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Anxiety Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to generalized anxiety, anxiety and eating, anxiety and sleeping, mood swings, and phobias.
Help! Am I having panic attacks?!!!
by Juddan, May 28, 2007 12:00AM
I originally posted this as a comment by accident, so sorry if I'm repeating myself to some of you. I am desperately in need of advice,also. I don't know if the symptoms are causing the anxiety or the anxiety is causes the symptoms. I am normally a laid back person and stress generally does not bother me. My life has been one big stressful ordeal and I've learned how do deal with stress or at least thought I did. There have been some major things happen just recently that makes me think this could be anxiety and panic attacks but then again I keep thinking maybe I'm going to have a massive heart attack or have lung cancer. And then I think it just might be stomach related so then I try taking tums and mylanta but that doesn't do anything to relieve it. It gets so bad at night that I lay there and think all these awful things that could happen to me and I think I'm driving myself crazy. About 3 weeks ago I started having a weird discomfort in my chest and thought I'd just over done it steam cleaning my carpets but it never went away. Then I started getting weird spasms in my upper stomach area that made me think it was stomach and a constant feelling hungry. Now I'm getting attacks that come over me that feel like if I stand up I will pass out and my heart is beating like crazy and I need to put cold washcloths on my face and neck to bring me back to reality or something. I'll feel a terrible need to urinate but if I get up I'll pass out. I'll lay awake at night and my chest feels weird and my heart beats like crazy and I'm afraid to go to sleep because I might die. This will go on for hours some nights. Are these panic attacks or do I really have something horrible? And when I'm not actually feeling all of this I still have this almost constant feeling in my chest, a sort of discomfort. And also an almost constant feeling of how it feels when you know you're the next one to get up to give a report in class. And no, I'm not a student, I am a 48 yr old happily married women with 2 grown sons. Am I going crazy from panic or anxiety attacks or should I get to a Dr. which I can't afford and find out I'm dying some from terrible thing? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Juddan
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What you have described can definitely be anxiety-based however, you could also have an underlying medical condition that requires treatment.... there are MANY NON life-threating conditions that could such as thyroid disorder, change in hormone levels etc. that could induce the symptoms you describe. I strongly advise you to go to the doctor and get a full physical exam to determine the route cause of your aliments.
You sound miserable right now and "not knowing" is not going to help your cause and will prevent you from getting the treatment you need to live your life (whether that be antianxiety medications and/or therapy, or a potentially life-saving operation).
My husband has a family member who suffers from panic attacks, and she had trouble finding the right medication to take care of the symptoms. I have no idea if this is a neurological issue or not, but a doc could sure figure that out. I hope you do figure out what is causing your sypmtoms.
Kathleen
Some resources on panic attacks
http://www.jumpmom2.snappyshop.com/search.cgi?affid=jumpmom2&search=panic+attacks