important to keep this forum going and maybe one day we'll get an answer.

Hey every body. I'm 26 and from Denmark.

Wow I have been totally thrilled to read all the stories – and had the exact same feeling as many of you – (“Do other people really also experience this” )

So I have experienced this thing or feeling for as long as I can remember, maybe with a frequency of 3-10 episodes pr. month in my early childhood, to now only having the experience ones a month maybe. This is the first time I have ever considered googling it – and it was of course an episode of this feeling which triggered it. I have just ended one with a duration of 10 minutes, which actually is the most common length. And when they are longer, the first one will sort of ware of, and then a new "wave" will hit me.

So for me it most often occurs when I’m lying in bed, before I go to sleep, but I have also experienced it out of bed. The best way I can describe it is with the word synchronicity - like I’m out of sync with the world or wise versa. Anyway it defiantly gives me this strong feeling of Spiderman effect, as someone else described it, as if I suddenly can comprehend 10 times more. I can be extremely disoriented and also extremely concentrated in this state, and just sort of focus in and out at freewill. When I shut my eyes it will feel if I’m totally detached to the outside world, or like it isn’t there at all, or like I am everything there is, and when I then open them again, I will usually struggle a bit to get my focus again, kind of when you are really drunk and you have to be extremely concentrated to keep your focus, and when you final get focused again, the outside will sort of settle down.
I remember being a bit scared of it in my childhood, but now I actually just find I sort of amusing, and a quite interesting phenomenon, considering I’m suddenly not the only one any longer after reading all of this.

So I also happen to do a lot of yoga and meditation, have done it over the past 8 years, and when I’m in deep meditation, so like 1+ hours, I can also get this feeling some of you are describing, with one being infinite big and infinite small and sometimes both at the same time, and I will also get this sort of tingling all over the body - a vibrating feeling. And it is exactly the same thing I will experience when I have "this” feeling most of us are talking about - which is anything else but anxiety, panic attacks etc., as some of you are mentioning by the way.
So here are my two cents. Meditation are known and well documented to release natural DMT, along side REM Sleep and Death known so far - and I wouldn’t be surprised if a high fewer could also trigger this, as some of you are mentioning will trigger it. So are the experiences we get a sudden involuntary release of a small amount of DMT? It would explain why it would course similar experiences along side deep meditation and why it only last a short while, and why et feels like a switch is suddenly switch on, or a wave coming over you, and it has a peak (at least for me) and a natural comedown where it will decrees slowly in intensity. Wow it just felt like a huge insight just hit me.
And also why it can occur when you are extremely concentrated - because where do you draw the line between deep meditation and extremely concentration?
What do you think?

Now it is just up for science to understand the what’s and why’s about DMT :P

But hay - shouldn't it have a name? We all describe bits and pieces of the same phenomenon. But what do we call it? “The Switch” Maybe???

I used to get like that as a child. I actually found this thread because I was trying to find information about it on the Internet. It happened a few times as a child I would suddenly feel like everything around me, my whole reality got sped up real fast and to a very high pitch. It was as if the frequency of my world got dialed up to 1000. It didn't happen again for years and then when I was a teenager I got stoned one time and it happened again but that time there was also time loss. I remember smoking pot in my room (btw it was not the first time I had smoked pot I had casually toked on and off for a few years at that point) and I remember getting that racy feeling like my thoughts got really fast and it just kind of "took my body with it." The next thing I knew I was downstairs in the kitchen and my three dogs were standing there in front of me looking intently at me like I was freakin crazy. I'll never forget the look in my dogs eyes, it was very disconcerting. I didn't remember the transition between my bedroom upstairs and the kitchen at that moment but had a vague feeling that I had just flown through the house screaming like a banshee. I honestly thought that maybe I had teleported. There were no more incidents like that but a few years later I started having intense panic attacks that came on suddenly and lasted for several months. During that time I began to have "psychic" experiences and other woo woo kind of weird stuff happen so it may be connected to that I don't know. I will add that to anyone who is experiencing these feelings I had gone to a neurologist at some point for an unrelated issue but did mention to him those episodes I had as a child and he gave me a EKG? or EEG it's a test where they put you in a dark room and flash strobe lights in your face. It's a test used to determine if one has epilepsy. Anyway, I did not but its worth mentioning that that is another possibility. Some form of inner ear disturbance makes sense too. I still think psychicism and teleporting are options but then I'm a bit of a nut job 😷

Just joined to say I get the same feeling and have done since I was a child. The descriptions from others, of what is a really difficult thing to explain, are pretty much exactly lime my own. The knowing it was going to happen before hand, the increased intensity of background noise and movement and the time distortion are exact matches to me.

Had one again today for the first time in years While I was at work. Went to the bathroom for 5 to 10 minutes and it just passed. I am 34 now.

They never really bothered me, just felt they were a really odd sensation and experience.

I really would love to know what they are.
The theories in this thread range from
- form of epilepsy
- panic attack
- inner ear problems
- eye problems
- suppressed childhood memories or abuse
- stress related

How are we going to find out what it is?

I'm not sure we'll ever find out what it is as I doubt it even has a name.
Am I right in saying we are all male and in our 20's and 30's?

I am in my mid thirties

Just had it again. First time since my first comment on 29th Jan. This time I didn't try and get rid of it and it lasted around 5 minutes. Took my pulse which was just under 60bpm which is normal. Possibly a bit on the slow side. Woke up the missus and she said I was talking normal speed and volume. Hard to tell either of those things while it's happening. It feels like I'm being louder and slower but at the same time everything is moving fast.