anxiety/panic disorder

King.

King.

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Dec 26, 2010
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ok so a few days ago I had my second panic attack. First time was about a month ago when i took an ecstasy (i think) pill which triggered probably the most scary moment in my life. Second time was not triggered by anything, it wasn't as bad but still pretty bad. ever since the second incident I've been pretty anxious and nervous/excited, can't eat/sleep properly, etc. went doctor and had a heart/blood checkup, results so far been fine.

Me and my doctor have both agreed on me not taking any meds yet. I generally have anxiety all the time but it's not been something I've actually thought about until now.

Things that have help me tremendously have been taking long walks and just talking about it with family/doctor. Also take your work easy. I've been stressing myself out a lot over money and career prospects, I've been helping my family out financially since i was a teen and have always had high expectations of my myself to go far etc, i think im finally realizing this kind of mentality can lead to what im going through now or worse, a nervous breakdown.

Anyone else here been dealing with a similar sort of thing? If so share your story and how you've been dealing with it.

Also there are a few related threads worth mentioning:
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/122259-stress.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/119716-any-panic-attack-sufferers-out-there.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/102733-anxiety-ridden-do-not-want.html
 


Yeah I've had some panic attacks, and I agree it's one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced. I find physical pain more pleasant, that's how bad they are.

I've had 2-3, the first 1-2 I bounced back from pretty quickly within 1-3 months I was pretty much recovered. But the 3rd one I had back in March, is still affecting me. Gives me social anxiety, some depression, feeling of uneasiness. I couldn't eat for properly for 2 weeks around April, and I never sleep very at night for some reason.

I've never taken meds either I just tend to tough it out and hope I can battle it on my own, although I do question sometimes if I'm doing the right thing as you feel like you're going mad.

I think mine are related to stress. Just an unbalanced lifestyle too, I spent to much time staring into a a computer. Working from home doesn't help either for me.
 
When I quit my job to go self-employed about 4 years ago, it happened to me too.

I was fine for the first 6 months and loving life -- then one day out of nowhere I had a HUGE panic attack. My breathing got heavy and frantic, my vision dimmed, heart was racing out of control and I felt like I was going to pass out. I had no idea what was happening and thought I was having a heart attack even though I was barely 28 at the time.

It was scary as shit and the first time anything like that had ever happened to me. I went the ER and they did some tests and everything checked out fine and said I just had an anxiety attack.

The worst part is I didn't feel like I was under any kind of stress at all and things were actually going really great for me. However, my body had a different opinion.

They had me visit a doctor that same week and I learned that these attacks can happen at anytime even if you don't feel stressed out. It was just so weird to me that I wasn't feeling stressed at all when it happened. The human body and mind is a crazy thing. I guess I was just working too hard and my body was saying "stop it bro lol".

It happened on and off for another few weeks where I'd have these episodes... and here I am 3.5 years later and it hasn't happened since. Still scratching my head about this one and why I had them to begin with.

Never want to experience another panic attack though, I will tell you that. They are downright terrifying.
 
Don't think too much about it and eventually it will go away. Try to live in the present moment and do every task the best you can. Always worrying about the future won't bring you anywhere. At least that's how I handle it
 
I got my first anxiety attack when I was 22. Shiitiest feeling I have ever experienced. After the incident, I found myself completely cut out from society. Socializing was out of the question when I just didnt want to talk.

Health took a toll coz of bad eating habits. I wanted to kill myself coz everything I was doing was triggering me to go deeper into my shell.

I narrowed it down to stress. I tried playing video games for a week with no work to see if it could help. It didnt. I never went to a doc, thinking I could take care of this myself.

My family suffered with me coz I never used to tell them what was affecting me. I made some bad business decisions back then which I know I shouldnt have.

Today, I can say that the only thing that helped me was love. I would have been sitting alongside the highway with a 'give me money' board if it wasnt for my friends and family.
 
MyOwnDemon said:
The worst part is I didn't feel like I was under any kind of stress at all and things were actually going really great for me. However, my body had a different opinion.
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same here, i was just watching vids on youtube when my heart started racing for no apparent reason. this was 5 days ago and im still sort of depressive/confused/cant think clearly, but im sure others have had it much worse than me. i had another anxiety attack yesterday but i managed to control it by walking for an hour. i seriously have no idea how bipolar people manage.

in a way i think it did its job of getting me active, i pretty much dont exercise or move around and hardly go out anymore. gonna start doing that more now as it really helps.

has it totally gone for you now, or do you still get anxiety?
 
i will tell u guys 1 thing - TAKE MEDS.
its sickness like any else and we dont live in tiem of jesus christ that will cure u.

take the fuckin meds before u will have to take even more hardcore meds or have to take em for life instead of few months or a year.
 
