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10-11-2015, 08:33 PM
Hello everyone,
I come to this forum because for the past few years I've been experiencing episodes that no one can relate to. I am hoping that some of you take the time to read this detailed thread and based on your experience help me identify if what I'm experiencing sounds like anxiety related or perhaps something else. I'll try to be as concise as possible, sorry about the length in advance.
I'll start with some stats. I'm a 35 year old male, non smoker, casual drinker, not using any recreational drugs, from Toronto, Canada. I am relatively healthy (with the exception of arthritis which I have under control with medication and exercise). I'm a civil engineer and love my job. I've been married for three years and will be planning on having kids soon. I live a relatively sedentary lifestyle however I eat fairly well and for the past five years I've been weight lifting and working out regularly and I'm in relatively decent physical shape. I don't have any serious stressors in my life, I have good family and friends support, but I do get worked up sometimes over petty things.
Now for the problem. It all started about four years ago. I left the gym on a Saturday morning and started driving to the dentist for a cleaning. All of a sudden I felt what I could best describe as a painless flutter in my upper stomach (lower chest) area. Immediately after this I felt sort of like an adrenaline rush and my head started spinning. My heart rate went up and my stomach was full of butterflies. It was starting to be difficult to breathe and with all these symptoms going on I got off the highway and pulled over in a plaza parking lot. I felt like I was going to die and the only thing I could conclude is that this is heart related, that I must be having some kind of heart attack or heart malfunction. I called my wife to cancel my appointment and told her that as soon as I arrive at home we need to rush to hospital emergency. By the time I got home about 15 mins later most of my symptoms were still there to a degree and I also started feeling very shaky and cold. When I looked in the mirror I appeared pale although my wife didn't think I looked off. We went to emergency anyways where my symptoms continued for some time. I told them I was having a hard time breathing and I was dizzy so they fast tracked me and ran an EKG for the heart and took comprehensive blood work, everything came back normal, blood pressure was fine, heart was fine, blood work was fine. They told me they had no explanation as to why my symptoms occurred. After hearing this news my physical symptoms slowly disappeared but I was extremely emotionally drained because of the experience. I tried to wrestle in my head what has happened but couldn't come up with a solution. The next few days after I was fine although a bit on edge.
When I was at work on Tuesday similar symptoms returned out of nowhere in the morning so I drove myself to a walk in clinic down the street. The doctor listened to all my symptoms and stated that I may be over stressed or having anxiety, she prescribed me a few ativan tablets which I think helped a bit. Anyways, these episodes returned a few times after that and then I was fine for about a year.
Again, a year later this time at night I got woken up with what felt like restless leg syndrome but instead of in the legs I was experiencing it in the chest and hands area. It was bizarre and is difficult to explain. It kind of felt like electricity was pulsating through my chest and arms. It freaked me out and my stomach going into knots was the next symptom. As soon as my stomach started knotting I began to freak out that there must be something wrong with my stomach, maybe internal bleeding from the anti inflammatory meds I've been taking, and as soon as those thoughts entered my head my breathing began to get weird, almost as if I could easily breathe but the air I was breathing lacked oxygen and wasn't satisfying my lungs, as if I was about to choke and pass out. At this point I went downstairs and started pacing around the house. Then I ate a banana and drank some fluids and tried to come down. My heart was again beating faster, my stomach was in knots, my breaking was laboured, my head was spinning and I just felt like I need to get to the hospital and get help, I thought this was it for me and I was going to pass out or die. I also noticed I was extremely dry mouth and thirsty but anything I drank didn't satisfy me, expect for milk. So I drank a carton of milk and within an hour I was a better. I went back to bed and it took me a while to fall asleep again. Next day I still had this lingering weird feeling, as if my symptoms are just around the corner and about to return, very odd feeling.
Anyways, similar episodes returned every couple of months. I am fine for a good month or two, maybe even half a year, then all of a sudden I get these episodes and I'll be doomed for a couple of days. Then they pass and I get better emotionally after a few days. I've went to a cardiologist who didn't find anything wrong with me. This may be a coincidence but I noticed that these episodes come around the time when something major is going on in my life (about to happen or just happened). For example, I went through a few of these episodes when my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I moved in together for the first time. Then I was perfectly fine until my wife and I moved in with her mom for a few months when our house was being built. Then again they seemed to return around the time I changed jobs. Again they returned right after I got married. And so on and so forth. But the link here is too loose to say it is connected for sure.
