New here, for a family member.

[SuperInferior]

hey,

I just joined this site and only because my sister has an anxiety disorder or something and I want to try to understand it better. Hopefully you can help me.

I made a post about that. I hope I can learn from reading posts here a little about what anxiety disorders are like.

I think I've only had one anxiety attack before which was a result of having been stalked by what used to be a close friend, and depression with overall poor housing and financial conditions, which spiralled my OCD type thoughts and I started panicking about germs in a crowded train. >_<; I had to get off and managed to embarrass myself with how much I was panicking, but it is nothing like my sisters ones, so I can barely call it a panic attack in comparison to hers.

Because I've nothing personal to base my ideas of panic attacks from, I need to do research, so yeah. Hello.

[costaboy]

what happens to your sister when she has an attack x i feel sick but it effects everyone differently so i could help better if i knew something more x

[SuperInferior]

I would have linked you to my post about it but can't as I'm too new.

She shakes and becomes non-verbal eventually. Her breathing becomes quick and shallow and she raises her hands as she finds it helpful to breath through them.
She often sits down on the floor and wants to avoid others.
One time she seemed to pass out during an attack and continued to shake and tears were coming out of her closed eyes. She doesn't remember this but it makes me extremely sad when I think about it because I was and am so helpless.
She sometimes gets a few attacks before, at or after college and I don't like to think of her like that when I'm not around. =[

As she doesn't like talking about it I don't know much about how she feels but she's once mentioned small touches, like my rubbing her back, felt like she was being pushed. Also that she goes in and out of hearing what's going on around her, and that she cannot speak.
She said her chest hurts a lot, but now knows it isn't that dangerous, like a heart attack. But feels there is nothing she can do but wait for it to pass.

She explains herself as being very helpless during and about her attacks but I like to think she can gain some control over it.
She is adamant she's done enough research and she's got as much control as she can have. And she can be incredibly stubborn but the rate these attacks are increasing really worries me.

Thank you for your reply too. =]

[alankay]

Does she have even an OBGYN doc she can go to? They can help as they sometimes act as GP's depending on the doc. I admire her determination but she really needs to get some treatment. I wonder if they have counselors at her college that's part of tuition. Could you get her to admit that getting her thyroid level checked would be smart? She may just be afraid of docs, maybe? Alankay