I get anxious and feel like I am going to pass out.... please help

[cmc739]

I have been fighting with anxiety for almost a year now and it has since gotten worse than usual. I was always shy and hated being the center of attention or speaking in front of groups of people. Last year it started where if I was in a public environment with people I was not comfortable with such as family or close friends I would get this weird feeling in my neck and feel the buildup in my head as if I was going to pass out. I would immediately have to exit the environment I was in to make the feeling subside. It would never happen in my house or somewhere I was comfortable but for instance if I went on the boardwalk or to a sports game with my friends my anxiety would begin and the passing out feeling would come on to me. It was as if I was petrified to pass out in front of people becuase I was embarrassed to do so. I have never actually passed out from anxiety but I feel as though I have been very close sometimes before exiting the situation thankfully and calming myself down. It has now come to a point where this feeling is coming on as I am driving and especially if I am driving where there is nowhere for me to pullover such as the shoulder on the highway. Has anyone had similar problems or experiences they would like to share or how they coped or dealt with this kind of stuff I would greatly appreciate any help. I take two .5 miligrams of ativan every morning but sometimes it just feels like it is not enough. Thanks in advance for your responses and help.

[Shepard]

I don't drive(no reason to, living in NYC) but feeling faint while driving is a classic anxiety symptom. I used to feel it while in a store whenever I went out, and the only thing that really helped was not fearing it anymore..once it stuck with me that I was not going to pass out, it became less and less scary.

One thing to remember is that it is very hard to actually pass out from a panic or anxiety attack, unless you start severely hyperventilating, but really, even that is rare. If you feel like you're about to faint, but never do, your chances of fainting are almost none. Somthing that does seem to help others though, is to count, or sing a good song in your head, or out loud..change your thinking during an episode and if that helps, do it every time.

I'd also have a talk with your doc about increasing your ativan dosage if its no longer helping. How long have you been taking 1mg?

[cmc739]

I started out at .5 miligrams and I was good for like the for 7 months or so then the last month I had to increase it to 1 miligram.

[Shepard]

You built up a tolerance, happens with benzos..that's why i hate them.

Since you added another .5mg, you don't feel it has helped at all?

[cmc739]

You built up a tolerance, happens with benzos..that's why i hate them.

Since you added another .5mg, you don't feel it has helped at all?

It definitely helped and I noticed the difference the .5 milligrams wasn't enough but with 1 milligram it was tolerable when it came on now it just gets intolerable I'm certain situations. How's your experience with meds ?

[Shepard]

Ah, I took your post to mean that it wasn't helping at all.

I had a similar experience with ativan, but my tolerance to it built up much faster, it helped for about a month, then stopped helping all together and I had to increase, but after increasing, I felt worse. I was on 1mg for 3 months then tapered off, switched to .5mg of Xanax 5 months ago and it helped me relax at night(feel worse at night) and not really care about how I felt. I'm tapering off right now, simply because I don't want to rely on meds..I feel I'm at a point right now after 13 months of every day BS where I can just say F this, I'm not going to worry..and I don't.

[cmc739]

So your coping with it with no medications and just talking yourself through what your feeling and taking control and saying I'm not going to worry or be anxious or pass out ? How long have you been doing this ? How is it going ?

[Shepard]

Mostly, I'm still taking xanax, just lowering my dose weekly until I'm totally off of it.

For the first 12 months of this it was crazy, I felt dizzy, unsteady on my feet, nauseous, short of breath, blurred vision..every single day, morning until night. I was struggling to come to terms that what I was feeling was really anxiety and not heart disease/failure..but I'm a pretty faithful person, as you can see by my signature and avatar..and it played a huge role in accepting that nothing is physically wrong with me, though reading what God's promises to me were as a believer. I'm not saying you need to do this too, this is just what gave me a boost in my mental strength.

I feel like it happened overnight, I went to sleep after a bad attack, and woke up with a completely different attitude, every time I had a fearful thought, I told myself, who cares? It's just a panic attack, who cares? It's just a symptom. For about 3 weeks now I've felt pretty ok, I do still have a couple of moments where I feel like crap and I can feel myself getting a little antsy, but instead of falling into a panic attack, I just say who cares? In 13 months of feeling crappy, nothing bad happened..why would right now be any different?

[Dean26]

I actually suffer with something very similar but when im in supermarkets or anywhere busy, especially docters surgeries, But mine is related to blood and fainting (even when there isn't any!). Just struggling to find a way to deal with it. I guess you live in the US? I will keep my eye on your thread and see if anyone offers up any useful advice :-) Know that you arnt alone though! Dean.

[cmc739]

I actually suffer with something very similar but when im in supermarkets or anywhere busy, especially docters surgeries, But mine is related to blood and fainting (even when there isn't any!). Just struggling to find a way to deal with it. I guess you live in the US? I will keep my eye on your thread and see if anyone offers up any useful advice :-) Know that you arnt alone though! Dean.

Yes I'm from the US and I'm glad you will keep looking back I enjoyed hearing both your experiences and ways of coping they are very helpful and I would like to hear others also. Thanks so much.