Symptoms that you experience when you have a panic/anxiety attack?
I have panic disorder brought on by PTSD. One day I was just "different" and then I have a Panic Attack.
I am now on medication and have finished thearpy. I still get the start of attacks but now where near how it was in the beginning. I am pretty good at controlling.
My biggest and WORST symptom is the "unreal" feeling. As though I am watching my life from outside. It is SO SCARY. Dr has told me that it is just a part of it.
My husband and I just bought a new house, I lost my best friend and my Mom is getting married in a week. I have had a lot going on and I feel as though I have been handeling things OK but tonight I sort of freaked and felt "out of it" and as if I was going to go crazy.
I am stuck awake and can’t sleep. I don’t want to eat and dont’ know what to do. It is just hard to feel alone in this.
I am just wondering what other people feel. Do you actually feel stressed when it happens or does it just come on like it does with me?
Blessings.
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Tags: best friend, blessings, medication, mom, panic attack, panic disorder, ptsd, sleep
I have ha panic attacks so bad that my whole body would go numb,it is frightening I would call my sister or brother and they could usally talk me out of itm,I have noticed that if you will let it happen and not fight it it doesnt last as long,but I eventually started taking paxil cause they were wearing me down,and Ive been on paxil for 6 years and have not had an attack since Ive been on paxil.
Oh my god, thank you for coming on this board, seriously. I get that unreal feeling all the time, I never used to get it, but I used to get panic attacks all the time.
Now I get the unreal feeling, then the panic attack sets in. It just randomly happens. I haven’t gotten medicine for it, sometimes I wish it would just go away by itself, forever. :/
That feeling is so terrifying, I didn’t know it was part of a panic disorder, though.
I get that same "out of it" feeling!! Noone understands what I mean when I say that! Its sooo scary! I also think I am having a heart attack! I have spent too many hours in the ER being told to go home because nothing is wrong with me. then mysteriously I’m fine! I guess I just need to hear a Dr. tell me my heart isn’t getting ready to explode. I was on Paxil and took myself off of it because I didn’t want to be dependant on it anymore. The panic attacks are coming back and I am so upset because I really thought I would be fine! I wish I could stop them without drugs!!
i’ve been through that. i would pull over on the inter-state cuz i couldn’t see and i would almost pass out from breathing to hard. i still have them, but i have learned to recognize situations that are likely to bring them on. i don’t like big crowds, especially strangers. i go to the gym sometimes and feel one coming on……i think it’s becuase i feel inadequate(eventhough ii know i’m not) in some situations.
my husband and i go to his work functions and i get that feeling like the walls are closing in, even when i know the people there. i don’t feel stress, i feel fear. irrational, unescapable fear.
i gave up on meds. they made me feel worse…more out of control. i had to get into my own head. i hade to get a handle on my own stress, and what caused it. it’s different for each of us.
You’ve been handling things amazingly! After all these changes and loss you’ve held it together until now, and so what if you’re at the end of your tether right now?
In therapy you would have learnt about the cumulative nature of stress and how triggers can seem really innocuous but pack a big punch if they’re one on top of another?
So, the floaty weird dissociated feeling is part of coping, but you’ve got other coping skills. like, grounding techniques (smells, sounds, tastes), relaxation techniques (muscle tension / release, exercise, warm water over your feet or hands). You would have learned about the link between scary thoughts ("oh my god it’s happening again, I can’t cope" etc) and the panicy feeling that gets attached to it.
The horrible detached ‘unreal’ feeling is an automatic way of managing anxiety and it’s perpetuated by the worry about what it is and what it means. You’re not going mad, or going to die. Doing things like the grounding exercises, practicing cognitions like ‘it’s going to pass’ will help. Make sure that your supports understand that you’re feeling stretched at the moment as well, and let them support you – probably hard to do but important, especially given the grieving that’s there too.
Best wishes.
You poor thing. it is so hard.
I am just starting to suffer from them. Your post so hit the nail on my head. Thank you for that.
Take your medicines as prescribed. And try not to read the news or watch any TV. Unless it is like a orchestra concert or a real old funny B&W movie.
TV has so much effect on us.
Read the Bible. Especially the Psalms. Psalms 72 is coming to my mind.
I can only pray and cry. I still get nervous and all anxieous. I am tonight.
Take deep breaths and dismiss those things out of your control.
Your mom’s getting married, tell yourself it is her choice it will not effect you. Or if it is the wedding, tell yourself, you know what you are wearing, the kids are wearing and you will take a bottle of water to drink. You know on those lines. ( Like get in control all you can, adn do not worry about what you can’t)
I had to do that tonight. My husband worries about everything and dumps on me. I have been telling him to quit dumping on me. There is nothing I can do, at the time, so why should I spaz? I finally had to raise my voice and tell him I just cannot cope with something I can do notheing about until tomorrrow.
or he says he can’t hear me, even though I have talked louder and repeated myself up to five times. I decided tonight, it was stressing me too much. if he cannot hear me, then that is not my fault and I am under no obligation to make myself be heard. ( he has a beltone, but refuses to wear it, or tunes me out, or says he forgets)
That has helped me calm down a lot.
I hope my ramblings could help you. I am sorry if they can’t.
Oh and spell check is so off tonight, that words that are gibberish is passing through it, so please forgive my spelling errors.
I truly feel for you I have had horrible panic attacks for years, yes like you I get that horrible "unreal" feeling , there is no worse feeling like it! I see a psychiatrist once a month , he has me on medication, it helps to a point, like you, I have learned to control the attacks a little better through the years,still all the stuff you have going on in your life, you bought a new house which is great but maybe in the back of your mind the fear of expenses, new neighborhood, not familiar territory yet can make you feel over whelmed without realizing it. Then you lost your best friend, I am really sorry! That alone will give you that "unreal" feeling! Then your Mom is getting married in a week, even though it is a happy occasion there is still a lot of stress, you deep down inside are probably saying to yourself "I hope she will be happy" even if he is a nice guy it is your Mom and you care about her,
Then you have to worry about getting the right dress for her wedding, stress, stress stress. I can’t sleep at nights either,for years I felt alone like you, if you don’t know someone who is suffering with the same thing the world can be a lonely place.
To answer your questions years ago when I first got the HORRIBLE unreal anxiety attack feeling it would just come on and hit me, especially when I ‘d go out to a store, for a walk, or to work , then it turned into agoraphobia from it, fear of open or public places cause it happened so much I was afraid to go out, the fear of having an anxiety attack of that horrible unreal feeling would paralize me. Now years later for me to feel that it is almost always brouht on by stress, once in awhile it hits me from out of the blue but mostly now it’s stress.
If you need to talk click the owl photo it will show you my profile page and on the upper right hand side you will see where you can e mail me.
Good Luck!
God Bless You!