Severe Panic Attacks... Concerned

[Nausea]

Hello all,

About two days ago, I suffered my first panic attack in several months. It was fairly severe - starting with heart palpitations and feeling of dread and eventually becoming so severe that my fingers, then arms, face and torso began tingling. I wasn't paralyzed, but I did have some trouble speaking. Needless to say, I was completely terrified. The symptoms subsided after a few minutes and a doctor verified that there was nothing wrong with my heart, prescribing me Lorazepam to counteract oncoming attacks.

Had to take a pill this morning though, at work I felt another attack coming on. This one came on worrying that the sudden return of panic attacks and their increase in severity are symptomatic of something physiological rather than merely psychological. The pattern this morning matched that of two days ago: note some physical stimulus, usually some kind of ache or pain, then diagnose it as a potentially mortal condition. Two days ago, it was a sharp pain in my chest. Today, a light headache has me convinced I have a brain tumor.

Needless to say, I'm a bit on edge and rather scared - even if intellectually I feel I really shouldn't be. I'm going in for my annual physical some time next week I hope, anyway, but I wonder whether I really ought to have cause to be concerned. Is this likely to be something physiological? Or "merely" psychological (as if that would make it easier to live with!)?

[Charlene]

Hi Nausea,

If I'm understanding your message correctly, you've experienced panic attacks before? I'm hoping that you're already aware that people with anxiety/panic disorder often mistakenly read their uncomfortable body symptoms as being harmful or dangerous. So just to ease your mind in case you don't already know, they aren't harmful or dangerous. They are merely brought on by your thoughts. I won't bore you with words like amygdala or hypothalamus or hippocampus and the synapse functions of the brain and the varied chemicals it produces. Not that I'm a specialist in neuroscience anyway. So to keep things simple - - your anxiouis thoughts can create an automatic response, which manifests as physical symptoms.

You might wonder....what came first? The anxious thought or the intolerable physical symptom? It was the thought. The thought is what made you anxious about your symptom, which made you think more about the symptom, which made you think your symptom was dangerous, which made you feel more anxious.....see where we're going with this? "Regular" people get migraines, back aches, stomach aches and so on, but they don't monitor those physical feelings as closely as a person who suffers from anxiety. They make note of the headache (or whatever), pop an Aspirin (or whatever) and go about their day. People with this disorder get stuck in a mind-loop and have tremendous difficulty letting go of the thought of their discomfort.

I hope this helps ease your mind and brings you some relief. Being scared is a natural emotion if you think you're going to die. But you're not going to die. You're healthy and okay! :)

[Constantinos]

Hi Nausea,

I am 35 years old and i have been suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, for the last 10 years, though if i can recall correctly i had panic attacks since the age of 10 - 11 without knowing what i was going through. In any case, the last 3,5 years i do psychotherapy and it helped me a lot. I can not say that i am 100% confident for myself but saw a lot of improvement. In addition to that i read an article lateley that helped me lot and i am quoting this below. Believe me it is going to help you.

Panic Attacks are completely harmless. Although they look really bad, they feel like your mind is out of control, you are feeling like running and hiding from yourself, and you are afraid that you are going to die, still, completely harmless. The secret and method to overcome your problem is that "Without fear of them they cannot exist". I will quote below a part of a text that helped me a lot. Please read it and it will help you.

"In quick overview, to end a panic attack - an overwhelming feeling of fear - you have to pass through the wall of apprehension to the other side of your fear (no, this isn't some weird faith healing or new age crap). This works! I wish I could take you there by the hand myself but YOU have to do it. The trust in it working is something that goes against all aspects of our sense of survival and takes some time to really believe in. Yet IF you are experiencing a fear/panic attack I found the only way to beat it is to try to let the feeling be as worse as it wants to be. Let it be as bad as you can make it. And, because it truly IS a self-created fear, once you have made the desire to travel to the "OTHER side" of fear by letting it do its positively worse to you then ...there is NOTHING...nothing there. No fear. The other side is NO fear at all but a big smile. The moment of realization is a wonderful experience. For me, it was THEN that I realized that these "out of control" feelings were finished!

Stress is the major instigator for panic feelings. Perhaps you had realized a certain level of stress that had exceeded your ability to release it. I say, "had" because probably the event that triggered these panic attacks is over with. There are many relaxation methods for lowering stress and all of them are beneficial. Understanding your stress and learning to manage it will always help you throughout your life. However, the panic attacks were probably the culmination of that initial stress event. I don't care WHAT or HOW you arrived at these feelings - you have them and you don't like them and you want to get rid of them! Right now it's not important that your mother was mean or your father ignored you or if you are a perfectionist, or obsessive, etc. I am not trivializing your situation. Panic attacks feed off of themselves. They are a common disorder that can trouble even the most intelligent or the strongest person. They are an entire entity all in themselves. These feelings seem so powerful and they scare you. But your mind is NOT going bananas, being lost or slipping away into insanity despite your fear or your past. You are only doing what seems natural...fighting them in trying to get control over them. But you are trying to STOP FEAR! Fear is not under your conscious control. It is controlled instinctively in reaction to WHAT YOU BELIEVE! And right now you believe that you are THREATENED! Instead, you are going to accept it and let it become you and, thereby, stop the overreaction. Read on!

