What was your first attack like?

[jayj404]

Just wondering... my first panic attack was very different from the other ones later on.

My first one came on a Tuesday when I decided to skip school. My dad went on a business trip, and my mom was at work. I was reading an article about derealization (Which I had at the time) and it said that it may be permanent. I got really light headed for a second, and I went to get a drink of water. I started to worry that my derealization was permanent, so the attack started. Typical panic stuff, Racing heart, dry mouth, things like that. One thing that still haunts me to this day is this weird eye trick thing. I don't know how to explain it. I would look at my hands and they would seem to go further away, and then come back. It's almost impossible to explain. My brother got home early from work that day and I remember him sitting at the computer and I was yelling, asking him if he was real. He looked at me like I was on drugs, and just walked away. I didn't realize it was a panic attack right away, so it lasted for 6 HOURS!!! I later on realized that it was a panic attack (my mom told me that she got panic attacks as a kid, so I expected it to be that) and it went away.

What was yours like?

[sweetypie]

I don't remember my first one. I just remember that as a young child if I thought too hard about my breathing that I would get scared that I was going to stop breathing and have a panic attack where it felt like someone was choking me and I couldn't breathe right.

I have gotten that light headed, is this real? feeling before that you are describing. I also have gotten that weird thing where I can't tell the distance of things. Whether they are close or far away and it really freaks me out for some reason when that happens. I wind up curling up in a ball and closing my eyes and breathing too quickly.

[petrified]

My very first one I was 15 it was my heart first for me. It started racing really hard, I went really dizzy and felt sick. I started hyperventaling. Luckily my dad was there and noticed straight away. He got me a paper bag and calmed me. I didn't have another one til 8 weeks ago that's 12 years :-(

[tailspin]

My panic attacks didn't start until late in life. I've had anxiety issues since early childhood but it tended to be more along the lines of a couple of specific phobias and periods of acute and chronic worrying, so more of a Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

I remember my first panic attack happened about 12 years ago. I'm 49 now so I must have been about 37. I had recently moved to the USA from England, where I'm originally from. I remember waking up in the middle of the night feeling very sick (nauseated). I got up and went to the bathroom but I wasn't sick. Instead I started shaking and I felt really unwell and I didn't know what was wrong with me and I remember being scared by how bad I was feeling.

I woke up my husband and told him I felt really ill and I said we might have to call the doctor out. My husband looked at me and said that doctors don't make house calls here and we'd have to go to the hospital. I remember that really freaked me out!! In England, doctors do make house calls and I had just assumed that it was the same over here!! I said I didn't feel well enough to make it to the hospital. Then my hubby said we could call the Advice Nurse on the phone. Our health care provider offers a 24 hours Advice Nurse service where you call in and talk to an Advice Nurse and she is in contact with an Emergency Room doctor and between them they try and help you figure out your symptoms and tell you whether you need to make a trip to the ER or call an ambulance, or whether it can wait until morning.

Anyhow, the Advice Nurse was really nice and very helpful. After she'd asked me a few questions she told me she thought I might be having a Panic Attack. This had never occurred to me but the more I talked to her the more it made sense. And as I was talking to her I started to feel a bit better. She suggested I go back to bed and try and rest and she said I could call her again if I felt bad. This really helped me and I was able to go back to bed and eventually I went back to sleep.

However, that definitely marked the beginning of my panic attacks and ever since then I get nervous around bed time in case it happens again (which is has, many times).

[Olive Yew]

I had a childhood like Tailspins. Phobias and various panic attacks. Had a huge problem with nighttime anxiety. I would cry and beg my parents to let me sleep in their room until probably 6th grade. This was probably around the time when I got over the fear. I convinced myself that as long as my brother stayed up late playing video games (which he does every night) I would be safe.

Then two months ago, I was at my dad's job fair and had been having slight anxiety pangs throughout the day. Maybe a week earlier I had thought I was possibly gluten intolerant which had made me uneasy to begin with. My dad and brother were teasing me about it throughout the day and I was getting depressed because I used to love food and I seemed to like to live from meal to meal. Now the majority of my favorite foods had been cut out and I couldnt hardly even eat anything at this job fair.
That night, I tried to go to my boyfriend's house 1 1/2 away. I had made the trip hundreds of times like it was nothing. But I left the house and started feeling Derealized. It was maybe 8:30 when I left so the sun had just set behind the horizon but the sky was like a pinkish indigo... 10 minutes down the road and my stomach starts to churn. I call my boyfriend to see if he could maybe distract me. But as I drive it's only getting worse. My stomach is churning. My head is spinning. The derealization is creating an aura around all the headlights making my head spin even more and making it REALLY hard to see. My boyfriend is getting real worried which doesn't make me any more relaxed. I make it to about half way there and I make up my mind to turn back. I'm freaking out and I didn't think I would even have fun at my Boyfriends if I was just going to be sick the whole time. I didn't realize it was anxiety at this point. I just felt like I was dying. I turn around and head back. My boyfriend stays on the phone with me to make sure I make it okay... I dont though. Maybe 20 minutes from my house, i get pulled over by a cop for speeding. The cop was polite but not very nice, threatening to have fined me even more for "avoiding" when really i was just trying to find a safe place to pull over that wasnt on the side of the pitch black road. Apparently he had been "Fallowing me for a while" before I had even noticed he was going after ME and I eventually pulled over on the side of the highway with no shoulder, a guard rail, pitch black, farmland in every direction except for behind me where the tiny hick town officer hailed from. I managed to stay calm long enough to shakily receive my ticket before I continued on my way. I bawled hysterically the rest of the way home. I ran a red light and almost T boned a lady. But miraculously I made it home safe.... Then after that, I had anxiety attacks on a daily basis which only got worse as college started, I got in a tense situation with one of my best friends, my boyfriend and I had some issues due to both of us being anxious/depressed (when he gets depressed he turns into a lone wolf which I'm used to and understanding of but it's hard when all I wanted was for him to... You know coddle and support... So it made things hard between us). And then I had a cousin murdered by another cousin.... And at this point I was a nervous wreck and experiencing every anxiety symptom in the book.

