SigmaSix
07-20-2012, 10:53 AM
I started suffering from anxiety in college and I am now 41. Not really what I would call panic attacks but sometimes these bouts of diarrhea and retching after waking up on days that I knew that were going to be stressful (finals!!). I learned to deal with it and never spoke to anyone about it.
About 8 years ago, after the birth of my daughter, I started developing what I would call a panic attacks. I had just started a new job, which I found to be stressful, lack of sleep, heavy caffeine use. I went to the emergency room thinking that I was having a heart attack. I was told it was brought on by stress. My doctor prescribed me .5mg of alprazolam to use as needed. He says I get it naturally because my mother has the same problems with anxiety.
I would have minor bouts every now and then when I travel some place new or have a stressful situation in my life. And as soon as that event was over, it was like a switch was flipped and my anxiety immediately went away.
Two weeks ago, I visited my doctor for some abdominal pains and he requested a CT Scan. I had to wait a week for my appointment was really worried about this (is it cancer, am I dying?) but while taking the alprazolam at night helped some but I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep.
The CT scan came back normal but by chance, a small 4mm nodule was located on my left lung. Not really having any risk of it being cancerous the doc says that I should get it monitored annually for growth for two years, if it grows, they take it out. If it doesn't grow they leave it alone. No big deal. But I continue to worry about it (there is still a slim chance it could be cancerous, what if my life is ending, maybe there are other nodules in my lungs that weren't identified on the partial CT scan.) I cannot stand of having to go through a FULL YEAR before they do another CT Scan to look for growth.
After getting my results, I told my doc that I was pretty stressed out and hadn't been sleeping well so he gave me some Ambien which I haven't taken yet because I read somewhere that it could bring on panic attacks.
For the past four days I have had severe panic attacks where all I want to do is lay down and sleep. I don't even feel like getting out of bed in the morning or playing with my two beautiful children at night.
I feel that stress from work along with the stress from my medical results and my lack of sleep is about to push me over the edge!!
I have started taking my .5mg alprazolam three times a day and it helps, but this is not something that I want to continue as I have read that benzo's can become addictive. Yesterday, I woke up feeling kinda bad so I took my pill. I felt great when I should have taken my second one but skipped it. Then, about 7:00 last night the panic kicked in again.
I really feel that I should go to speak to a therapist about this because I don't want this to turn into depression.
Any suggestions on how to cope please??
About 8 years ago, after the birth of my daughter, I started developing what I would call a panic attacks. I had just started a new job, which I found to be stressful, lack of sleep, heavy caffeine use. I went to the emergency room thinking that I was having a heart attack. I was told it was brought on by stress. My doctor prescribed me .5mg of alprazolam to use as needed. He says I get it naturally because my mother has the same problems with anxiety.
I would have minor bouts every now and then when I travel some place new or have a stressful situation in my life. And as soon as that event was over, it was like a switch was flipped and my anxiety immediately went away.
Two weeks ago, I visited my doctor for some abdominal pains and he requested a CT Scan. I had to wait a week for my appointment was really worried about this (is it cancer, am I dying?) but while taking the alprazolam at night helped some but I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep.
The CT scan came back normal but by chance, a small 4mm nodule was located on my left lung. Not really having any risk of it being cancerous the doc says that I should get it monitored annually for growth for two years, if it grows, they take it out. If it doesn't grow they leave it alone. No big deal. But I continue to worry about it (there is still a slim chance it could be cancerous, what if my life is ending, maybe there are other nodules in my lungs that weren't identified on the partial CT scan.) I cannot stand of having to go through a FULL YEAR before they do another CT Scan to look for growth.
After getting my results, I told my doc that I was pretty stressed out and hadn't been sleeping well so he gave me some Ambien which I haven't taken yet because I read somewhere that it could bring on panic attacks.
For the past four days I have had severe panic attacks where all I want to do is lay down and sleep. I don't even feel like getting out of bed in the morning or playing with my two beautiful children at night.
I feel that stress from work along with the stress from my medical results and my lack of sleep is about to push me over the edge!!
I have started taking my .5mg alprazolam three times a day and it helps, but this is not something that I want to continue as I have read that benzo's can become addictive. Yesterday, I woke up feeling kinda bad so I took my pill. I felt great when I should have taken my second one but skipped it. Then, about 7:00 last night the panic kicked in again.
I really feel that I should go to speak to a therapist about this because I don't want this to turn into depression.
Any suggestions on how to cope please??