5-10 attacks a day

[scared_of_all]

hello, i am a 18 year female living in australia. i have only recenty (lasst 3 months) started experiencing panic attacks. my fears change everyday. the main one tho is a fear of my thought closing up or lungs failing or heart beat so fast it will just stop. i have been fully checked out by the hospital several times and they have assured me i am suffering anxiety. (nothing medically wrong)

tonite is the first nite on my medication and i am developing a fear of it already..thinking all these symptoms will kill me some way. i have researched for hours and hours about anxiety and discovering how common it is. i must admit knowing ppl out there with the same thoughts and unusual tingles in the chest and limbs makes me feel better. i discoved this site while looking up 'panic away'- novel (which id love feed back on). i feel worst at bedtime when im laying in bed and thoughts go through my mind that scare me for even thinking them and i cant stand laying still and feeling my heart beat becoz im always scared of it getting faster. it is that bad atm i have had to take a week off work just to come to turms with this horrible horrible curse. i no i need to conqour the fear of having another attack i just cant figure out how???

plz plz plz someone tell me they have felt the same way. my family dosent understand, they just say 'breath slowly and calm ur self down' or ' were not sitting at the emergency room till 3 in the morning again!' i no they love me but they just dont understand this emence fear inside me.. please help

[Charlene]

Hello,

I'm 41 and I live in Canada. My first episodes of panic started when I was 14 years old. It terrified me, I had no idea what was going on with my body or my mind. I refused to believe that what I had was anxiety, even though that's what I was told by my doctor. I was too good looking, too smart, too strong, too confident. But the strange body symptoms continued, and I became more and more scared of them. I lost my confidence and pushed my friends away. I became a wreck.

Many years later I finally accepted that I had panic disorder. You are not alone, you are not weird for having this, you are not weak or dumb or a crybaby. You're just scared. The funny thing is....you're scared of your own thoughts. You're not really afraid of the symptoms you're having, it's your thoughts of your symptoms that has you frightened.

Your heart is not going to stop beating. Your lungs will not fail. They are going to continue functioning whether you're thinking about them or not. Anxiety won't harm you. It feels horrible, but believe me, you won't die from it.

To conquer your fear of another attack...this is tricky but totally doable! Note though, that I say to conquer your fear of another attack. This means that there will be other attacks. However, once you are no longer afraid of them (which takes a lot of practice), they will begin to lessen and lessen. It can be done, I'm living proof of that! Know that there are many, many different ways of overcoming this disorder. There are probably as many different ways as their are sufferers. But I'll share with you what I found helpful for me. I'll send you a private message so as not to bore our other posters here, I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. ;) My tips may not be everyone's first choice to recovery but they've worked for me.

[hesson81]

and even better I'm glad that you have been able to connect to people who also have the same problem. In going through this one of the things that I think are making it better is that I'm not the only one who's light headed. I think just knowing that Will make me better. Not that I would wish this on any one. For you, understanding that it's out there might help with the healing proccess. I wish you a speedy recovery, and I'm confident that you will achieve this.