For the last two weeks I've had several panic attacks. All of them occured in places where it was relatively hard to leave like the cinema, an exam at university, and the bus.
All of them started very similarly. I thaught about how weird it would seem if I had to storm out of those places. Anxiety was building up and eventually ended up in a panic attack, which isn't exactly confortable as you may know.
So far, I've always managed to fight the urge to run out (which you get during the panic attack) and waited until the attack faded a little.
Right now, I already get anxious thinking about something like going to the hairdresser. I really feel like I'm losing my mind...

Can I get some thaughts on this?

Go to an analyst, I suffered panic attacks too, it was weird ,one of the worst feelings i've ever felt

It's ok. You def need to see someone. I have them too (mildly) at QT gas stations, since I have PTSD.

Sounds like Claustrophobia to me. You have a history of it? Maybe traumatic memory of an event where you were stuck somewhere and couldn't escape? (I don't expect you to actually answer that in a public forum, just a question to ask yourself, try to find the root of this).

I suffered from them for like two years. Couldnt even leave the house. If i had to do something the next day or that week the anxiety would start and i would be a mess by the time it came to do anything.

The hardest thing is explaining the feeling to someone who doesnt know what they are like.

I would say its like: Imagine you are in Maccas waiting to place an order. A robber comes in and holds a gun to the persons head at the front of the line and asks. Whats the square root of 56345634. The guy says "i dunno"... boom! he blows his brains out. He asks the next person the same question...

Your 3rd in line... Imagine the terror you would feel.

Thats what its like all day every day.

Now try and do something simple... Like go to the shops for bread and milk or go to work...

Its hardcore.


Be careful if you see a psychologist or psychiatrist. Remember they are just sheeple who got a degree... Its not like its hard.

They will just stick you on some pills, but you will find a lot of the pills like effexor will have a kick to them that just makes the anxiety which you thought couldnt possibly get worse twice as bad.


Best thing to do is fight fire with fire and re-train your brain to have no fear.
For people with anxiety or phobias that means exposing yourself to your fear and getting used to it.

When you have an attack and your mind is racing you have to stop it by focusing on something specific.
Like pull your phone out. Look at it. Desribe it in detail in your mind down to every last little scratch. Before you know it... Its over.

Good luck bro

nobody mention Xanax or Klonopin yet? Although habit-forming and addicting these two are the nuts for Panic attacks imo.

Just dont let ti keep going or youll end up like me. I let things go thinking I was wierd because I had no clue what what was going on. After a few years I developed severe agoraphobia. Its tough to recover the longer you let it go.

Just focus on breathing when they come on until you get professional help. GL to you and if you need someone to talk to about it as i know it can be difficult going through something like this on your own, just send me a pm and we can chat on skype or something.

Medication should be a last resort for this though.


OP

I'd strongly recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Help-Your...8309138&sr=1-1


It's not mumbo jumbo, but practical advice that really works to help you get over this.

GL

This is how my GAD started, get help immed imo, don't wait years (as I have) hoping it will cure itself, gl.

Medication is not the way, go to an analyst

Pretty sure it's not claustrophobia, there have to be people involved...

I'm definitely going to check it out. Thank you

Thanks a lot for all the other comments. I really appreciate it.

Two years of leg pains, chest pains, side pains, breathing troubles, "shocked" awake when falling asleep, IBS, sweats, anxiety, two breakdowns. wnt to medical doctors and had many blood tests and saw a heart specialist. My symptoms were not physical in any way. Finally controlled by therapy, Klonopin, and Lexapro.

I respect those who say that drugs, and/or therapy are not the way to go, but with a debilitating issue such as this my advice is to try everything just to see what works for you.

Its a spike in your blood pressure and when vunerable almost anything can set it off. I have suffered from anxiety for years and have never seen a doctor about it. I stopped smoking as this sent my BP even higher and some panic attaks ive had I could of died. You need to look at your lifestyle first and see if theres anything that can be changed. I suffered when I used to study AND work nightshift, there is many triggers and for some like me its even a certain time of year. I always suffer in Jan and Feb for some weird reason. Think its important you do what you can to ease and helpyourself first then see a doctor.

Welp, It's all new to me over the past 4/5 days. I had my 1st one out of nowhere. I was grinding and a feeling of slight disorientation and cloudiness was settling in and BAM. It was like something shocked my core and for 2/3 seconds I couldn't see straight, and then felt dizzy (but not spinning-dizzy) and I could feel my heart rate rush up and down as it sporadically did. And over the next 2/3 hours it slowly subdued. It hasn't been that intense since the 1st occurrence but I have had 1-3 a day since then. The oncoming feeling for me is a wave of fear and lightheadedness. And when I do my best breathing techniques to relax, it starts to work until I start to get really relaxed to the point I feel like I might pass out for being so exhausted, which then,,,, only brings me back to feeling vulnerable for another attach to rush in, no matter how relaxed or at-ease I seem to be. Have already seen 2 doctors and have had some blood/urine tests done. Any other input to help out would be appreciated for I've been talking and researching this for days now. Thanks.

