Panic attacks.

For a long time I would think something was wrong with me, until I figured out one of the signs of a panic attack are shortness of breath. It started about 6 yrs ago. It doesn't happen a lot, sometimes it's once a month, sometimes it's every few months, sometimes it's every few weeks. It can happen out of the blue. Sometimes I get it without the heart pounding, and then sometimes my heart doesn't start pounding until I become more aware of the difficulty breathing. No, I don't have any other medical conditions, and I've been told by a doc it's anxiety.

Anyone else have text book or off the wall symptoms?

 

I get panic attacks sometimes, and they do suck. When I get a bad one, or one out of nowhere, I think I'm having a heart attack, which in turn makes the panic attack even worse. I'm also a hypochondriac (sp?), and I'm there with you, it always makes me think there's somehing wrong with me, when in reality its probably just anxiety.

For me, it happens most often when I've been drinking.

 

My hypochondria, however you spell it, can actually make me laugh sometimes, though. Just this morning, I was spitting up what I assumed was blood (my Saliva was pink), and being a smoker I was terrified, and ran to my car to rush to the doctor. As soon as i got in the car, I noticed the half drank cherry slushy sitting in my cup holder.

So I drank a bunch of water, and brushed my teeth, and sure enough my spit wasn't pink anymore. It did convince me to try and quit smoking though, and im goin on the patch after I finish my pack.

 

same here any physician family or otherwise would give prescriptions for xanax if this is said to them...

xanax is a benzodiaspine or a downer so it artificially reduces fear although after awhile it will be required to increase dosage as the body becomes more immune to the effects..

xanax also goes great with alcohol.

 

I just recently started dealing with this myself after having a "near syncope" or near fainting while I was driving to work one morning. Not knowing what was happening, I ended up going the ER in an ambulance. What followed were all the normal "tests" for physical reasons, and finally it's been determined that what I've experienced are panic attacks, related to depression. I'm on meds now, which I hate having to take, but I hate worse being afraid to drive anywhere, and even worse how I feel when one of these things happens. I feel more like the blood is draining out of me, all of a sudden, and get some irregular heartbeats out of the deal. They did also give me xanax to take "when a panic" occurs. I call it my rainbows and lollipops world...LOL

It's scary stuff and something I never imagined happening to me because I'm one of the most laid back people you'll ever meet. I'm learning to not keep things bottled up.

 

If there's nothing wrong with you, what is there to be anxious about?

 

What a lot of people don't understand about these panic attacks, usually stem from a chemical imbalance in the brain. It has nothing to do with simply knowing that there is nothing wrong with you, medically speaking.

 

Best of luck to ya...

I just quit (again) 2 months ago...

Best. Decision. Evar.

 

I've been dealing with panic attacks for over 40 years now. Interesting that every cohort combat veteran of mine who shared an intense and extensive in paitent therapy study of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) at a VA hospital had panic attacks and acid reflux on a regular basis.

While others took various medicines to alleviate the nasty symptoms, I refused to take any and all medicines that always had even more nasty side affects.

The only time I get them is when I try to take a nap during daylight hours. My panic attacks erupt to where I suddenly wake and I'm totally disorganized, gasping for air, and unable to focus on where I am and whether I'll be able to survive the attack. I still refuse to take any of a variety of psychothropic drugs in dealing with these attacks.

 

I have had two of them - I thought I was having a stroke or something. I was covered in sweat by the time they were done.

I have heard that one of the reasons they happen is when you feel you are out of control in your life.

 

I don't have panic attacks, but I've recently been diagnosed with a fairly mild anxiety disorder. It has no effect on my life except sleeping. I've been an insomniac for as long as I can remember. I get about 4 hours of sleep a night. I'll be exhausted when I hit the bed, and within twenty minutes, I'm wide awake, usually thinking about things I need to do tomorrow or sometimes about an incident from the day before that I think I could have handled better.

It's one thing to give a thought to something for a few minutes, but I start running scenarios in my head for hours. Eight hours seem to fly by in a flash during this time.

 

Are you getting enough exercise?

 

Well, I'm not a exercise fanatic, but I try to keep active everyday. Now that it's summer, I swim about a hour or so a day. Once the school year starts up, I won't have much time for daily exercise, but teaching keeps me up and walking around for the better part of six hours everyday, and I spend some time messing around with my son in the evening.

I'll be playing volleyball again once a week soon, but that problem with that is we meet too late (9 to 11PM), so I get home, and I'm still wired and ready to go for a couple hours.

Part of the problem is that I've had three surgeries on my lower spine, with a metal rod holding it together, so running or jogging is not a fun experience for me.

 

Well, might I suggest some form of meditation....anything to slow down your mind at night?

 

I'm aware that's what people are told by medical authorities, most of whom are content to ignore the possibility that such imbalances are the effect of some other cause.

 

Yes and I have also heard that once the neural path is established, they can just occur out of the blue.

 

Drink some glasses of red wine or something. One during lunch and two of them during dinner.

 

Can't wait to hear what the "some other cause" is going to be...

I hesitate before posting... but my mother collapsed on New Year's day while on the phone talking to me, was unconscious when I got there and was taken to hospital by ambulance. The Doctor diagnosed a panic attack but said she was to return 2 days later for in depth tests. I was the only one in the room who challenged the clown on that diagnosis. My mother didn't panic. She was ill. He said many women come into the emergency ward having blacked out from panic attacks over the festive period. Women do too much at Christmas and get into a state. (spits) I insisted on a second opinion. She had a brain tumour.

None of you has one, so don't panic. All I am saying is, listen to your body. If it is giving you panic attacks, it's can be a warning. Not necessarily of something like that, but if you are under huge stress and ignoring it, it can lead to ill health.

It's only my opinion, but you might want to rearrange your life and not put yourself in the position where your body is screaming at you. It has a breaking point, like everything else. And you brain has a breaking point also.

Kimi, you are different, I think you said you had been ill? I had a pulmonary embolism a few years ago and afterward during the recovery is the only time I ever experienced anything like a panic attack, like palpitations and general feeling of panic and brain freezing (i.e. not able to think clearly without really disciplined effort). As my body grew physically stronger, it totally disappeared. I was panicking because I could not cope physically and was experiencing the extreme exhaustion which can follow serious illness and which I had not experienced before in my life. I did talk to the doc about it, but never took any meds. Doctors and meds...better avoided. IMHO if you're body/mind makes you panic, you're meant to look at the reasons for it, stop ignoring your needs and resolve the issues if you can...

 

This works for me.

As long as my best friend is not involved (lunch stretches to dinner and then...)

 

yup, my friend would get them whenever he was in a plane....I guess because he had no control of whatever happens or something. From what he told me its like an asthma attack or something like that!

 

I won't take them either.

 

I have noticed (only after seceral episodes) when this happens I was thinking about a stressor moments before. This doesn't happen all the time, just sometimes. The nights are worse for me but that's b/c my husband is gone.

 

I would imagine those kind of imbalances are genetic more often than not. I suppose poor diet could lead to them too, but it would only be temporary.

Depression is the same way, it seems to be inherited.

 

My sister used to suffer from panic attacks, although she used to make them worse by refusing to concentrate on staying calm.
They can be scary but managed with medication and a bit of stressing.

 

That's how it happens for me. No warning to speak of. It is a medically proven fact that the chemical imbalances truly are part of the problem for a lot of folks...(responding to the post above your's).