Suffering from anxiety could someone help ?

[SilverG]

First of all i'd like to say hello to everyone :P im new btw, good to find this place :tongue:


Anyways about 3months ago i started getting these full blown panic attacks. They would last about an hour or so roughly and saying they just scared me is an understatement. For a long time i wouldnt even get out of bed because i was to scared of having them. Eventually they went away which i thank god for, but then i started getting severe anxiety ( well i havent compared myself to others but at least i think it was severe ) . Sometimes i would hyperventalate for hours, get palpitations, chest pains and couldnt stop moving my legs and things for hours.


Anyways about 2 years ago i had been smoking dope alot for about 2years prior but decided to quit, but once i quit i found myself getting really angry and things ( probably because i had entered the real world im guessing ) lol. But i wasnt getting any panic attacks or anxiety. The past year gone 2006 i started binge drinking heavily, sometmes i would drink for about 5days in a row which would add up to about 50cans of stella (stupid now i know). Also ive always been a worryier, especially since i quit the dope. Anyway ive been researching on the net and things and read that alcohol abuse and smoking dope all the time can basically mess with this chemical in your brain called gaba that helps fight of stress or something like that, but aslong as u quit eventually overtime it heals itself. I was hoping if anyone could help share some light on this if theyve had experiences or know what could be wrong, because the thing is ive been getting better the panic attacks have gone, the anxiety is down to just a few symptoms lk palpitations, shallow breathing and a few other things but ive noticed when i start to worry about things it'l get worse and if i dont worry im fine. But although it has been getting better i just want rid of it hopefully, could anyone share some light on this, sorry if i went into to much detail but i just want to get to the bottom of this ..

[SilverG]

Anyone there :(

[neverbeenright]

Hi - welcome to the forum. I'm new here, too. I can just share my own experience as a former drug user/abuser and recovering alcoholic. I had lots of problems with anxiety and fear before I ever used. I loved drugs and alcohol so well because they took the fear away - and once I experienced that feeling of being without fear, I would have given anything to feel that way again. I won't get into the whole history, but substance abuse is a downhill road, and eventually my life was worse than ever. When I finally got clean, I found out that dropping the habit was the least of my problems. I was left with all the fears and anxieties that I'd started with. So what I'm saying is that, in my case, substance abuse didn't cause my problems - it was my attempt to self-medicate, as they say. So there was no just "waiting it out" for my brain to return to normal. I was crazier sober than I was drunk, because I could no longer "get away" from the feelings. Still, I think you are right, that some brain chemicals do eventually stabilize, which could be why you're feeling better now. But you might look closely at why you used in the first place. If you already had worry and anxiety issues, then these are not likely to just go away.

[SilverG]

Thanks for replying neverbeenright and i am sorry for the trouble you have been through. The thing is before this all started happening i never really had anxiety, although i dont leave the house much atall ( not because im agrophobic, just because i prefer to be indoors ). Ive read aswell that if you constantly worry about certain things it can play apart in developing anxiety, especially the same thing, and ive had certain bad memorys playing through my mind all the time. Maybe i have slight OCD, or im just bored because i dont go out much, but since the panic attacks and anxiety has come i havent hardly thought about the bad memorys atall ( i think because im so freaked out about the anxiety physical symptoms and realise those worrys are not important ). Also i had been smoking about 10 cigs a day for about 7 years and since the panic attacks and anxiety come ive just quit cold turkey, carnt even look at the things now ive been so messed up.



p.s can palpitations hurt you because they SERIOUSLY freak me out ?

[neverbeenright]

I get those once in awhile, too. You're right, it's really creepy. I haven't talked to a doctor about it but everything I've read suggests that it's really common and harmless.

[SilverG]

Thanks i feel better after reading what uve said an doing a bit of research on the net lol. Thats probably the worst physical symptom for me aside from hyperventalating lol. If anyone else is freaked out by this side-effect of anxiety its perfectly harmless, u need to know that because it freaked me out bigtime and made me have severe anxiety attacks for a while, have a read of this aswell i found it on the net.







Racing heart, slow heart beat, palpitations
Anxiety releases adrenaline into the blood stream making the heart race and feel as if it is missing beats, (palpitations). This is perfectly natural and will not and cannot harm you in any way.

[neverbeenright]

You don't take Prilosec do you? I found out that a side effect can be anxiety and heart palpitations, which can explain the last few times I had them.