I was diagnosed with GAD, social anxiety, and PTSD a little over a decade ago. I’ve coped well over the years, with and without medication. I’m currently six months pregnant and started an antidepressant about two months ago. It helped a lot with the little amount of depression I was having, but my intrusive thoughts and flashbacks are still really, really bad and I can no longer ignore them just by sleeping a ton.

The first manifestation is just my brain replaying trauma from childhood over and over. I’m almost 30, and I’m having memories from 15+ years ago coming up super vividly. Most of it is stupid stuff—usually saying something embarrassing or incorrect.

The second manifestation is my brain rehearsing horrible things happening to my family. I’ll just be doing the dishes and zone out daydreaming about my son getting hit by a car just outside my front door. I see the blood, and the ambulance lights flashing, and physically feel the horror of realizing he’s dead. 

Either way, I FEEL the physiological response that I did or would feel if these things really happen. I physically wince and sometimes start to cry, and sometimes I’ll be in a funk/state of shock for minutes, hours, even the whole day. I sometimes shake my head and come out of the vision talking to myself—sometimes talking as though I’m in the moment (no, don’t do it!) and sometimes it’s just gibberish.

Is this still consistent with my diagnoses? Or is something else going on? I’m dealing with long-covid on top of everything else, so it’s not shocking I’m struggling. 

TLDR: I keep zooming out and obsessing over traumatic things that have or might happen. Does this sound like typical anxiety and post-traumatic stress, or should I get screened for something else like OCD?