So Tell Me About Your Panic Attacks.

[Indianamom2]

Well, that's an interesting title, huh?

I think I'm starting to have panic attacks again. They're presenting a little differently this time (but lots of similarities as well). I started having them around 2002, took Paxil for a couple of months and all was hunky dory...until now. I've occasionally had mini-attacks, but always been able to reassure myself that they were *just* anxiety and I could get over it.

This time, I find myself, all day long (just like last time) completely unable to shake the feeling that I'm going to have a heart attack (or something equally lovely), and even went to the ER on Sunday for chest pains.

I know rationally that this is probably 95% likely to be simply more panic attacks. When I'm busy doing something, I generally feel fine...but if I'm sitting in the car waiting for DD or mindlessly walking around a store, I start feeling all sorts of crazy symptoms...slightly dizzy, flushed out of nowhere, rapid pulse, just generally really blah and icky feeling.

Last time, I went through the ringer of medical test before we finally figured out it was *just* panic. I really don't want to do that again, but the nature of the beast is that nothing really reassures you, kwim?

So tell me your symptoms. Help me realize that I'm *just* having another go-round with anxiety.

[nmosur]

Now I can put a name to what I have had a couple of times - panic attacks. This happened once when we were in San Diego last year and I was driving DD back to the hotel from Sea World. Exactly what you described - I attributed it to the driving conditions - never ending flat roads with the sun in my eyes and extremely heavy traffic. And then it happened again three months later - again on the interstate back home. Both time I had to pull over and spend 20 minutes or so trying to get back to normal. Now I am afraid that it will happen again - seems like I am in a panic about having a panic attack. I will be following this thread too.

[Indianamom2]

What stinks is that these attacks are coming years after I thought they were under control. Literally out of nowhere. I hate feeling this way....and I know I'm not alone, but it literally makes me feel sort of crazy.

[wellyes]

It's not just panic. I consider a panic attack a symptom of a serious, but completely treatable, medical problem. I have soooo BTDT and it is awful.

Wish I had time to write but I don't - I'll just say that if you had a phsyical instead of psychological symptom, you would go to the doctor and work to solve it, right? I encourage you to do that here too. Paxil or something similar may be needed again, or there may be something else you can do to regain your equilibrium. Don't minimize what you're experiencing, it is really hard on you and I'm sure your family too. My DH can tell you all about how tough it is to live with someone with an anxiety issue. GL.

[rkold]

I started getting panic attacks towards the end of my pregnancy. I woke up one night convinced that I was suffocating and could not breathe. I wasn't choking or having any actual real symptoms other than my feeling of suffocation. When I went outside (in the middle of the night) and walked around I felt fine and could breathe, it just seemed to happen when I felt like I was closed in and no fresh air was coming in or when I was trying to sleep.

Since I was pregnant I couldn't take much, I did have some actual congestion (I'm convinced allergy congestion and the baby pushing against my lungs were the triggers which caused the attacks) so the midwives recommended Benadryl and I also ended up taking some homeopathic labor aids which also helped with the attacks. I also did some prenatal yoga to help me breathe better.

Since giving birth they've vanished, but they made the last month or so of my pregnancy a challenge.

[Indianamom2]

It's not just panic. I consider a panic attack a symptom of a serious, but completely treatable, medical problem. I have soooo BTDT and it is awful.

Wish I had time to write but I don't - I'll just say that if you had a phsyical instead of psychological symptom, you would go to the doctor and work to solve it, right? I encourage you to do that here too. Paxil or something similar may be needed again, or there may be something else you can do to regain your equilibrium. Don't minimize what you're experiencing, it is really hard on you and I'm sure your family too. My DH can tell you all about how tough it is to live with someone with an anxiety issue. GL.

Oh, when I wrote "*just*" panic, it was definitely tongue in cheek. It IS real, but it's not a physical, see-able thing and so it feels like I ought to be able to control it (myself) better. And yet I know I can't.

I also know what it's like to live among the anxious. DH and DD are very highly anxious people and it isn't fun. I won't wait to seek treatment, but I need to cope between now and then.

[wellyes]

Not the most elegant answer but desperate times .... I have a bottle of xanax that I can dig into just for panic attacks. It is not something I have had to use in a long time, but there was a little while when I was glad to have it in case of (mental) emergency.

I'm not sure what the answer is otherwise. The tricky part about anxiety is that even coping mechanisms can be triggers in their own ways. When I was in the midst of a crisis (again, all mental) I'd fret about it for hours and hours, then talk to my DH or my mom, pleading for reassurance over and over and over. But it didn't help and really --- it was a way to keep focusing on it, which is the opposite of what I needed to be able to do.

I'll be watching this thread for other ideas.

[mommylamb]

Delete.

[daisymommy]

Well, that is how I feel when I have a panic attack, but it is also exactly--and I mean exactly--how I feel when my blood sugar gets too low.

I have had blood tests to rule out hypoglycemia, and they all came back normal. But one day I had an attack, and passed out in Walmart! I fell into a rack of clothes. Thankfully my mom (a nurse) was with me. She hot some food and juice into me and I was fine. I went to the doctor, and they said for some reason my sugar levels aren't low enough to register as "bad" but it still obviously affects me as though I had full blown hypoglycemia, and so I should just treat it as such.

I have to eat something every 2-3 hours, something with protein, fat, and complex carbs together. As well as staying hydrated. If I skip a snack or meal, I have what feels like a panic attack. Also, I've noticed now that I am getting older, having too much sugar has the same affect on me.

Managing what I eat has enabled me to stay off medication.

Let me add though that there was a time when I had anxiety coupled with depression, and what I ate had no bearing on the attacks, It truly was panic attacks, whereas now it's blood sugar issues. You can figure out which it is by trying the eating every 2-3 hours thing, protein, fat, complex carbs, and see if it gets better.

[WolfpackMom]

On iPhone so sorry this is brief: mine come in two ways, either flushed, dizzy, naseous, light headed, generally woozy etc. OR rapid heart rate, shaky, hyperventilating, unable to be still in any way including jerky motions of my arms/legs once and a awhile when trying to reign myself in doesn't work.
Not pleasant. I've been off meds for about 6 months, still had major attacks when flying last month that no amount of xanex could touch - I know cause I took 4 in 5 hrs. I highly reccomend getting daily meds if you are dealing with this a lot lately.