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View Full Version : Chemical induced panic attacks and recovery?



hambleto
02-14-2010, 07:27 AM
Hello and thank you for reading this. I am writing this message in hopes to get this off of my chest and I hope to find that I am not the only person who has been down this path…

I hope that this will not be too long, last summer I was exposed to a pesticide and I developed Panic Attacks out of the blue. I went to see a GP and they gave me .25mg of and 20mg of citroplam. I was informed that I would not be prescribed alazopram unless I was put on an antidepressant. I had no history of Depression in my life and up until that week I had never had anxiety of any form. The GP did not even ask me if I had been near anything out of the ordinary nor did I think to mention the pesticide. I started taking the meds, but I continued to get worse culminating in me being rushed to the emergency room. After going to the emergency I looked into what had changed prior to the attacks. That is when I thought of the pesticide that I had been getting all over my skin. I stopped using it and in couple of days I stopped having the attacks.

However, since the attacks I had a very increased level of anxiety. Some of the simplest of things made me nervous. I started seeing a counselor and even weaned myself off of the citroplam (Which is a MAJOR pain). I had being doing great. Very rarely needing the .25 of alazopram. I even had gone over a month with out needing any meds of any kind.. I must say ever sine I came off the citroplam I am more emotional and have more feelings then I ever did before and I actually like it.

Unfortunately this past Friday when people started talking about the major storm coming at the northeast I started getting worked up. Over the weekend with the snow coming in and the power failing and such I have been a wreck. I even had to have an emergency phone session with my counselor. Now I fear that I have fallen back to how I was before..

What I am wondering is has anyone ever experienced panic attacks induced by exposure to a Neurotoxin (pesticide)? Does a back slide mean that I am getting worse? Does it take a long time to get over the attacks? I am just afraid of having another one. I have found certain situations will make me more nervous. Keep in mind, prior to this I had nerves of steel and rarely was scared or upset by anything. Do people ever get back to 100% or will I be like this forever?

I am curious to find out. How did your anxiety/panic attacks progress? Was it something that gradually built up over time or did just one day you go from not having attacks to having full blown attacks? For me personally it took less then one week. I went from doing everything day to do as normal, to by the same day the next week I was having attack after attack and could not even leave the house till I ended up going to the emergency room. It was like a switch got flipped in my head. The interesting thing is that prior to that I was known to be the most level headed person around and never showed signs of stress or anxiety at all. It just does not make sense to me and I am hoping I can learn from your experiences.

Thank you for reading this long-winded story. I look forward to your thoughts.

DavidO
02-14-2010, 01:04 PM
hello im very sorry to hear about your story.

Something i find interesting is that before my anxiety/panic attacks started i too was known as very levelheaded and people would always tell me that i never looked nervous anxious or anything of the sort. EVen the day that i was in the ER the house supervisor says to my mom that i never once looked anxious.

The problem is, is that although you may not look like it what is going on in your mind is a completely different story.

Before i say anything else i want to recommend you to the CBT course here on the forums. It is something i am in the process of doing right now. just search for it on the forums.

A setback is actually a good sign because you can't have a setback unless you have made progress. Go through the CBT course and you will learn a lot about yourself.

You will learn that anxiety/ panic disorder build up over years and years. And people do fully beat this and recover it is all about changing how yu think.

I wish you the best of luck.