Is anyone else's anxiety/panic feeling constant???

[KellyAnn016]

I am almost always experiencing some kind of odd feeling in my head... or some other symptom. My brain seems to be always wired and it is impossible to concentrate, let alone all the other symptoms of anxiety (nausea, derealization, blurred vision). This happens all day and night..sometimes only a little sometimes a lot, but it never goes away completely. My doctor suggests that this constant feeling isn't normal for anxiety, as anxiety comes in waves. Does anyone else experience a constant wired, anxious feeling? He suggests that I see a neurologist... or some doctor specializing in internal medicine. Thoughts?

[tedium]

Read some books by Peter Levin about PTSD and trauma.  You will probably see yourself there.  I have PTSD.  I have had multiple recognizable traumas so that has helped with diagnosis.  But, there really is no cure and I am finding that the medications help for a time and then your fears begin to include being about the medication side effects, tolerance, etc.  For people with GAD and PTSD who know they have had specific traumas, it helps to have a starting place to point to.  However, many people can have PTSD and trauma feelings and thoughts like the ones above even from pre-natal or birth trauma that they don't about.  Or something that may have happened to you when you were too young to remember or your brain may have blocked it from your memory.  As an adult, after going through a lengthy life-threatening trauma, I had "forgotten" very threatening parts of it until later.  I have had flashbacks about particular events during that situation as late as 10 years afterwards.  It is shocking.  The brain initially does this to keep us capable of responding in emergencies.  However, the brain hides a lot from us.  We may not even know why we are having panic attacks, crying, and reliving the trauma on certain dates or by being triggered by things we see or hear.  I nearly died at birth.  My mother and I were both about to die.  My father was signing the paperwork to allow the doctor to take my life and save my mothers.  I was born a few minutes later.  However, I have been traumatized all of my life just from this birth experience.  I was a stoic, anxious toddler.  My entire life, I mainly remember ALWAYS waiting for something bad to happen and always predicting how I would survive it.  Because I was already at a high level of anxiety from birth, any time I feel traumatized by anything (whether a real trauma or my brain being triggered), my anxiety is higher since birth than the average person.  All of our brains are just as different as they are similar and even scientists know very little about our brains and their triggers.  Anxiety causes many different brain and body chemical reactions every single time.  Trauma shrinks our hippocampus, messes with our vagus nerve which is probably causing the fainting of one poster, and millions of other symptoms.  As someone else stated, it is a lifelong battle once it starts.  I am on medications, but I don't like them and I'm not sure they haven't made things worse over time.  They are also designed to make you need them.  IE:  Research shows that if you have ever taken any antidepressant, you are much more likely to have thoughts of suicide forever after....especially if you get yourself off it.  Check out Peter Levine's work.  Also, the work of Jon Kabat Zinn.  New research is showing that changing your own brain (and these two have CDs to help) and exercise works very well.  For me, this is so hard.  I have their CDs.  I've read some of their books.  But, I have trouble making myself do it as much as I need to.  I also have difficulty exercising any more.  I don't know why.  It feels like every minute is an hour and I am exhausted.  But, I have to say that the more I have studied PTSD, the more I know our doctors don't understand it at all.  

[Emilyv16]

After reading all these comments I can exactly relate to yours. Had a panic attack about a week ago after eating some food at a restaurant... Thought I was on drugs or something but after visiting the ER I learned I had only had a panic attack considering nothing was physically wrong with me. I've had a few other panic attacks since then but I have also had that constant feeling of anxiety. Haven't really felt normal since. My head seems light I feel somewhat dizzy and like I am floating sometimes. Also finding it hard to put things into realization and always feel like im in a dream. The more I think about it the worse it gets. And when it gets bad I panic and it sometimes leads to a panic attack. Waiting for the day all of this just goes away but knowing that it probably won't is just depressing me.

[KellyAnn016]

Thanks everyone for the support! It is comforting to know I am not alone in these symptoms, it helps the logical part of me realize that it is just anxiety and not anything else. My mind does wander to worst case scenario often. Well I have been off of any meds for almost two months now. Once I got through the withdrawal symptoms if lexapro the dizziness, nausea and derealization went from about a 9 to a 2 on a scale of 1-10! However now that it has been a while I am back with the same anxiety that made me want to start meds in the first place! It is a vicious cycle! I saw my p-doc today and she prescribed Buspar... Which I am hesitant to take! :) Hope all is well with all of you, I read each and every one of these posts and have you all in my prayers!

[jeffanxiety]

I feel the same way.  And I have never been on any meds.  I am about to try Lexapro.  I have heard good things about it and GAD.

But my symptoms were the same as you.  I am 30 year old male now, but all my life I would have bouts of panic attacks now and again.  But fairly manageable (of course they did not seem manageable when having them, but you know what I mean)

Of late it is not so much panic attacks, it is just a constant state of worry, and anxiety, tough to sleep, tough to work, tough to eat or do anything but see if anyone else feels this way.  

It has been awhile since your post, how are you doing?

[nursegirl6572]

I agree with you...if you're 4 months into the Lexapro, it wouldn't be the initial start up side effects causing your symptoms.  What other meds have you tried?  Have you ever tried Zoloft?  Zoloft and Lexapro are the easiest to tolerate for the majority of people, and they both have high success rates.

As for your test...keep this in mind...Klonopin has a VERY long half life, so even though you may feel a LITTLE more anxious than normal with not taking it for two days, it will still be in your system.  Just remember, it will only be until the test is done, then you can take it again.  Doing the test is important, to rule out any medical problem.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!  I'll be thinking of you!

[Dizzyblonde777]

Kelly, can really relate to the tests being done and how you are anxious about even going to them!  I was so anxious about having the "tilt table" test and the month-long holter monitor that I cancelled those tests and then unfortunately the panic attack let to the seizure I described earlier on the city bus.  So with my tail between my legs I described to the doctor the reason that I cancelled was because I was too scared to go!  Because I do not drive; one of the tests involved fasting for 48 hours, no clonazepam and then taking a 5 a.m. city bus to get to the hospital for a 7 a.m. appointment where I would be velcroed to a table and be not only monitored for 90 minutes but they would actually try to induce fainting/seizuring under a doctor's supervision!  CAN YOU IMAGINE?  I am the kind of person who jokes constantly (a nervous thing) and so I told them that that was insane to expect anyone, let alone a person with panic disorder to show up for such a test!.  I am the single mom of 3 kids, with nobody that would drive me at that hour.  
So now, they have a social worker who will be accompanying me to any or all of these appointments, and if I make it out of there with any sanity in tact, I swear, i will write a book!  Glad you are feeling less alone...me too since I discovered this site.  You sound like a wonderful lady.