Intrusive Thoughts About Danger??

[plantsandworms]

Does anyone else get really disturbing intrusive thoughts about danger when they're stressed/overwhelmed? I think it's related to the hypervigilance I experience, but basically what happens is that I have these periods of days or weeks during triggering/stressful times in my life where my brain frantically communicates with me about every possible danger under the sun. If I'm outside or near a window in my house or office I think "Someone could shoot me in the head right now." Whenever I drive through intersections I brace myself for impact of a car accident even with no threat in sight, or when driving around curves I see images of myself continuing straight into the ditch. If I'm ironing or boiling water or chopping things with a knife I think of all the million ways I could trip or slip and seriously injure myself. When people walk near me I expect them to attack, when I'm in a crowd I expect there to be a catastrophe. I am able to remind myself when I have these thoughts that "right here right now I'm safe" but my brain can't seem to stop thinking "what if? what if?". Less disturbing but still concerning, in social situations I sometimes get those same intrusive thoughts except it's more like "What if you just slapped/kissed this person right now?"

I talked with a close friend about the thoughts recently and she had a sort of fear reaction like I'm going to harm her or something, which was kind of hurtful. It's not like voices telling me things or telling me to do things or even me having desires to do certain things, it's just my brain worrying about all the million wild things that could happen at any given time. I don't know. Anyone else know about this?