Social anxiety and panic attacks seems to have a lot of common. I have a friend who overcame hes social anxiety and he always descriped similar symptoms. He sayed just going to see a doctor, going for shopping or someone asking what time isit made him allrdy panic. I quess these are related? I have no experience of mental issues and i do not have high knowledge or understanding of these things so excuse me if they are totally difrent thing. He got rid of it by always when he started to feel that way he started talking stranger or chitchat whit cashier etc. Pushed himself in those uncomortable situations and finaly overcame it.

Its all in your head...............LOL......sorry

You have too self sooth sir and realize it is actually all in your mind...Simply tell your self too calm down and you will do so!

But if the too dont calm down...what then? Thats the real problem. Our mind can be quite tricky and dangerous, because it has great power to infuelence us physicaly. I would not say that just because it is in someones mind its easy to stop and wont cause real danger, i actually think its excatly other way. You can kill youre self if you tricker your mind beliving so is gonna happen. It is in your mind too that panic attack is just in mind, evrything is in the mind! Does it make it unreal or not importand?

Your absolutely right about are mind being able to influence us physically ...I was just talking about the placebo effect in another thread which is a good example of what your talking about....Once you realize that you have absolute power over your emotions,thoughts, actions and can accept that as a truth I think you should be able to talk your self out of panic attacks....If you believe you can control your self then you actually can and onve you do it one time then that means you can do it every time...

True. If you are strong from your mind, there is no much to hold you back just in general.

yes

I had daily panic attacks for a few months and my life was pure hell for those few months. "Trauma" or "terror" don't even begin to describe what I felt when I was ruled by panic.

The ideas expressed here actually helped me a lot.

http://panicend.com/

It talks about willingly trying to force yourself into going crazy or embracing the fear and trying to will the absolute worst to happen to you while you are in the midst of a panic attack. For me, after practicing this thought process and allowing myself to 'cross over to the other side of my fear' and try and embrace it, and subsequently discovering that nothing bad happens, the panic began to fade.

Do you think the other poster is mentally ******ed? If not, then you can give him enough credit to have tried to just will away the panic already. He is looking for help because the obvious solutions that he already tried haven't worked.

@PowellJam: Therapy and medications help with panic and anxiety. It also could be something non-psychiatric, which is why continuing to followup with the other doctors that ran other tests is important. They'll probably refer you to psychiatry if they don't find anything.

^ Agreed. As someone who has had a few myself, I can say they aren't something you can just tell your brain to stop.

As scary as they are, I think post #20's link is right. You have to gradually gently force yourself out of your comfort zone, and really try facing them head on. If you don't, they start creeping into other areas of your life. In my case, I started to feel anxious about going out, talking to new women, going to sports, doing things I knew I liked. For me, that was the breaking point. I was getting anxious about things I knew I loved doing. So first, you take back those things. Second, you find something that makes you a little bit anxious, and you do that item without thinking too much about it. Ideally you want something you can just kinda do, like go get groceries at a busy mall. You don't want to practice with something that's a week away like a ski trip.

I'll tell you what, anxiety stems from insecurity.

What are you afraid of? Death maybe?

The fact that you're not in control? It makes you wonder doesn't it?

Hmmm.

I suffered from anxiety attacks when I was under a lot of pressure in college. Elevated heartbeat, feeling woozy, lightheaded, numbness in the limbs, things like that. They still happen every so often and I found a way to control them.

Follow these three steps to feel back to normal:

(1) Realize that what is happening to you is natural and won't harm you. In fact, it's your body's way of trying to protect you--believe it or not. Your body thinks you're in danger and is sending a surge of adrenaline through your body so you can get to a place where you feel safe.

(2) Think about the conversation you're having with people and forget about yourself. Really listen to the people. Occupy your mind with something else. Look at any object immediately in front of you and study it closely. This is to keep your mind off of your body. You will feel better in three to five minutes.

(3) If the above doesn't work, change location immediately. Walk to the bathroom or the hallway. Wash your face with cold water or breathe fresh air.

Save my post and print it out on a piece of paper that you will keep on you at all times. Read it when you need to feel better.

I have had a different experience with my psychiatrists, they did not just stick me on some pills.
Actually, the one that prescribed me Xanax was my heartspecialist, and they did wonders not only for my panicattacks but also for the rage inside my head.

And when it comes to poker, those pills took away like 90% of my tilt.

Edit: I posted before I saw your post, I dont know about the other one, but like I said, xanax to me is a lifesaver/changer.