Long time anxiety sufferer, first severe panic attack.

[sudsandsoda]

Hello,

I have suffered from anxiety for a long time, and I usually am able to manage it to a level that I am able to get on with life fairly well.

After a very stressful few weeks, for the first time last Friday I had my first attack of panic. It was quite severe, and was also the first time my anxiety symptoms had manifested in my stomach. I laid on the bathroom floor for several hours as I felt so sick and nauseous.

The attack subsided, and I recoverd enough to be able to eat and sleep that night. Since then - nearly 4 days now I still get the occasional burst or nausea and feeling very sick. I can't tell wether my anxiety is causing this, or wether the nausea makes my anxiety flair up.

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this which have taken several days / weeks to settle?

Thank you,

[cloudy black]

hello Sudsansoda yes right now i am experiencing a constant churning in my solar plexus which kinda started last night. but i cant really get why yet again i am having this. for me, i have at times constant background anxiety. just recently it has got so bad that i have needed to scream into a pillow dont want to freak the neighbours out! and that drains the intensity of it. when its constant i will actually put my hands onto my churning solar plexius and that seems to calm it somewhat.

[AliasEQ]

Hey Sudsandsoda!

The first few days after I got my first panic attack, I had the same problem. I didn't know what it was, so I was worried constantly. Could barely eat anything because of the nausea. I ate like 1-2 meals a day.

Go to a doctor and check it up for your own sake - so that you don't go around and worry for nothing. Then I'd suggest you to read some of the posts here on the forum, about panic attacks and how you can control them. Don't worry too much about it.

Wish you the best.

Elias

[Im-Suffering]

The body's chemical levels remain elevated to a degree that you ruminate on the problem. Since they are elevated, some symptoms remain and it becomes easier to recreate the panic.

For example. The avg person has a chemical level of 3. Where 7 sets off an adrenal rush. That person has some stress leeway you see. But if you were a 6 let's say, it would not take much more than a needle to drop, to set off an attack. And because the body is at a 6, stand by mode if you will, the tissues are effected, or some symptoms remain chronic rather than subside when the levels drop down below 4. I hope this illustrates the condition where you can picture what is happening. A 'normal' person, not affected by anxiety as a condition, you see, and if he should be shocked or fearful he would jump from 3 to 8, then after a short time return to 3 rather than remain at 6 on high alert.

[Nic Marsella]

oh my goodness yes. I think it's got something to do with when your body is in the extreme "fight or flight" ways of having a panic attack, there's got to be a lot of adrenaline going through our systems. and when the panic attack is over with, the crash sometimes is as bad as the extreme high.

I was supposed to get a cortisone shot in my back at the dr's office this morning. now, i'm not complaining, this is what they do....but I got put in the traditional white room with no windows, they shut the door, and KABOOM, baby!!! I went and had myself a lovely panic attack with all the traditional symptoms...jackhammer heart, thoughts and feelings of a heart attack and impending doom, stomach was in knots, etc....well, it passed (after I bolted from the doctors office) but I've had diarrhea all day today. so yes, I feel you on that one. just eat lightly the rest of the day, some pepto bismol or whatever you prefer, and it gets better.

[cloudy black]

have you ever experienced stress sweats thank goodness i have not had an episode for a long while now. but when i had it it lasted 12 months and more. i got so embarrassed by it. i would have to keep changing my clothes several times a day. for me it started when i went to the gym 3 times a week in order to deal with a bereavement. i was never as active as that before and so i suppose it was all the sudden increase in exercise that triggered it. is all that i can put it down to. sometimes i had to throw items of clothes away because even after a machine wash the smell didn't go. yuck!