King. said:
Things that have help me tremendously have been taking long walks...
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Well there's a clue. Walking only helps while you're walking though - start doing some higher-intensity exercises like kickboxing, and don't half-ass it or you won't get close to realizing its full benefits. You've gotta feel destroyed after the workout.

Balanced nutrition too - vitamin B complex and oily fish (for the omega-3 and vitamin D) are especially good for mental health.
igl00 said:
i will tell u guys 1 thing - TAKE MEDS.
its sickness like any else and we dont live in tiem of jesus christ that will cure u.

take the fuckin meds before u will have to take even more hardcore meds or have to take em for life instead of few months or a year.
Click to expand...
Sorry, methinks bad advice.
 
Someone very close to me has a severe anxiety disorder and had very bad panic attacks (four or five a day, regularly) from the time she was 3 or 4 years old. They would often drive her to the point of vomiting and/or passing out. When she was a teenager, she started having anxiety-induced seizures a few times a week, every week. She started on medication when she was 12 (maybe 13), and it didn't help a noticeable amount. She lost jobs over this, and it kept her from doing as well as she would have liked to do in school. She dropped out of college because she couldn't handle dealing with people freaking out over her seizures all the time. She wasn't allowed to have a driver's licenses by doctor's orders. It all but completely dominated her life.

I introduced her to meditation about two years ago, and she now averages about one panic attack a week and one seizure about every two or three weeks. It was the first time in her life that it was safe for her to be alone for prolonged periods of time. She's now 24, and she's continuing to show improvement with just ~15 minutes a day.

If it can help her, it can help you. Just throwing that out there. Good luck OP.
 
potentialeight said:
continuing to show improvement with just ~15 minutes a day.
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I have entirely too much in common with the WF community.

I've suffered from panic attacks on and off for over 10 years, I had my first attack my early 20's and I had no idea what it was, I thought I was dying. It was a terrifying experience, and one that I elected to deal with by self medicating. While my excessive drinking kept my panic attacks at bay, it had disastrous side effects and as a result I descended into the hell that is active alcoholism.

After about 10 years of hardcore daily drinking, I got sober, and my attacks returned. Daily panic episodes that made it difficult or impossible for me to work or leave the house. Finally, at the urging of my business partners I saw a doctor who prescribed me clonazepam (Klonopin) .5mg/3 times daily.

The clonazepam worked very well, and I was very calm while I was taking it. My dosage never increased, and there was no abuse of the drug on my part. I felt like I had finally found something that worked. After about a year of clonazepam therapy I decided I wanted to be drug free. I began a benzodiazepene taper that lasted 6 months and was the most difficult and horrible experience of my entire life. I have no experience with SSRI medications for panic attacks, but I will warn OP to seriously consider the quick fix of benzodiazepenes. Take a look at "benzodiazepene withdrawal syndrome", it's very real, and it can last for MONTHS after the last dose.

These days, I still suffer from panic attacks, although with fewer MAJOR episodes. I deal with varying degrees of dizziness, vertigo, depersonalization/derealisation, tachycardia, and muscle spasms on a daily basis. However, meditation is the ONE thing I have found to have a positive effect on this condition. When I meditate daily, I feel better. It's simple and it's free.

tl;dr: medication will solve your problem temporarily, but at great personal cost, the problem is actually all in your head, and until you can train your mind to be still, you will continue to suffer.
 
Man panic/anxiety attacks fucking crippled me. I was having a few a day and couldn't even eat. I would often throw up from eating. Lost about 20 lbs in 2 months. Couldn't sleep either. Hell on Earth really is the best way to describe it. Tried to tough it out for a few months but to no avail. Got on Prozac and I haven't had any since then. I hate meds but I would rather be on them than deal with anxiety attacks several times a day.
 
Okay, I think I'm going to have to push the "high-intensity exercise" idea in this thread more aggressively, seeing as how the above three posters didn't mention exercise at all.

Exercise and Anxiety: High-Intensity Workouts Best

Seriously, try something like full-intensity kickboxing (disregard shit like tae-bo) for a few weeks and tell me you feel just as anxious as before. I dare you, I double-dare you motherfucker. Then you can kick the shit out of me afterwards.

What many people don't realize is that exercise has an enormous effect on the mind, especially high-intensity stuff. Elderly women who did resistance exercises showed improvements in memory and reduction in cognitive decline.