I also speculated that perhaps these episodes are caused by some physical ailment or disease but it's hard to be sure because I feel absolutely no pain during these episodes, none whatsoever. As a matter of fact, having arthritis I am in some kind of mild to moderate pain all the time and the arthritis related pain always almost totally disappears during one of these episodes. My best guess is that it's triggered by adrenaline which is a natural pain killer which is what kills my pain. Also, I don't feel weak during these episodes, I feel edgy and dodgy and shakey but never weak and always full of energy and adrenaline. Also, I imagine if it was some serious disease it would have progressed or gotten worse over the five years of having on and off again symptoms but it hasn't. Lastly, I though maybe it's some kind of vitamin deficiency so I experimented with Vitamin B, magnesium, calcium, D3, omega 3, multi vitamin, potassium, and although I felt better after supplementing in some sense, the episodes still came back when they wanted to. I even though that maybe I have some kind of allergy or sensitivity like to caffeine or alcohol but after reducing those it had no significant impact on these episodes.
I tried to research this extensively online and I get hits that this is likely panic attack. Hoping some of you can chime in and let me know what you think. Lastly, I just want to share my full list of symptoms below during one of these episodes (usually most of these symptoms are present during an episode):
- knots in the stomach, nauseous
- difficult breathing, feeling as if there is tightness in the chest and upper stomach area
- increased heart rate
- dizziness and feeling as if I'm about to pass out
- feeling a sense of doom
- thirst and dry mouth
- restless feeling in arms and radiating from my core (chest area)
- feeling weird sensations in my arms and body (pins and needles) buzzing
- tingling at random places in my body
- inability to sleep after, insomnia
- feeling that I need emergency help
- adrenaline rushes
- bad thoughts and feeling extreme stress during episode
- feeling warm then cold within a few minutes
- craving for bananas and or milk (for some reason I feel that these things help episodes go away)
I also want to mention that although these episodes are extremely frighting with lots of physical symptoms they have never resulted in me passing out or resulting with something bad happening. I am generally fine a day or two later and life goes on.
I thank you in advance for any option you can give me.
Cheers,
Michael
I come to this forum because for the past few years I've been experiencing episodes that no one can relate to. I am hoping that some of you take the time to read this detailed thread and based on your experience help me identify if what I'm experiencing sounds like anxiety related or perhaps something else. I'll try to be as concise as possible, sorry about the length in advance.
I'll start with some stats. I'm a 35 year old male, non smoker, casual drinker, not using any recreational drugs, from Toronto, Canada. I am relatively healthy (with the exception of arthritis which I have under control with medication and exercise). I'm a civil engineer and love my job. I've been married for three years and will be planning on having kids soon. I live a relatively sedentary lifestyle however I eat fairly well and for the past five years I've been weight lifting and working out regularly and I'm in relatively decent physical shape. I don't have any serious stressors in my life, I have good family and friends support, but I do get worked up sometimes over petty things.
Now for the problem. It all started about four years ago. I left the gym on a Saturday morning and started driving to the dentist for a cleaning. All of a sudden I felt what I could best describe as a painless flutter in my upper stomach (lower chest) area. Immediately after this I felt sort of like an adrenaline rush and my head started spinning. My heart rate went up and my stomach was full of butterflies. It was starting to be difficult to breathe and with all these symptoms going on I got off the highway and pulled over in a plaza parking lot. I felt like I was going to die and the only thing I could conclude is that this is heart related, that I must be having some kind of heart attack or heart malfunction. I called my wife to cancel my appointment and told her that as soon as I arrive at home we need to rush to hospital emergency. By the time I got home about 15 mins later most of my symptoms were still there to a degree and I also started feeling very shaky and cold. When I looked in the mirror I appeared pale although my wife didn't think I looked off. We went to emergency anyways where my symptoms continued for some time. I told them I was having a hard time breathing and I was dizzy so they fast tracked me and ran an EKG for the heart and took comprehensive blood work, everything came back normal, blood pressure was fine, heart was fine, blood work was fine. They told me they had no explanation as to why my symptoms occurred. After hearing this news my physical symptoms slowly disappeared but I was extremely emotionally drained because of the experience. I tried to wrestle in my head what has happened but couldn't come up with a solution. The next few days after I was fine although a bit on edge.
