Your brain is probably running low on Gaba and other amino acids. It needs those to be in a calm state. I replied to your post because your experience is similar to mine in the always amp up mode.

You are young now. If you don't get to the bottom of the stress and anxiety I fear your adrenals won't be able to pump out those levels of cortisol for many years.

I bet the next stage will be feeling amped up for days and then "crash" with fatigue, maybe catch a cold, etc. That is probably your body switching to low cortisol.

Ever try magnesium glycinate, glutamine and or GABA? There are plenty of other things to try as well.

When I got sick was was stressed from life and work and people. I was very very shy as a child and did have some social anxiety. I am not thick skinned so things bother a lot at times. Not so much anymore since I am older and I really learned a lot. I was kinda negative too so I had to learn to be positive. This was about 10 years ago. I learned there are many ways to look at life.

In my illness. I developed lots of fears of different things. This list is huge and long. I had OCD when I was sick also. My friend who had the same horrible down turn with her health had OCD along with the list of other symptoms. She was more noise sensitive than me. The noise sensitivity is just what your brain has picked out to be cautious of. Once the anxiety gets out of control it will pick out more and more things to be afraid of.

I think your first step is getting the book "The Mood Cure" by Julia Ross. She has an amino acids test in there instead of having to pay $$$$ for labs. Then she talks about which amino acid you will need to take for what symptoms. She covers social anxiety and OCD along with other conditions caused by amino acid depletion. It sounds like you have been running on empty for years. Benzo's work with GABA(amino acid) receptors in the brain. So it makes since that once your off them that your problems come back if your out of GABA.

Brain retraining can be hard and it takes dedication. There's a lot too it. PM if you want more information on it. I went through a program called DNRS but it's basically strategic positive thinking. I also have a method I discovered seventy percent of the way through my brain retraining that I found speeded up the process of making new pathways in the brain. I would be happy to send that to also.

With healing also comes the letting go of old stress your body and brain is holding onto. I know some people use things like EFT and love it and it works. For me it doesn't I use the Healing Codes but I had a fellow DNRS friend who had a doctor suggest the Presence Process. It's fairly easy form of meditation breathing. The thing that sets it apart is that it helps your brain process and let go of the old stress. It take about ten weeks to go through. I am all about finding the things that work the fasted and the best. However, it does take a long time to rebuilt amino acids. Brain retraining is at least 6 months.

Again PM and I will go into more about the Brain Retraining info. Yes go to a Naturalpath the only thing you have to find a good one. I fired a couple of healers because there is not a lot of people out there that understand the amino acids and then the limbic system of the brain connection. I would find someone who specializes in amino acids but they may want you to take labs that run around $1000. If you can find a good therapist that works with mindfulness that will help. I went to physiotherapist but had to quit because she wasn't being strict enough with her negative words. It really wasn't her fault I just had solid rules of what I would let my brain hear for a long time. I also went to a Psychiatrist when I was halfway well. The thing about anti depressants and benzo is they can help you to recover. I just had to be careful with my amino acid while take them, but the Julia Ross book covers that too. I no longer take anti depressants and was only on them about 9 months.