How many panic attacks to you have a day? Week? Month?

Question

Hello everyone. :) 
I have a question I would like to pose this community. Any responses are appreciated. I'm curious how many panic/anxiety attacks you have in a day. (a week, a month). I have suffered from panic attacks for many years. Usually with meds. I still get 2-5 bad ones and a handful of moderate ones a week. I'm terribly curious how many you forumites get. Please let me know if you are taking medication or not. If so let me know what you take and how it's working. I looked for a similiar thread but didn't see one. I thought it would be a good place to discuss how frequently wee have to suffer these. Thanks guys! :)

BlueSun · Answer

Thank you for you replies, everyone. :) I appreciated you taking the time to share. It helps to hear other's stories. I hope to hear more. I'm going to look into having my blood glucose levels checked. If there is something that I can adjust diet-wise that will help, I would gladly do it. I've already stopped eating all processed food as well as white sugar and flour. I eat 6 small meals a day. I exist on fruit/veggies (steamed or raw), baked chicken or fish, whole grain breads (when I eat bread which is rare) nuts and beans. I wonder if this could be the problem? Maybe I'm not getting enough fat or sugar? I have tried a number of anxiety medications. The one that worked the best was Xanax. But, it still is not 100% treated. I know the risks and wish something else would have worked. I really don't want to increase my dose. I currently take 4mg a day. I also take an antidepressant (Lexapro- but this has stopped working. It seems all anti-d meds. stop working for me eventually. This is maddening because I also suffer from depression which has proven to be quite treatment resistant.) After a series of what can only be described as 'Hellish' events, as well as a genetic predisposition to panic attacks, I was having 5-8 a day (untreated). I thought that what I suffer now was nothing in comparison. I still suffer from anticipatory anxiety but it is better now than it used to be. Through cognitive therapy I have learned to talk myself through the attacks. It has helped to make them a little less traumatic. 
I have an appointment tomorrow morning with a doctor filling in for my regular doc. He has been ill. I'm going to address the anti-d issue as well as ask about my options for ridding myself completely of the attacks. However, I am adamant about not increasing my Xanax dose. Wish me luck. :)
I wish you all the best!

Alex_Rodgers223 · Answer

I usually have 14 panic attacks they usually last about 3 to 5 mins. But out of those 14 to 20 panic attacks they usually come out of no where and when I have a panic attack I fell like I'm going to faint but I try to stop myself before I do

RubyWitch · Answer

I use to get anywhere from 8-10 a month until my doc put me Xanax. I lived with such raging anticipatory anxiety, I really had no life at all. I honestly can't remember the last full blown panic attack I had........since I've had this disorder for so many years, I have learned how to listen to my body and know when I'm heading for an attack. With "mind talk" and deep breathing and fresh air, I can, for the most part, stave off the actual attack. For me, the best part is no longer living with the constant fear of having an attack. I know that Xanax is not meant for long term use, I know that it is addictive, or at least can cause you to become dependent. I'm quite sure I am one or both of those. But I have made a choice to live with that downside of the drug rather than lose myself to the anticipatory anxiety. And to those of you out there shaking your heads, I have gone off the Xanax, with the help of a qualified psychiatrist, three times in the past 6 years. All three times I remained anxiety free for about 2-3 weeks and then the attacks came back with a vengence. I was put on many, many other meds to attempt to control the anxiety, but none of them worked anywhere as completely as the Xanax did. Each time I went off the Xanax, I was taking 2mg. I would start back on at the lowest dose but had to keep increasing it to the 2mg which seems to be the magic number for me. My prescription reads: Take 2mg TID as needed for panic...........for non-medical types, that means I could take as much as 6mg per day! I have NEVER taken that much. There have been a few times over the years that I've broken a tab into 3 parts and taken one of those parts when I get that "feeling." I have a very bad habit on these forums to go off about ME when it should be about YOU. For this I apologize. I do NOT recommend Xanax as a long term fix for panic disorder. The fact that it seems to be the only thing that has worked for me is unique to ME. Obviously the meds you are taking are not controling your anxiety and you need to address this with your doctor or therapist. I wish you luck in finding the med that will give you your life back. And as has been talked about here, make sure you get a really good physical which includes testing your blood glucose levels and I recommend you have your thyroid tested as well. Panic attacks can be the result of your body's chemistry being out of balance, so rule out as much as possible before depending on drugs to "make you right" when it might be a simple fix like eating a banana! Keep us posted.
Greenlydia

