My Anxiety and Questions to fellow anxiety slaves

[friendlyfire]

Greetings to everybody on this website! I'm new to this forum and figured I would ask a couple of questions to you veterans on this site. I'll start off with the my anxiety symptoms.

For the past eight years I get flare ups of anxiety/panic attacks. I always starts in the summer. Why? NO CLUE. If it's too hot the attacks flare up into overdrive, mainly when I'm driving. I also get anxiety when I'm far away from home. I become tingly/numb, can't breathe, and feel like I'm going crazy or everything rational becomes irrational. I think driving, taking bus rides, or even getting on a plane which I haven't even attempted yet are the worse. I feel like I can't escape.

Here's my questions that hopefully someone can answer. I'm a smoker that's dying to become a nonsmoker. Do you think smoking helps trigger anxiety attacks? If I quit do you think my anxiety will lessen or worsen?

I've already read a couple helpful topics on this website, such as the Amino Acid and Magnesium Chloride topic which I will defiantly try. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[rejanette]

I' m also trying to stop smoking... And when I do not smoke a lot I' m feeling better... They said that smoking is not good for anxiety you might go through some smoking withdrawl as well at first... For me what helped a lot was to reduce my coffee intake i went from 4 to 5 cups a day to one ... I also changed all my diet... No more sugar, no more fast food....
Well good luck

[(HAWK)]

I to smoke and it sucks with anxiety! :cry: I hate it so much its just so darn hard to quit!

[seizetheday]

I don't smoke very much, but i notice that when i do i feel a bit more anxious.. i think its had something to do with nicotine being a stimulant but i'm not sure.. so if it makes you anxious it could definitely be contributing to any panic attacks i think

[d1nonly]

I also have the exact same issues.... driving with someone, flying and bus rides are really tough. How do you feel on job interviews??

[northstar]

hi friendlyfire, what i would ask you is what is different about the summertime for you? do you do a lot more driving? are you spending long periods in the car without eating? does your diet change? are you eating more junk food because you're on the road? are you drinking enough water in the hot weather?

i wrote a post with a lot of information on things you can do for anxiety, you might like to have a look at it: http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4087

[Penny Owen]

Hi Friendlyfire,
It's now a couple of weeks since you first posted. How are you getting on?
I was an anxiety sufferer for over 40 years (my, am I really that old!?!) and my mum the same. I've never been a smoker because I saw first hand the effects on my poor mum. She tried to give em up and failed miserably ... but she did manage to cut back on them to the point where she was smoking 5 a day. When she did that, and was comfortable with it, her anxiety levels were fine and her symptoms under control. Yeah, nictone is a stimulant and it upsets the body's balance - starves the body of Vitamin B, essential for a healthy nervous system.

Like Northstar (last post), I wonder what triggers your anxiety during the summer months. There is always a cause. When I spoke to my therapist (I had CBT), a lot of the missing pieces of the jigsaw became apparent.
In trying to answer questions, something pops into your head and you go 'aha' - that's what it is. Any idea what is causing your anxiety to increase during the summer months?

My anxiety got worse in the summer because of hay fever. I felt like I couldn't breathe properly. But once I realised what was causing my anxiety, I was much better prepared for when it happened and I learned some coping techniques to get me through it.

Anyway, just wondered how you are now - 2 weeks later.

Hope you are feeling OK as this must be your most difficult time if you live in the northern hemisphere (I'm from the UK).

Thinking of you,
Penny