Do you frequently worry that something bad will happen?
I’m sure you’ve heard the figure of speech, having a sense of impending doom. It is a feeling of dread that can strike occasionally, quickly, and seemingly out of nowhere, anywhere at any time; or, it might happen constantly or often.
If you want to understand what’s causing this awful feeling and what you can do about it, read the article below!
Highlights
- The feeling of impending doom is the sense that something bad is going to happen, and it has both medical and emotional causes.
- It is essential to seek medical help to get an accurate diagnosis, as some causes of impending doom are life-threatening.
- After excluding physical illnesses, a constant feeling of impending doom could be a symptom of a mental health condition.
What Is a Sense of Impending Doom?
A sense of impending doom is just one way someone might describe a sudden feeling of dread; others might say something like:
- I have a sinking feeling.
- I feel like there is danger, but I don’t know what.
- I have a heavy feeling in my chest.
- It’s like a black cloud is hanging over me.
- I feel like the world is about to end.
- I have a feeling that I’m going to die.
- I feel like something is wrong, but I can’t put my finger on it.
- I have a gut feeling like something bad is going to happen.
- I just know that disaster is around the corner.
This intense feeling of impending doom can be a once-off or happen repeatedly, and is often accompanied by other emotional and physical reactions.
Feeling more anxious lately?
What Does Impending Doom Feel Like?
Let’s break it down and look more closely at what impending doom symptoms may feel like.
Physical Symptoms
Your body will react by causing the following physical symptoms:
- Heart palpitations
- Chest pain
- High blood pressure
- Sudden sweating
- Hot flashes
- Chills
- Numb or tingling face and hands
- Dizziness
- Nausea and diarrhea
- Shaking or twitching
The feeling of impending doom at night can also lead to issues sleeping.
Emotional Symptoms
The dread can affect your mental health and thoughts, and you may feel that you’re:
- Losing control or feeling overwhelmed
- Feeling separated from reality
- Feeling separated from yourself
- Anxious or worried
- Scared without reason
- Being overly aware of your surroundings
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Not thinking clearly
- Feeling trapped and needing to escape
Behavioral Symptoms
Worrying that something bad is going to happen may change your behavior, and people may report that you’re:
- Pacing or can’t sit still
- Leaving social events early
- Avoiding social events altogether
- Isolating yourself
- Unable to be alone
- Constantly checking things, like the news or blood pressure
- Overly clingy and continuously needing reassurance
- Increasingly aggressive or irritable
What Causes the Feeling of Impending Doom?
There are many causes of an overwhelming feeling of dread. Your mind and body are connected, and this interaction is complex, but we’ll try to simplify it.
Basically, impending doom means your brain, or body, is scared; it is a response to an early warning system, a way to protect yourself.
This fear of something bad happening is
- Real threats (traumatic stress), e.g., experiencing violence or accidents
- Perceived threats (psychological stress), e.g., mistaking the garden hose for a snake
- Outside the body (environmental stress), e.g., living with noise, overcrowding, or pollution
- Inside the body (physiological stress), e.g., having an illness or surgery
- Acute stress, which is sudden and one-off
- Chronic stress, which is repetitive or ongoing
In all cases, the stressor triggers the stress response, also known as the fight-or-flight response. There is a sudden increase in stress hormones, getting you ready to act and escape the impending danger.
Mental or Psychological Causes
Many mental health conditions may leave you with an impending sense of dread; let’s take a closer look at the more common examples.
Anxiety Disorders
Impending doom is a symptom of anxiety. This could be short-lived in cases of everyday anxiety, such as a work deadline, or repetitive or overwhelming dread in
The feeling of impending doom from a panic attack can be intense and frightening, and lead to a vicious cycle; the fear of experiencing impending doom might trigger future anxiety episodes.
Mood Disorders
People with
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Physical or Medical Causes
A sense of impending doom might be a warning sign of an underlying medical condition, some of which may be life-threatening. The brain receives a warning from the body that something is seriously wrong, triggering the stress response and causing the person to experience dread as they try to figure out what is wrong and what to do.
Medical conditions that can cause impending doom include the following:
Heart Attack
A feeling of impending doom can be a symptom of a heart attack (myocardial infarction). Other than dread, there are usually other symptoms, such as chest pain, pressure, squeezing, or fullness; discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach; shortness of breath; breaking out in a cold sweat; nausea; or dizziness. Another cause might be cardiac arrhythmia.
How long before a heart attack do you feel impending doom?
Before a heart attack, the feeling of impending doom varies between people from a few minutes to hours. Don’t wait longer than 5 minutes to call 911 if you have symptoms of a heart attack like chest pain, pressure, squeezing, or fullness, discomfort in one or both arms or in the back, neck, jaw, or stomach, shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or dizziness.
Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
A sense of impending doom and panic is often experienced with PE or blood clots in the lung;
Anaphylaxis (A Severe Allergic Reaction)
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) Aura
An aura is an early warning of this type of seizure; people with temporal lobe epilepsy might feel suddenly scared or happy, have deja vu, smell or taste strange things, or have the feeling that their stomach drops and loops.
