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Ask Dr. Dombeck
Ask Dr. Dombeck
Psychotherapy and Mental Health Questions

Why can't I get gross images out of my head?

I never use to be this way but find that I am increasingly anxious over images that I witness first hand or from descriptions relayed to me. I never use to be squeemish but I now find that I am hypersensitive to things such as the following. The description of an injury to a person's face from a bad car accident; a photograph of what should've been a cute furry mammal with some sort of insect on it; things that are clustered which brings to mind clusters of bugs. These images make me so anxious and angry and I get frustrated by it. When I see something that sets me off, it takes days and weeks for the effects to diminish - but then again I see something else that sets me off again. I am a 52 year old woman, am going through menopause and wonder if that plays into this. Plus it doesn't help that I've developed very bad insomnia, which caused daily migraines and so now am taking Amitriptylin to stop the migraines and to help me sleep. The meds help a little but I am still only getting about 4-5 hours of sleep each night during the week. At any rate, I am really struggling with my revulsion over images which never use to bother me before. It would be great to hear your opinion about this and to learn if there is something I can do to make this stop. Thanks very much.

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