Hmm lemme at it..
Last year, on and off
sounds to me like it is psychological, which is good news.
If you use psychedelics (Major psychedelics are Mushrooms, LSD etc, Minor psychedelics are Ecstasy and analogs and Mild psychedelics basically is Cannabis) it can be that you've aquired flashbacks.
Flasbacks usually follow after an unusually difficult trip (usually a Major psychedelic in high dose) and basically are a state where you're uneasily settling into a new state of mind with the unpleasant part being the most notable thing. Typical flasbacks mean that you're quite rousable: Bambi can make you burst out in tears, Calvin & Hobbes makes you roar with laughter, small setbachs or petty negative responses of others get blown into abysomal misery.
Flashbacks are off-on things that usually smoothen out and require a cool accepting attitude and basic trust, but its hard.
Next stop are the anxiety/mood disorders. Off-On for a year would likely classify if it were a main feature. Nasty stuff, usually best cured with good CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy not the naughty CBT)
anxiety disorders are the fad among doctors right now and i think some are overzealous in those diagnoses. (remember doctors can be great but they can suck horribly at their job: choose a good one)
Now as for your scenarios..
These scenarios strike me as paranoid ones. Don't go through the roof, ballistic paranoia need not be associated with psychosis or schizophrenia and the on/off is far better usually as a solid year's stretch. Paranoia can be caused psychotic, flashback, anxiety disorders and common emotional turmoil.
It is a sign it runs deeper then a garden variety anxiety, so heed that!
Now the highly UNDERdiagnosed thing:
Personally I've got the conviction many so-called mental disorders are secondary psychologic problems stemming off a simple basis, clearest seen in Manic/Depressive (bipolar) disorder, but -not- the mood side of it.
I think that on a general neurologic way many people are on a slow burn or blazing in ways that need not show up on a scan. There is an obvious variance as with everything, but quite some people may simply be out of sync. Too fiery may give overactive thoughts, euphoria, stress, anxiety and the like (such as a haywire brain which overfunctions, leading to overthinking and perhaps higher-then-average IQ if chronic) while a slow burn yields self-disappointment, lack of mood (just that) and the like.
Some people just are susceptible to getting out of sync more then others, I believe brain activity/mind activity clashes cause the bulk of mind problems and should be targeted for research.
In your case: visit a doc for his opinion. I am no doctor nor am I licenced as a GP or other doc. Should it come to pharms realize ONE thing, as most doctors completely misunderstand that issue:
If the root is ANXIETY (psychological fear) the usual Valium-likes are a good choice, but they -will- addict you in the long run and cause withdrawal symptoms. These are the *minor tranquilizers*
The other kind are, ofcourse, the *major tranquilizers* Now these are usually given only in high doses in case of psychosis which is very unfortunate. The prototype of the "classic neuroleptics" is Haldol/Haloperidol which is, contrary to lore, one of the best mind-medicines that exists today.
What the Majors do is *tone down overall brain activeness* which is just the thing in the neurological excitation situations I described before. They tend to decrease excitation, anxiety, the number of (simultaneous) thoughts one has and the frequency of thought-jumps made.
They are notorious for causing quite unplesant and at times quite worrisome side-effects but this is a dose thing. Psychosis is usually treated with 2-20mg Haldol a day. In non-psychotic cases I am talking about some 0.5-2mg a day, which, 5-20x lower in dose, clearly takes care of nearly all side effects in most and in all doses these substances are non-addictive.
In a dose of say 1mg/day most people notice after some adjustment to it little more effects then a dose-dependent lessening of inner activity.
Just like Ritalin excites "normals" and calms "hyperactives" a dose of Haldol dulls "normals" but it is known to actually increase productivity and even IQ scores or euphoria in those hampered by an overexcited brain and as for me this is a clear sign of -true- medicines: detrimental to the healthy but beneficial to those with the appropriate problem.
If the core of your problem leads to inner dialog like:
"OMG! I'm so scaaaared!" then its usually Valium while
"STFU! Chill the -fuck- out dammit" is a job best left to Haldol.
Personally I'd say Valium feels more pleasant (addictive drug) whereas low Haldol keeps working for decades if you need that and is non-addictive with in the 0.5-2mg low dose range few side effects.
Some people are depressed most of the time. (slow burn)
I myself tend to the sliightly manic  most of the time (blazing) with sometimes appalling euphoria but a tendency to be less accessible/plain annoying when a particularly pronounced joy&drive day clashes with other people's temperaments (which -sucks-even though it might sound desirable, most people suffer waaay too much and often unneccesary, that stabs me severely)
I'm no stranger to Valium and Haldol. When just sleepless or nervous a Valium is just the thing, but when 'the natives are restless' i could eat 30mg of Valium and be excited right through sedation, but if i ram it with half a tab of blue Haldol (2.5mg) i calm down, get no side effects but lack of excitement and am balanced after one or a few nudges like that for (pharmless) months on end. Currently i've re-entered 1mg a day and plan to taper to 0.5mg daily after the waves slow in the two months to come to prevent my occasional crazed outbursts of thrill and chill to a more balanced state of wellness, mostly to tone down the WOW to a less annoying level 
My General Practitioner has full faith in "his favorite druggie" as to knowledge and management of pharms and i can basically do what i want as to dose or regimen of even the scheduled addictive valium analog. My recommendation to let people in bad trips & panics chew a good oral benzodiazepine and hold under the tongue for rapid sublingual absorption in cases he was called on emergencies has prevented ER admissions in his patients and he passed it on to other GPs
But, dont doctor on yourself and VISIT A DOC.
I am not professionally trained for medical advice.
I'm NO doctor nor can i or will i take that responsibility.
But heed my warning that it's likely more then just anxiety and perhaps importantly much more. Act on it now that its relatively fresh, it can be tough but quite OK but only a doc can decide.
Don't worry, just act in due time.
Remember to come clean (of drugs) as you may get a bloodtest as part of a physical, the DEA eagerly throws in drug tests whenever they get the chance and -don't- mention druguse to anyone but the docter that you trust over years -after- a Hippocratic promise not to file or write down what you will say. After the passing of one legislative fart after another you USA people are not in Kansas anymore 
--------------------
Omnicyclion.org
personal empowerment for the world
 LGBT - Love God Before Tradition
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds 
North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies 
Spores for European Microscopy 
Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order
TimeTraveler 
Fungushungry 
Edit 
Reply 
Spleh
EdgeChaos
HighGuy
UlisSausage7
1 2 all )
AA2277