With anything involving high-strength or high-power movements (weightlifting, punching, kicking, etc.) your brain is responsible for half the force generated. Better-developed muscles are only half the equation - your neural efficiency (how good and how strong your brain is at sending signals to your muscles) has to improve that much more too.

All this is in addition to the physiological benefits of exercise, plus the increased confidence that you get from the knowledge that you can now kick the shit out of a greater number of people in the world than you could before.
 
handrewrites said:
Okay, I think I'm going to have to push the "high-intensity exercise" idea in this thread more aggressively, seeing as how the above three posters didn't mention exercise at all.

Exercise and Anxiety: High-Intensity Workouts Best

Seriously, try something like full-intensity kickboxing (fuck shit like tae-bo) for a few weeks and tell me you feel just as anxious as before.

What many people don't realize is that exercise has an enormous effect on the mind, especially high-intensity stuff. Elderly women who did resistance exercises showed improvements in memory and reduction in cognitive decline.
Click to expand...

Exercise has it's benefits as well, but it's particularly difficult to go run 5 miles when you are in the midst of a panic attack. Meditation is portable and you can do it anywhere.

What about diet and avoiding stimulants?
 
IceToEskimos said:
Exercise has it's benefits as well, but it's particularly difficult to go run 5 miles when you are in the midst of a panic attack. Meditation is portable and you can do it anywhere.

What about diet and avoiding stimulants?
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It's particularly hard to meditate in the midst of a panic attack too.

Exercise is portable to, people who want to exercise can easily find a nearby spot to run, do pushups and jumping jacks.
 
Buddy,
I had CRIPPLING anxiety and panic attacks. I contemplated suicide because I hated nighttime and going to sleep.

Turning on the TV and watching sports would usually calm me down since I could hyper-focus on sports (not news) and that wasn't stressful.

My panic attacks would happen in the middle of the night, where I'd wake up freaking out thinking I was going to die.

Definitely get some therapy, start exercising, and I recommend getting on appropriate medications.

Cut down (or eliminate) caffeine which can exacerbate anxiety (since it's a stimulant).

I also recommend reading books about anxiety and stress-reduction techniques.

Have you ever read Getting Things Done by David Allen? I found much of my anxiety was driven by the fact that I had SO MANY things going on and didn't write anything down or map it out on paper.

You have tons of resources available to you - and you are DEFINITELY not alone.

If I can help you out, or you want to talk, please don't hesitate to PM me.

Hang in there.
 
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Dwight Schrute said:
...I contemplated suicide...

My panic attacks would happen in the middle of the night, where I'd wake up freaking out thinking I was going to die.

Cut down (or eliminate) caffeine which can exacerbate anxiety (since it's a stimulant).

I also recommend reading books about anxiety and stress-reduction techniques.
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All of this. I'm looking at GTD now, and I think that much of my stress may in fact be due to the nagging subconscious idea that I have missed something important.

Also, I don't want to argue about meditation vs. exercise. I think it's more or less universally excepted that the mind and body are interdependent systems, to the extent that neglecting one will have a negative impact on the other.

inactivity leads to depression leads to anxiety leads to inactivity leads to...

It's a vicious cycle and for any kind of recovery to come, you'll have to break it in one or several places.
 
how do you guys know an anxiety attack is coming? Is it triggered mostly by being in a social situation? I always thought anxiety attacks were just some silly term used by shy people who just felt like nobody likes them and they didn't wanna be in that social situation and would close up. You guys make it seem like its a mental problem and you guys trip out and go crazy.
 
erifdekciw said:
how do you guys know an anxiety attack is coming? Is it triggered mostly by being in a social situation? I always thought anxiety attacks were just some silly term used by shy people who just felt like nobody likes them and they didn't wanna be in that social situation and would close up. You guys make it seem like its a mental problem and you guys trip out and go crazy.
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For men it feels like a heart attack. You get short of breath, start breathing quickly, and your heart starts to pound like crazy. You get cold and clammy, and start sweating like crazy. (At least I did)

Then, it feels like you are going to die. I would start freaking out and if I were by myself (which is when it'd usually happen) would start pacing all over the place. It's this feeling of impending doom.

You think, "I am going to die right now."

Sometimes it causes you to dry heave and even vomit because you are so freaked out.

I literally felt as if I were going crazy. I would have anxiety attacks in cars (while riding as a passenger - since I wasn't in control), and in a large crowd (like at church sitting between a shitload of people). Most of my anxiety attacks occurred while sleeping, which was brutal because you'd think sleeping would be peaceful.
 
so it is triggered by social situations? This isn't like some random problem that can happen to someone who doesn't have anxiety problems? It's normally people who avoid social situations and are afraid to be in public?
 
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