Asthma Attack
During an asthma attack, the lung airways tighten, oxygen levels drop, and the person may feel that they are suffocating, triggering a sense of impending doom.
Pheochromocytoma
This is a rare type of tumor that secretes adrenaline and can mimic and trigger the stress response symptoms, including a sense of impending doom. Although 8 out of 10 are adrenal gland tumors, they do occur in other parts of the body.
Exposure to Toxins and Poisonings
Exposure to substances that prevent oxygen from binding to cells, like cyanide and carbon monoxide, triggers the stress response and can cause feelings of dread.
Another doom-inducing toxin that you might be exposed to on holiday in Hawaii, Australia, and Asia is the box jellyfish sting, but this is due to its direct action on the brain.
How to Overcome the Feeling of Impending Doom
In order to get rid of the feeling of dread, it is essential to see a healthcare provider. This is because treatment options vary depending on whether the underlying cause is a mental or physical condition.
Your doctor will exclude a physical illness by:
- Asking about all your current symptoms, e.g., are they only emotional, or also physical.
- Taking a full medical history, e.g., are you on treatment for high blood pressure, cholesterol, or asthma.
- Doing a full examination to point them towards a cause.
- Consider ordering investigations like blood tests, electrocardiograms, and X-rays or CT scans to exclude life-threatening illnesses.
Medical Treatment
As mentioned, the sense of impending doom is not something you treat. Rather, you address the problem that is probably causing it.
In the case of medical conditions, this might mean medication or even surgery. Examples are intravenous drips of corticosteroids for asthma attacks or anaphylaxis, anticonvulsants for TLE seizures, removal of tumors, or opening blocked heart blood vessels.
For mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, medications prescribed are mood stabilizers, such as lithium and certain anticonvulsants, or antipsychotics. For anxiety, depression, and OCD, antidepressants are first-line medical treatments, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and in some cases, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). At MEDvidi, you can see a licensed medical provider to have a comprehensive evaluation, determine an appropriate diagnosis, and get online treatment for anxiety, depression, or another mental health condition, when necessary.
Coping Strategies for Mental Health Causes
Should your dread be due to anxiety or depression, real-time coping strategies and lifestyle changes can calm the fight-or-flight response and help to stop the impending doom feeling while you’re exploring the cause.
Immediate Relief
Breathing exercises[7] can help reduce anxiety and therefore help manage the feeling of impending doom or avoid it altogether.- Mindfulness exercises help you switch your focus from the future to the physical and emotional sensations in your body in the present moment. You also learn to control these sensations through breathing and relaxation.
- Grounding exercises distract you from the dread, for example, by counting backward from 1000 or naming red objects in the room.
Long-Term Relief
- Psychotherapy, such as talk therapy, is an essential treatment for mental health conditions, providing a safe environment to get perspective and practice coping skills. For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy is a method that changes emotions and behaviors related to your thoughts and helps overcome anxiety and depression often associated with the feeling of impending doom.
- Anxiety support groups in the community or online can help control panic attacks and other symptoms and get valuable advice. It can be comforting to realize that other individuals feel the same way and cope successfully.
- Regular physical activity, especially
aerobic exercise[8] , decreases depression and anxiety, and helps you manage stress more effectively. A healthy diet[9] can help keep your blood sugar levels stable, which helps to prevent anxiety attacks and minimize stress. Low blood sugar is potentially dangerous, triggering the stress response; on the other hand,foods that cause blood sugar to spike and crash (high glycemic index)[10] are associated with more depression and anxiety, especially in females. Importantly, avoiding caffeine and alcohol decreases anxiety.- A good night’s sleep is
essential to managing mental health conditions[11] . Ways of helping insomnia are: going to bed at the same time; making sure the room is dark and cool; limiting screen time before bed; avoiding caffeine and sugar in the afternoon and evening; and ensuring a relaxing routine, such as reading, listening to calming music or having a warm bath or shower.
When to See a Doctor
You should always see a doctor if you are experiencing feelings of impending doom; it’s a matter of deciding who to see and how urgently you need to do so.
We’ve already seen that a sense of dread can be due to anxiety or be an early sign of a life-threatening medical condition. It gets even more complicated because heart attack, lung clot, and anxiety symptoms can all include shortness of breath and chest pain.
So, how do you know when the impending doom means you need to seek medical attention urgently? Suppose the feeling of impending doom is accompanied by physical symptoms and lasts more than 5 minutes. In that case, the safest course of action is to call 911 or go to the emergency department immediately for an accurate diagnosis.
Even if it is not a medical emergency, you should see a physician to exclude physical causes of impending doom before assuming it is anxiety-related.
Summing it up
Having a sense of impending doom is a symptom that needs to be taken seriously and means seeing a doctor to exclude life-threatening causes. Once medical illnesses are checked off the list and feelings of dread are still present, you could be experiencing symptoms of severe anxiety. The next step is to book an appointment with a healthcare professional, which can be easily done through an online consultation.
