Hello everyone.. Newbie here.

[Coobie]

Well, where do I begin? I am 23 yrs old, married with two great dogs =)
and no children. I have been dealing with anxiety and panic disorder since I was 18/19 years old. I used to take medication (Effexor XR, Paxil, Lexapro etc, tried alot) but a few months ago I decided I did not want to take medication and wanted to try and defeat this on my own (if at all possible). I have a huge fear of dying (not so much the actual dying part but what happens when your dead) and it really seems to take over me at night when everyone is sleeping or relaxing.
Usually when I have panic attacks, they hit randomly. For instance, I was sitting in class and wam, I felt one hit. Sometimes, I will wake up feeling gross from a very short nap, and one will spring up (this happened recently), Other times, I just think my heart is going to stop, my heads going to explode, I think I can't breathe, I have brain tumors and aneurysms, etc. The list is ridiculous. Really, I am pretty sick of feeling like something is wrong with me, and of course, I am way to afraid to go to the hospital for a full work over just in case they were to prove me right and find something.

=) So yeah, Look for my stuff in other places on here lol.

[electric*eyes]

Hi Coobie. Welcome to the forum, I'm new here as well. I have the same problem (well I'm sure the majority of people on this site do as well) with the fear of dying or getting sick. I too used to be the type of person who was afraid to go to the doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc. because I didn't want them to confirm my fears. Now its sort of progressed into HAVING to go to the doctor for every little thing, although I'm not as bad as some, haha. I'm thinking about going on Effexor, my doctor prescribed it to me but I have heard some scary things about it (ie. brain shivers?). I was on Prozac for depression a few years ago and I didn't exactly like the way it made me feel (numb and emotionless). But as far as I know, all anti-depressants/anxiety meds tend to do that. I'd much rather do the self-help thing coupled with therapy, but that hasn't been helping me much..