Probably you have suspected a myriad of potential illnesses and feared some significant health problem that your physician has not found or explained away as "nerves" or some other reference to your nervous system. If not, please visit your doctor and remove these questions! He/she may even prescribe anti-anxiety drugs that may help you to deal with your panic feelings if you need immediate results. Some medical professionals like to describe panic as a chemical imbalance that might respond favorably to medication. I tried several of them. I preferred to not use them because I didn't like the side-affects and stipulations for use. But for some sufferers medication is very helpful. However, in the absence of a real medical problem, you are, at present, afraid of the panic attacks themselves or simply put, AFRAID OF BEING AFRAID!

I have to be blunt! There is no THING causing this (unless there is a specifically identified illness, situation or event like a wild animal attacking you). It's not a place or situation or thought...not that couch or that car or that room or that strange feeling in your eyes, stomach, head, arms, or that crowded place! Not a brain tumor, not cancer of anything, no breakdown of any nerves! Only you! To think otherwise..to think that a certain room or situation CAUSES you to have the attacks...is false. Sure, I understand that when you are in a place or situation where you have felt these attacks before that you are aware of being there and fear THAT place or situation. BUT IT'S YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM being on a high state of alert. You must understand that it's coming from you! You also are exaggerating those strange feelings that you are having in your body into MAJOR significance. You are boxing in your life more and more by HIDING from these! It's NOT these places or situations or feelings, and I know that's hard to accept. But this is where you change your attitude from HIDING to "giving up"! From superstition to a rational approach!

Once you apply the attitude, "I will let this feeling of fear be as worse as it wants to be, I don't care anymore", and let it happen, let yourself go towards it and begin to believe it (the prime objective), then the truth starts to comes out. You become a little less afraid. IT TAKES PRACTICE. (Research in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder has demonstrated that persistent practice of skills such as these can result in measurable changes in brain function without medication.) As you begin to "pooh-pooh" these fear feelings and establish the attitude of non-caring more and more you get closer to the rationale about them. Eventually you will be ready for the time when you truly try to make it worse while having a panic attack - and THAT is a key moment!

Good luck


[/list]

[Nausea]

Thanks for the reassurances.

Indeed I have had panic attacks since about the age of 19, and anxiety (that manifested itself primarily as insomnia) since before then. The recent change is one of severity (they've gotten worse), frequency (I've had two in the past three days, despite not having had one for months prior), and trigger (they used to be event-triggered, now they're seemingly spontaneous). I am going to see a physician just to rule out any physiological cause, but I suspect - given my psychological history - that I am 99% likely to just be suffering from good old GAD with Panic Disorder. Of course, having GAD-PD means the 1% is rather worrisome.

[thehatchedegg]

Hi Nausea,

I am so sorry for what you are going through. I woun't wish that on my worst enemy! I too had panic attacks sometimes a few a day.

Most likely everything is just fine. So try not to worry until there is something to worry about. 95% of what we worry about never happens.

Here are a few things that stop my panic attacks when they start. Although I have been free for the past 2 years, I still use these tools when I feel the anxiety building.

Drink a large class of cool water

Do deep belly breathing - all the way to your belly button

Call a friend that understands that you are having a hard time and can take your mind off the feelings.

Have a snack - apples always worked best for me

Get up and move around

Try not to be afraid - makes it worse.

Our bodies get used to the way we handle stress, time to change this pattern for good. Try to start taking good care of yourself in the meantime. Good diet & Interval training (walking, running, machines). Helps a lot!

Hope everything gets better quick.

All the best,
Amy

[Nausea]

Thanks again for the advice. I hate to come here every time something spooks me, but it helps to hear of others experiencing the same thing and knowing that the only thing I'm suffering from is fear.


Okay, so anywho, today I was just sitting down and I experienced a sort of "popping" sensation in my head, followed by a sudden jolt of energy. As usual, I haven't experienced any subsequent neurological impairments or indicators of brain damage. I took a nap, still felt wound up when I woke up, and popped a Lorazepam, which brought my nerves back under control after an hour or so.

[dtrotter]

Fear is something that we need to conquer it eventually. Just do know that you are not alone and don't have to worry that you are going thru all these alone. You just have to be optimistic that one day you will be able to rise high and fly and achieve your dreams.