My First Panic Attack / Prednisone Experience

[Jrags87]

Thank-you for your time in reading what I have been going through, and really look forward to any comments.

[Brad72]

Hi Mate,

Cold's, flu's, viruses can affect everyone very differently but your description of the head cold can cause many of the symptoms you are describing. I for example have a head cold at the moment and feel spacey, a bit light headed, get hot and cold flushes at night but I know that these are just symptoms of being sick and therefore I can accept that it is what it is. I cannot fight it, I just have to make room for the head cold and let it run it's coarse. Can some of the colds symptoms mimic a panic attack, yes, but I know that they are just the cold.

I took prednisone on and off for many years and probably didn't like being on it but due to terrible eczema I had little choice. It's one of those things where the side effects needed to be tolerated as they were no worse than the eczema. For me the side effects were agitation, sleeplessness, and just a general feeling of being on edge. Prednisone is a steroid after all so this is to be expected. I was on quite a high does where I would take 6 tablets for 2 days, the 5 for 2 days and taper the dose down for a week till I took no more.

It does sound like you did suffered from an anxiety attack, which to be honest is quite understandable if you were feeling as bad as you did. Anxiety and fear are perfectly normal human feelings like happiness and joy so don't be hard on yourself. I think anyone in your situation would have felt the same way. Regarding the songs getting stuck in your head I bet you are saying to yourself "why is this song stuck in my head, I don't want it there". Well, if I ask you not think of a pink elephant, try as hard as you can not to think of a pink elephant, what are you now thinking of, a pink elephant I expect. Anxiety and the thoughts associated with it are the same. The more you try to stop thinking about something and try to rid yourself or fight with the thought the more it stays in your head. That's ok though. We all think, that's just normal. Not even Zen masters can stop all thoughts. The trick is to not pay attention to the song in your head and just let it be present. If you pay no attention to it will just go away.

A little exercise I do is is put my hands in front of me and touch my finger tips together as lightly as I possibly can. Concentrate on feeling all the fingers tips just touching. What you will find instantly is that you will stop thinking. Do this for short while then gently lift your eyes and look around the room and observe is as if you were an alien seeing it for the first time. Don't label anything or think about what you are seeing, just look at it. It really help is quieting your and help you to not focus on your thoughts.

You will get better and be kind to yourself and you obviously had a bit of a scare.

[alankay]

I bet it's anxiety as you said you were always a bit of a hypochondriac so to a certain extent a worrier. Just my take. Alankay

[Meche]

Your symptoms sound much like mine but in reverse :confused:. I started having sudden anxiety a couple of weeks ago because I couldn't sleep, would wake in a panic, feel dizzy, numb, very shaky and detached from reality. This happened every time I lay down to go to sleep. It was so bad one night I ended up in A&E because I didn't know what was happening to me. When I say this was sudden I mean in the space of weeks I've gone from being a healthy, rational, sane 38 year old to a complete nervous wreck. It's crazy. This would happen every time I went to bed and I ended up in a vicious circle of panic and no sleep which made it worse. 2 doctors told me I was suffering from anxiety, gave me diazepam and sent me on my way. Wasn't happy so went to my own GP who immediately sent me for bloods on Monday and suspects hyperthyroidism. Having looked up symptoms of this I can relate to lots of them. Still waiting for results but all this has left me feeling very nervous and has zapped my confidence.