Panic Disorder AFTER Stress Reduction

[LostInTranslation]

Greetings to all!

I'm not having any luck finding anything with a search, so I thought I'd post this question here. I'll try to keep it relatively short.

Roughly four years ago my wife told me she was leaving. This was completely out of the blue and completely unexpected as we didn't fight, and we didn't really have any problems to speak of. Anyway, obvious stressor!

I tried for a few months to get her to stay and work on it. It was futile, but again, several months of very severe stress.

Literally the day my wife (now ex) found an apartment, I had a date with a woman I worked with who I'd known/liked for the previous 7 years. We start seeing each other regularly while my wife takes me to the cleaners in the divorce. Another obvious stressor.

Finally after almost a year of intense fighting, the divorce is final. Five weeks later I'm remarried to this woman I've been seeing. Maybe not the smartest idea to jump back in so quickly, but I did.

For the next couple years, my new wife and I have serious problems. As in fighting literally every day. Very obvious stressor.

Our fighting continues, but now to add to the hell, my job starts to fall apart (IT guy at a university). Very very stressful!

Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel. My wife and I through intense therapy (and two different therapists) finally learn to deal with each other MUCH better. Whew! The housing market coincidentally turns around in our area, so we sell the house, pay off all of our debt, and I quit my job.

Still questions about the future, but from the past four years, I'd say I've eliminated 90% of my brutal stress.

Then BAM! A month after quitting my job and feeling pretty good, panic attacks start happening. Relentlessly. Sometimes more than once a day. It's now completely controlling me.

Can anyone make any sense of this? Admittedly it's winter here, so all the things I'd love to be out doing are off limits. So I am a touch stir crazy, but otherwise this doesn't make sense.

The only other thing that makes some logical sense to me is maybe I became addicted to the stress of the last four years. I still often feel the physical effects of the stress. Tight shoulders, clenched jaw. But otherwise I'm dramatically more relaxed (or at least I was).

Is it possible that my body just won't stop producing stress hormones, and my brain doesn't know what to do with them?

Anyway, if anyone has any insight, I'd LOVE to hear it!

Thanks!

[Malone]

Hi. I'm glad to hear you're in a better place than you have been in recent years. Hopefully you'll take a lot of pride in yourself for dealing with some serious life struggles the way you did. Many of us would not have managed as well as you have in the time you did. So congratulations there!

Regarding the return of the panic attacks - have you considered a therapist? I'm sure they'd hit the nail on the head once they see your back story. I can only enquire if you are practicing some type of meditation/mindfulness mixed with exercise to get those positive endorphins going? You seems to have moved forward so much, it's sad to hear the unexpected panic attacks are holding you back. I'm sure you can overcome these as you have overcome so much already. Good luck!

[LostInTranslation]

Thanks Malone, I'm going to see my doctor today, and I am planning on seeing a therapist too. I recently started started meditation/mindfulness too. I'm still not great at it, but it certainly helps. Which is, again, why this is so puzzling. In general I'm FAR less stressed than I was, yet the panic attacks have gotten so much worse at the same time. A very strange puzzle!

[Malone]

Sounds like you're doing all you can to hit the problems head-on which is great. Hope you got on well at the doctor. Interesting to hear what a professional makes of the increased panic attack because you're right, it's a puzzle indeed!

[Teafrenzy]

Actually I don't really think this is too uncommon.

Basically, at your higher level of anxiety, your symptom was that your brain was masking other problems with your body.

As you de-stress, the drop in stress hormones now change your body's symptoms and now you are noticing panic attacks.= that were probably always there.

[fixmybrokenmind]

Sorry to hear of your struggles it seems like you were handling your stress very well before. It is likely your body is just shot, from all the stress and is having a hard time catching up.

This may largely be in part to you adrenal glands. Once you pass a certain threshold of stress your adrenal function will lessen and your capability to handle stress will drop marginally, of course this is a pretty nasty cycle to get in.

I have found having a benzodiazepine such as diazepam on hand to be effective. I will use roughly once a week on the highest of anxiety days, and nothing more. Having something for emergencies takes a huge weight off your mind and often relieves the anxiety about having anxiety.