That's my story... I'm approaching month #3 and doggedly working on forcing my brain to work like it used to. But Now I'm sick with some stupid illness that made my tonsils swell to the size of bouncy balls and ribboned with white and that combined with anxiety throat tightening= very hard to breathe.

[tailspin]

Had a huge problem with nighttime anxiety. I would cry and beg my parents to let me sleep in their room until probably 6th grade.

Me too! I used to HATE going to bed because I was scared. I don't even know what I was scared of. I just remember this horrible fear would descend on me as my bed time approached and I would beg my parents to let me stay up later. This happened every night for the longest time!

Sorry you are sick right now, Olive Yew!

[Olive Yew]

Me too! I used to HATE going to bed because I was scared. I don't even know what I was scared of. I just remember this horrible fear would descend on me as my bed time approached and I would beg my parents to let me stay up later. This happened every night for the longest time! Sorry you are sick right now, Olive Yew!

I would have the fear descend on me and I was scared of everything: house burning down, dying in my sleep, someone breaking in, tornadoes, my parents dying in THEIR sleep... Pretty much anything horrible that could happen, i was terrified of.

[NeverToo...Fear]

I too had a childhood filled with worrying. About everything. Ha, I worried so much it was the running joke about me. The bad thing is I developed a problem swallowing because I choked on a marshmallow one time. Seriously. My first real panic attack was when I was about 15..my family was watching TV and I wasn't feeling so well, so I went up to get some water and the ill feeling just kept getting worse to where I became dizzy, heart racing and panicking, literally yelling, "I'm dying!" In front of everyone.. that happened for a while nearly about every time we watched TV from then on....luckily that has died down and it's nowhere near as severe..
Part of me thinks my recent bad anxiety has started from someone I was close to passed away..I felt pretty numb after that..and now about a month ago, I had a very bad panic attack. I woke up in the middle of the night and my stomach was terribly queasy. My heart started to race and I was getting really dizzy..it got so bad that I had to wake my mom up. But it kept getting worse until I was flat freaking. I tried to pour cold water on my face, not caring it was dripping onto the floor..finally my mom forced me to sit on the couch and play some little game on her tablet while she distracted me with conversation...we stayed up most of the night, but she really calmed me down and I don't think I could've gotten through if she hadn't been there...but ever since that night, I keep having attacks and now with heart pain added to it, I was over the roof freaking out...I've been getting better, but even like now, I'm feeling my anxiety (also known as Batty) is in the back of my head fixing to rear it's ugly head--ugh!.. It is a slow recovery.

[Olive Yew]

my mom forced me to sit on the couch and play some little game on her tablet while she distracted me with conversation...we stayed up most of the night, but she really calmed me down and I don't think I could've gotten through if she hadn't been there..

Mom's are the best <3

[tailspin]

Mom's are the best <3

Ditto!!

So glad your Mom was able to help you with Batty, NeverToo!! <3

[NeverToo...Fear]

I'm glad too, Tailspin, lol..thanks! <3


Mom's are the best <3

Oh yes, I couldn't agree more :) (btw, hope you are feeling better!)

[DrStrangeluv]

It's hard to say buy I've always had some sort of "panic attack"... me and my mom... every now and then we see things at night when we go to sleep, some people call it night terrors, I remember waking up many times and seeing something that was not supposed to be there vanish within a few seconds into thin air, then after a traumatic experience I remember having panic attacks every time I tried going to sleep, this went away, but about 6 months later I was doing a spinning class, and I could feel derealization hit me a couple of times... and then I just felt something was wrong, I felt dizzy, my legs were becoming weak, I immediately stepped down and had my pulse and BP checked( they were high...) I then proceeded to take it at two different pharmacies, the last reading( 180/100) really sent me into a frenzy. But then again I didn't know at the time that my "panic button" was on... I ended up in the ER, the doctor just said, your are under a lot of stress, do outdoor activities.... hahaha.. right... What happened later and I wish I've known and had reassurance is that I started worried silly about every little thing, like my breathing, body aches, palpitations. This just brought more anxiety and panic attacks....

[Joe.]

My first one......

It was one of the worst I've had......

I was sitting in my science class studying cancer treatment ( I don't even like writing that word) and then boom! When he mentioned symptoms of brain cancer in a anecdotal comment he had, something in my head must have snapped! I was spun into terrible vertigo, with my heart racing, objects distorting, pressure headaches and hyperventilation, along with all that I was mentally all over the place......as this was my first one I was convinced It was a brain problem or something I just 'knew' it was deadly......I was wrong obviously.
I've had worse, but this is still a vivid image to me, stuck in my mind, unfortunately.