brown90 · Answer

My panic attacks are not everyday, not even every week. I can go for a year without them but then once I get them they are severe. They last 20-30 minutes each and I have them all day long. I lay on the couch curled up trying to talk myself out of it, thinking I am loosing my mind. I do get the tingling sensation in my back at least once a week, which for me is a sign I'm getting panicky, but I talk myself out of it by breathing through it and then it usually goes away. I'm currently taking Lexapro and have Xanax for when they hit, but truth be told the only reason I still take the Lexapro is because of the withdrawl symptoms. I dont fee I need it every day. But until I get some therapy I will stay on it. Great question and if anybody else only has panic attacks like mine, please let me know.

JSGeare · Answer

MOST INTERESTING...

My g/f a former panic victim (fancy that) reported to me one day that she was feeling a panic attack coming on -just like that! We started to talk it through. All the signs were there, the deer-in-the-headlights look -everything.

Turned out, she needed to eat! She is a diabetic and for whatever reason, her blood sugar had fallen through the floor. She diagnosed this herself -we tested her blood, and sho 'nuff, the she way running on "empty." So, after some cottage cheese and crackers, guess what? Panic GONE.

Now, it so happens that she had been on a very strict (too strict, I said) diet for some weeks before then and her eating habits were not regular -so I think she got nailed by a fluctuation that was like panic. Maybe, for all intents and purposes, it IS a panic attack.

And for a very good reason! And easily resolved.

Whether or not we can completely write off the panic episodes to some change in our "sugars" is an open question. But, given that the glycemic factor can certainly bring on the feeling of panic, all sufferers would do well to make sure that avenue has been thoroughly investigated -and to eat foods of such kinds and at such times and amounts that they tend to maintain the chemistry, rather than challenge it.

Great post!

klanac · Answer

I usually get mine in the night also and it wakes me up. I used to get them many times a day and now have been reading books on Hypoglycemia and many of these symptoms are the same as 
GAD. I have been changing my diet and it seems I don't get as many. One lady who was hypoglycemic felt like I did. I would sweat, panic and my ears would shut down. It was like my ears would plug up. Now I don't get that anymore when I have been eating the snacks between meals instead of waiting for 3 meals a day. I use to get weak and heart palps and never realized it was from not eating soon enough. Does any of this sound familiar to you? I read where a person gets them in the night because our blood sugar gets low and then we wake up in a panic so you should have some nuts or snack to eat and you will beable to get back to sleep.Try it at least.

JSGeare · Answer

Panic free for over 6 years now (no meds), but in my throes the range was from 1 to 3 a day and the increasing severity and an alert physician finally got me in front of a psychiatrist.

Ultimately, the meds to control them plus talk therapy to root out the causes proved succesful. Since completing therapy, I understand more about the mechanism of panic and anxiety but mostly, I understand more about ME.

Although I've been free of the problem, I am by no means free of the memory and the agony, and will do everything and anything I can to be of service to those who suffer with it now. I'm just very damned glad to be able to say, "there is a way out."

Angie162 · Answer

Mine vary.  I notice in the middle of the night a couple of times a week is when I have an attack. It is soooo annoying, becuase it is difficult to fall back asleep.

WorriedScared11 · Answer

i get one a day...and its always bad...lasts 4-8hrs.

MMomma · Answer

i kinda have ruff weeks for the most part during the day if im at work with family etc im ok i alwas feel a bit out of it with lack of concetration but im ok. at night ( sundown syndrome) night time . bed time., or whe im alone is when my panic is worse.

kalmkidd

How many panic attacks to you have a day? Week? Month?

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