Anxiety/Panic attacks/disorders

[kella]

Hi there. It sure has been a while.

I've recently been away on what some people would refer to as a 'holiday', alas I am now referring to it as a nightmare. I won't go into explicit details, but for the sake of this topic, I came down ill whilst I was there (Sydney).

Now! I thought I just had some fluey type deal, fair enough, I suffered lethargy, blinding headaches and swollen glands in my neck and chest. The main thing was the lethargy and the sore muscles. I went to the outpatients section of the hospital to get checked out, just in case, and the doctor basically diagnosed me with 'a viral infection'. Ok. Fair enough. Unfortunately it got worse.

On the Tuesday that i was meant to be leaving to fly home again, I was having a shower in the morning, all fine and dandy, when suddenly my heart felt like it was going to pound straight out of my chest at one million miles per hour. I panicked, as most people surely would, and called my boyfriend downstairs to help me. Mind you I was still dripping wet with conditioner in my hair, ew. He helped me calm down a tiny little bit, I finished my shower in a total of about 5 seconds flat and got dressed. I then proceeded to go to the hospital.

Now whilst I was there, they did an ECG, put me on oxygen, told me I had an anxiety attack and gave me valium. And some more for the flight.

At the airport, I suffered another one. This one was decidedly worse, I was sweating, feeling lightheaded, my heart was racing and I seriously, for the second time that day, thought I would die. They got an ambulance for me and got me checked out again, said I'd be fine as long as I stayed calm and sent me on my way. (They said I could stay at the hospital overnight if i wanted, but i really just wanted to get home.) I took my last valium and flew home.

I went to the hospital again a few days after i got home. He got me to get chest xrays and blood tests done.

So. I now know that I have glandular fever, and i am suffering anxiety/panic. I'm also in a dire situation with my health in regards to a few levels of things in my blood, but that wont be too hard to fix. The hard part about this is keeping the anxiety under control whilst feeling all sort of jabbing pains through my chest due to the fever. As you could probably imagine, the pains are bringing thoughts like 'OH MY GOD IM HAVING A HEART ATTACK IM GOING TO DIE OHHHH GODD' which is kinda sad really, considering I'm only 19.

Now my question to you is, have you/do you suffer from anxiety or panic attacks? What do you do to help yourself through it?

I know that breathing techniques help quite a bit but sometimes its just so damn hard to keep your mind off of what's going on, and those thoughts make things considerably worse. I've read the first three Harry Potter books in the last few days, in between watching an assload of movies and tv just to keep my mind occupied.

The other thing that sucks is that i've now developed a fear of showering. My heart absolutely POUNDS when I'm in there, and I take no more than 4 or 5 minutes to shower. Any idea of how to overcome this?

Thankyou so much if you took the time to read this. It really is quite a scary thing to experience and it helps to talk about it and know as much as possible.

[Wind]

Cip who posts here suffers from anxiety and uses daily xanax, I'll be sure to send him a link to this post so he can share his own ordeal.

[Cip]

wooo a thread I can discuss something about on finally! So yeah I have anxiety disorders/ depression, I take xanax and wellbutrin daily, wellbutrin for depression, xanax for anxiety. Anxiety is worse then depression I think because anxiety is like a disease, its something you can not control and strikes at any time, for me its in the morning, Ill wake up and have an anxiety attack for no apparent reason. The anxiety I have was caused by depression, both which run in my family so the antidepressants and xanax combo in the morning have helped so much since I started taking them close to two months ago. My dad who is a diabetic had a very similar situation to you a few weeks ago, he was drinking the previous night and felt like shit so he figured it was a hang over, he too takes valium along with a shit load of other anxiety pills, so hes about to board the plane when he said he felt like he was going to have a heartattack so he went to the doctors and got off the plane, it turned out his blood sugar was just crazy low but your story kind of reminded me of it.

so yeah in short anxiety is bullshit and it can fuck up your life more then you think it would. and Im only 17 so even though you're 19, its not uncommon for people 16-21 to get this thing.

