ANyone else have panic attacks?

6 years and counting....

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with Goodi2shooz about medication- I never really like to take meds for anything, but when I first started having panic attacks, I needed to take medication so that I could get myself to the therapist. I never would have made it there without the medication, since my panic attacks were (and still are) brought on by the car.

I am having a fun new symptom of anxiety disorder called a cricopharyngeal spasm which feels like a lump in your throat all the time. It is annoying, but as with most panic/anxiety symptoms, it can usually be controlled if I can relax.

Anxiety and depression run in my family, by which I mean every single one of my mother's 8 siblings has problems, my grandmother had problems, her mother had problems, and so on and so on. There were also problems with the other side of my family, too. For a long time I thought I was not going to have problems, then I got into an argument with our landlady when we were preparing to move, and started having panic attacks soon after.

I have learned to do things to prevent them from happening in the first place- I travel at night, which helps, since I don't want to have to take a sedative. I DO take them when I need to though, so that my life isn't unduly hampered by panic attacks. I got a script for 10 sedatives last September, and I still have 4 left, so I don't take them often. I was in therapy for a while to learn relaxation techniques, but it didn't help a whole lot. I am just a type-A perfectionist, so real relaxation is very hard for me.

Also, I was attack free for about 4 years, and started having them again when dd was about a year old. Mine are different than what most people experience- I never have chest pain or feel like I am going to die or anything- I have very visceral panic attacks- I become physically ill and need to use the restroom. All panic attacks are different.

I'd be happy to talk to you about this privately any time. I found that talking about it and tlling people about it really helped this first time I had them. Another thing that really helps me is facing them- I basically put myself in situations I know will bring on a panic attack, because he more often I have one and make it through unscathed, the better I can handle the next one, or the less likely it is to happen in the first place. As I said, though, when it is crucial I go in tthe car with someone, I take my meds. I had a cousin who wouldn't seek help and ended up confined to her house for a very long time because she ended up aving panic attacks every time she left.


:hugz: Yes, there are others of us out here. Hang in there- you will get through them.

I also have panic attacks. So does my SO. He has many different meds (for OCD, Panic attacks, depression, and bipolar disorder), but I do not take any. I'm sorry to hear you share the disorder.

It helped me when I saw a therapist, and she taught me a bit of how to calm myself quicker. It doesn't mean they don't happen, but it's easier to break out of it. Though I have also come to cope with it, since it's been happening for a long time.

I get them when I'm outside alone and I feel like everyone is looking at me, and then I feel like I want to bolt to my car. I also get them when I get embarrassed and I freak out. Also with anger.

I do a lot of times try to ask myself "Is this something that really matters in the grand scheme of things?". I try to look at the future of the thing I'm panicking over/caused the panic attack, and sometimes when I see that it's not going to be anything major really, I can calm down a bit.

Sometimes they just come on for no reason, though, and that's the hardest thing.

I also have a family history of mental disorders (depression and anxiety, mostly). And, like Kimberline, I am also a HUGE perfectionist. If everything in my life isn't planned out completely, I get nervous. I get nervous if I can't see a clock. I always have to know the time. I get nervous/panicky over so many things, it's hard to count.

Hang in there, and good luck finding a competent doctor to help you handle this.

Years ago I was hit in my car on the interstate by a tractor trailer truck (decided he wanted in my lane and didn't care that I was already there). It was a very bad accident and I am very blessed to have survived. Driving on the interstate in heavy traffic and especially when I'm surrounded by lots of tractor trailers zooming along causes me to have panic attacks. My heart races, I sweat, get very shaky and start getting lightheaded/dizzy.

I have not sought medical help because I know my dr. here would just brush it off and prescribe something (would love to be able to change dr.'s, but that's a whole other HMO related rant). I do avoid drving on the interstate as much as possible, especially if it's something that requires a long distance of driving since I know I will most likely freak out (2 lanes of interstate here and plenty of heavy tractor trailer traffic). I have difficulty even when dh is driving and the big trucks are zooming along, changing lanes too closely, etc. and try to deal with it by closing my eyes and breathing deeply.

Well, it was completely impossible for me to get to the doctor, let alone the therapist, without my medication. At the time, I was new to the area I lived in and new to my job, so no close friends, my family lived 3 hours away, and my DH had to work, so he couldn't take me to my appointments. IF if tried to drive there on my own, I would start to pass out, becoming a very serious danger to myself as well as those around me. Which is why I needed the medication. I still have to respectfully disagree- not all anxiety disorders can be cured with therapy, for one, and two, I do think there is a place for medication. Diabetics aren't told they shouldn't take their medications, and I don't think anyone should be. I was in therapy with two different therapists for well over a year and a half and don't believe it had much of an impact on my panic attacks- it just doesn't work for everybody, and in my case, it may never work since there is such a physical thing going on in my family, and if you called my therapist, she would be the first one to tell you hat.

I do understand your point- my grandmother, who lived in a time when nobody knew what depression or anxiety was really all about, was addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol, and that is what eventually killed her, years after she stopped using them. Even so, I do VERY STRONGLY believe that there is a place for drugs in te treatment of some anxiety disorders. They need to be used carefully and people really need to understand what they are, what they can do, and their limitations. I firmly believe, though, that without mine, I never would have gotten better, and worse yet, I may have died- or killed someone else- in a car accident trying to get to my therapist.

I'm truly glad that the therapy alone helped you, but please try to understand than sometimes therapy needs to be used in conjunction with medication to truly help some people- we are all different and have differing severities of anxiety disorders. It should not be considered laziness or weakness on the part of the person taking medication- I have a friend who feels this way because of the way society responds to mental illness, and she is out of work and on th verge of being hospitalized again because she won't sek help for fear people will think she is weak.

:soapbox: Okay, I'm hopping off my soapbox now. You'll have to forgive me, but this is a special pet peeve of mine. There is such a stigma with any kind of mental illness as it is, it bugs me when people think it is a weakness to seek ANY form of help. My family has dealt with this so much that I am profoundly intimate with the issue.

We're all just trying to live our lives, KWIM?

I don't know that I have full fledged panic attacks, but I am also taking Effexor for depression and it has a anti-anxiety component, so that may have lessened the symptoms some. I find that I have them when my minds starts wandering into areas that cause me stress - like driving to our local Walmart. We drive across the area lake, and if I don't consciously watch it I start freaking out about "what if" we wreck into the lake? How would I get the girls out of the van and save them. My chest gets tight and I can hardly breathe.

So, now I try to go the back roads even though it takes longer. Traveling messes with me too, worrying about the tractor trailers and traffic on the roads. So, I take something to keep my mind busy - I can read in the car so a good book or crocheting, or I put in ear plugs and close my eyes!

My Mother had panic attacks terribly during menoapuse. She didn't go to church for 2 or 3 years and had a hard time leaving the house at all. I suspect that my attacks would be worse if not for my current medication. Also, I suspect mine are exacerbated by going through menopause.

I also feel that medication should not be discounted out of hand. Some of us just have a chemical imbalance that must be dealt with. It is a disease. My Father suffered from depression as did his father and mother, several of my aunts and uncles. Unfortunately both of Dad's sisters and one of my Mom's brothers were treated with electroshock therapy.

If I was diabetic I would do all I could, diet and exercise, but I would take my insulin! I know for a fact that I need this medication. I have been to therapy, and dealt with any issues, but the chemical imbalance will not go away with therapy.

JMHO