When I was at work on Tuesday similar symptoms returned out of nowhere in the morning so I drove myself to a walk in clinic down the street. The doctor listened to all my symptoms and stated that I may be over stressed or having anxiety, she prescribed me a few ativan tablets which I think helped a bit. Anyways, these episodes returned a few times after that and then I was fine for about a year.
Again, a year later this time at night I got woken up with what felt like restless leg syndrome but instead of in the legs I was experiencing it in the chest and hands area. It was bizarre and is difficult to explain. It kind of felt like electricity was pulsating through my chest and arms. It freaked me out and my stomach going into knots was the next symptom. As soon as my stomach started knotting I began to freak out that there must be something wrong with my stomach, maybe internal bleeding from the anti inflammatory meds I've been taking, and as soon as those thoughts entered my head my breathing began to get weird, almost as if I could easily breathe but the air I was breathing lacked oxygen and wasn't satisfying my lungs, as if I was about to choke and pass out. At this point I went downstairs and started pacing around the house. Then I ate a banana and drank some fluids and tried to come down. My heart was again beating faster, my stomach was in knots, my breaking was laboured, my head was spinning and I just felt like I need to get to the hospital and get help, I thought this was it for me and I was going to pass out or die. I also noticed I was extremely dry mouth and thirsty but anything I drank didn't satisfy me, expect for milk. So I drank a carton of milk and within an hour I was a better. I went back to bed and it took me a while to fall asleep again. Next day I still had this lingering weird feeling, as if my symptoms are just around the corner and about to return, very odd feeling.
Anyways, similar episodes returned every couple of months. I am fine for a good month or two, maybe even half a year, then all of a sudden I get these episodes and I'll be doomed for a couple of days. Then they pass and I get better emotionally after a few days. I've went to a cardiologist who didn't find anything wrong with me. This may be a coincidence but I noticed that these episodes come around the time when something major is going on in my life (about to happen or just happened). For example, I went through a few of these episodes when my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I moved in together for the first time. Then I was perfectly fine until my wife and I moved in with her mom for a few months when our house was being built. Then again they seemed to return around the time I changed jobs. Again they returned right after I got married. And so on and so forth. But the link here is too loose to say it is connected for sure.
I also speculated that perhaps these episodes are caused by some physical ailment or disease but it's hard to be sure because I feel absolutely no pain during these episodes, none whatsoever. As a matter of fact, having arthritis I am in some kind of mild to moderate pain all the time and the arthritis related pain always almost totally disappears during one of these episodes. My best guess is that it's triggered by adrenaline which is a natural pain killer which is what kills my pain. Also, I don't feel weak during these episodes, I feel edgy and dodgy and shakey but never weak and always full of energy and adrenaline. Also, I imagine if it was some serious disease it would have progressed or gotten worse over the five years of having on and off again symptoms but it hasn't. Lastly, I though maybe it's some kind of vitamin deficiency so I experimented with Vitamin B, magnesium, calcium, D3, omega 3, multi vitamin, potassium, and although I felt better after supplementing in some sense, the episodes still came back when they wanted to. I even though that maybe I have some kind of allergy or sensitivity like to caffeine or alcohol but after reducing those it had no significant impact on these episodes.
I tried to research this extensively online and I get hits that this is likely panic attack. Hoping some of you can chime in and let me know what you think. Lastly, I just want to share my full list of symptoms below during one of these episodes (usually most of these symptoms are present during an episode):
- knots in the stomach, nauseous
- difficult breathing, feeling as if there is tightness in the chest and upper stomach area
- increased heart rate
- dizziness and feeling as if I'm about to pass out
- feeling a sense of doom
- thirst and dry mouth
- restless feeling in arms and radiating from my core (chest area)
- feeling weird sensations in my arms and body (pins and needles) buzzing
- tingling at random places in my body
- inability to sleep after, insomnia
- feeling that I need emergency help
- adrenaline rushes
- bad thoughts and feeling extreme stress during episode
- feeling warm then cold within a few minutes
- craving for bananas and or milk (for some reason I feel that these things help episodes go away)
I also want to mention that although these episodes are extremely frighting with lots of physical symptoms they have never resulted in me passing out or resulting with something bad happening. I am generally fine a day or two later and life goes on.
I thank you in advance for any option you can give me.
Cheers,
Michael