[No Sad Endings]

I suffer from generalized anxiety and social anxiety disorder (and moderate depression.) As for what to help you - why haven't the docs given you something like ativan?

Medicine helps me, and losing myself in mindless entertainment helps me. Very little else does.

[Cip]

My girlfriend (we're back together) suffers from depression and anxiety disorders as well.

yeah dude, in all seriousness when you have somebody you love with you it helps depression out so much too. I've had this depression over a year and I never knew what it was until I was by law ordered to therapy and take phystriactric help and I've had a girlfriend for a little over a month now and I would never have believed how much she helps.

and its good to hear you guys are back together

[kella]

I dont think they're going to give me anything until they can see its something I'm not getting over. I've managed to take a hold of it -somewhat- but it still gets me. I havent had a full-on attack since..day before yesterday i think, although Im getting them in the morning as well, as soon as i wake up i can feel it happening. My doctor wants me to see a psychologist at the beginning of next year to help me deal with stress etc. Hopefully that'll help out.

[DreamerGirl]

^Therapy could possibly help a lot.

I actually saw this movie (in a class of mine) about a man who had anxiety attacks so bad (starting in his car) that he ended up being afraid to leave his house and lived in solitude for a year. He saw a therapist, and eventually was even able to take a road trip across the nation without a single panic attack. Cognitive and behavioral therapy can actually be a big help, since medications tend to only treat the biological issues behind anxiety, it tends to stop working after you quit taking medications. With therapy, on the other hand, usually the changes are more permanent. Not to say medicines are bad, just not the fix all that some people want them to be. Like most medical problems, taking a pill is only part of recovery.

It might also be a help to read up on it for your own knowledge. I don't know for certain, but it helps me to read up about something when I'm dealing with it. It calms me down to know exactly what I'm dealing with and what causes it. It's also more proof you aren't alone in dealing with it. <3

[No Sad Endings]

Dude, panick attacks that severe *need* medication, whether they're something you'll "get over" or not. It's dangerous and unhealthy and you can't function normally if that's happening to you. They don't need to give you a lot, just like 10 or 15 pills for emergencies.

[DreamerGirl]

Yeah, but I'm just saying it should be half and half.

I'm a little ticked at the fact that so many people put people on meds without any therapy though. ^^;; It's my pet peeve.

[Pamuya]

ok, i have panic attacks. i take klonopin 3 times a day for them.

and tachycardia. rapid heart beat.

now, since you're in the shower, if you have these attacks, fill the tub with FREEZING (i mean as cold as you can get it, seriously) water. submerge your face in the water until you can't take it anymore and come back up. it will help calm your heart down to a normal rhythm. it reverts us back when we were sea mammals or something and naturally slows down our heart.

if you have them when you're not in the shower, or near somewhere that you can submerge your face in freezing water, this is gonna sound weird, but, pretend you're having a bowel movement. something about the muscles, i don't know. my cardiologist told me all this so i'm pretty sure it's legit. o_O''' though my tachycardia is pretty bad and it doesn't always work. :(

[kella]

About the pretending to have bowel movement (hold your nose and blow real hard) I tried that in the ambulance and it did jack shit. :( One of my doctors said I have tachycardia as well, but he said it should pass over time. They don't want me on medication until i've tried therapy and if that doesn't work then they'll look into something else.

As for the cold water, what about if i just turn the tap to cold in the shower? Or is it better just to do it to your face..? I managed to have a slightly longer shower this morning but it still shook me up a fair bit.

[Pamuya]

About the pretending to have bowel movement (hold your nose and blow real hard) I tried that in the ambulance and it did jack shit. :( One of my doctors said I have tachycardia as well, but he said it should pass over time. They don't want me on medication until i've tried therapy and if that doesn't work then they'll look into something else.

As for the cold water, what about if i just turn the tap to cold in the shower? Or is it better just to do it to your face..? I managed to have a slightly longer shower this morning but it still shook me up a fair bit.

i haven't tried it in the shower, but to totally submerge your face would be better. what i do is get out a big bowl and fill it with cold water and dunk my head in.

and yeah, the bowel movement thing doesnt work for me either, just throwin' it out there.