Hi there reddit, I guess i'm looking for help in understanding somethings I am feeling. Apologies in advance for the vague description but I feel like it is quite hard to explain what I am feeling. For context, I definitely suffer with anxiety, specifically social anxiety and I am currently doing CBT to help me with that, however I kind of feel that what I am experiencing is a bit different.

When I was younger, from time to time I would get this recurring nightmare, and from what I remember I most often got it when I stayed at my grandparents house. It was a very abstract kind of nightmare where I was in a big white room that seemed to be never-ending, and there were loads of people in it who wherever I went followed me with their eyes ( i don't remember actual people but more so the feeling of eyes everywhere watching me wherever i go). I also experienced objects distorting shapes such as getting really big, really small, really long and skinny as if it was being stretched etc. Overall, I felt this intense fear/panic which is related to what I have experienced while conscious and awake. Very occasionally, I have while being awake experienced this same type of overwhelming fear and panic that did not necessarily arise from something (i can't recall any particular stressor which is why i don't think there was one). The reason I mentioned the dream is that it is because it is the same sense of fear that I have never experienced other than these few incidences. Just there, I once again felt this extreme fear and panic come over me and I almost felt as if someone was talking to me i'm not sure why because there was no actual voice in my head but rather the feeling. I felt extremely stressed and panicked and managed to calm myself down by deep breathing. Not sure if this is relevant, but my heart was beating very quickly and as I was calming down I looked at my fitbit and saw my heart rate was 107, which eventually got down to 80 when I had fully calmed down (I know fitbits can be inaccurate, I just thought i'd include all and any information). I feel fine now, and the feeling has gone. I don't think it was a panic attack as such, but felt like my own version of one.

I guess what I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this, why it happened, how to deal with it, basically anything that could help me understand it a bit.

Sorry if this is all a bit of a mess.