My symptoms are getting worse please help

[mr v 1985]

Hi Im new to the forum and going through a rough patch theses past few monthes i had a panic anxiety attack about 2 monthes ago and since then ive been getting worse ive been to my gp they recon its anxiety but havent offered me any help for it 2 days ago i reliazed how bad my anxiety is that is if it is anxiety my syptoms are breathing very werid and out of rythem light chest pains palpitations i cant exercise because my breathing goes werid and out of rythem and nearly have a panic attack i get nauseated alot muscles tension contantly trembling Being easily startled

and recently ive started becoming confused dizzy hard to concentrate and its really worries me i cant sleep of a night coz i feel like im going to pass out so i stay up alot more untill im very very tired i even scared to hold my breathe because i feel im going to pass out

ive spoke to my doctor they have checked my lood pressure which is fine checked my heart which is fine but i havent spoke to them about the dizzyness and confusion as of yet

but has anyone got the same symptoms or knows what this is i have or just can put me in the right direction for help

sorry for the long meesage and its not written to well but if anyone can help it would be much appriciated

Thanks J

[Charlene]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I hope you find that reading other people's posts helps to comfort your mind.

Your symptoms are very typical of anxiety sufferers. At the risk of boring everybody out there who often visit this forum, I'll keep repeating myself anyway, because I believe what I say might help calm you a little.

Shaking, trembling, sweating, feeling dizzy, feeling pressure over top of you, feeling your heart pound and skip and jump, feeling like you're not getting enough air, feeling like time is running out, feeling rushed, feeling nauseaus, having diahrea, cramps, bloating, headaches....the list goes on and on.

We all have similar symptoms and as unbearable as they feel to you, they're nothing to be afraid of. I know, easy for me to say. Okay, I'll back up a bit. You're afraid. And that's okay. It's completely normal to feel afraid of those strange, unwanted body sensations. But you need to tell your brain that the symptoms you're feeling are all linked to your anxiety and nothing more. They can't harm you. It's you, your thoughts, that is making you scared of your feelings. Your fear of those physical feelings is making you focus more on them, hence, why they feel like they're getting worse. The more you try to shut those feelings out and the more you forcefully resist them, the more they'll push back at you. It's a cycle that you have to try and break. It's very, very difficult to do though. But with practice, you can overcome anxiety and panic attacks and you can learn to manage stressful times with greater confidence and ability.

[coops025]

Hi and welcome

Ok breathing is a tough one to deal with, some people say try breathing exercises and some say let it happen. I personaly just let it happen as i cant seem to control the way i breath.

Now with heart and muscle tremors, these are common with Anxiety and are often linked to a lack of Magnesium within your body. Magnesium is used by muscles to relax after being tense, for example if you clench your fist the open your hand, when you open you hand Magnesium is needed for you to do this. What happens is your boday will take whats little Magenesium is left from the non vital muscles and take it to your heart etc, thus causing tremors in you hands, legs and arms. Heart flutters can be a sign of a serious lakc of Magniesuim. You can buy suppliments off the shelf to get it back to a normal level.

Nausia and dizzyness is normally caused by over breathing and also by you conentrating on you symtoms making your mind over active and tired making these symtoms worse. You can try Peppermint tea, ginger and if your symtoms are very bad, your Doctor can sort you out with some Stemitil medication that works pretty well.

Its not uncommon to have a long list of symtoms with Anxiety and its best to target on at a time like i did. It seems to me that your heart is under some king of pressure esculating all your symtoms. If i was you i would take a good look at your diet too, i cant stress enough how bad caffine and suger are for us Anxiety sufferes, you really need to cut this out of your diet completely.

Like Charlene said this sytoms will not harm you and you need to know that its just your body re-acting.

Now is the time to set an action plan, please dont go away reading every website you can find about this, it will only make you worse.

Anxiety will not go over night but it will ease after a few weeks if you stick to the advise i and Charlene have given.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you are getting on.

[TULA]

Hi & welcome.

I can only re-iterate what Charlene and Coops have said.

You have obviously been caught up in a viscious circle which is now hard to break.

You can't always control what happens to you but you can control how you react to it.

React in a positive way. I know this sounds obvious and easy but you have to work at it.

You are what you think you are.

We are all driven by our thoughts ,so work on controlling these.

There is no fear except the thought of fear.

If you hold still long enough then things will start to calm down

You say you get breathless when excercising, have you tried walking? Not power walking but a nice easy pace. This also relaxes and gives you time to think things through at the same time.Again think positive. Think of the good times you have experienced.

You will come through this, keep practising and good luck.

[Constantinos]

Hi and welcome to the shitty world of panics,,

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