Looking for advice with panic/agoraphobia

I had my first panic attack when I was 20, it was a pretty bad one and they ended up taking me to the ER (I was in the Army doing "high stress" training.) I really didn't know what happened and it went away for 3 years. It came back during my senoir year of college. I found I could not sit through class, the background noises or something were making me panic and I just had to leave. I was still working and continued to for another 3 years while trying every anti-deppressent that the Dr.s would throw at me, none of them helped. My Dr. has me on 3mg of Clonzapam a day and 30mg of Remeron. Things have gotten worse and I lost my job about 6 months ago and I"m now at the point where I can barely go to the grocercy store with out panicking. At first I thought the Remeron was helping but now I'm not so sure, I spend all day feeling weird and that just fuels the panic. I also have had chronic diareha for about 6 months, after cancer was ruled out for that they have just put me on a large dose of prilosec and while that helps with naseua it does not help with diareha. I only mention the diareha because I always have a panic attack and have it followed by that. So now i'm 28 and jobless and don't know what else I should be doing. I'm trying to do CBT but I keep having panic attacks w/ the therapist and its not going so well, I use a book to try to work through it. So after reading all that I would love to hear any suggestions that anyone might have. Thank you.

[mystruggle]

how are you dosing your clonazepam? 1mg 3x's a day? or what? that is a decently high dosage and it should provide some relief. if none of the ssri's or the remeron is working and it's making things worse i would talk to the doctor about getting off them. unless you have some depression, you didn't mention that. what it seems you have is IBS, which is common with alot of people with panic disorder. it's called irritable bowel syndrome. usually when anxiety subsides so does the IBS. stay with the CBT and therapist. alot of docs don't like it and alot of people are against it, but in a very bad spot, some people use xanax for very bad panic attacks while on clonazepam, under dr. supervision of course. i would recommend an arobic exercise also. some jogging for atleast 25 min. a day. with your military background this should be hard to do.

i'm not sure if prilosec can halt the effectiveness of clonazepam or not. maybe something to look up online or ask you dr.

hope this helps some.

[greenlydia]

First things first here. Chronic diarrhea for 6 months is not a good thing! IBS is a possibility, but even IBS will not give you chronic diarrhea for 6 MONTHS! You need to get in to see a gastroenterologist and have a colonoscopy done. The sooner the better!! Unless you are drinking a lot of water, then you are probably severely dehydrated which can cause a lot of the symptoms you're describing.
Then you need to get back to your doctor and have a very long and serious discussion about your anxiety/panic! Sounds like what you're taking is not helping you very much, so I think a change is in order. Not every med will work for everyone.........these meds are not a "one size fits all!" You may have to try several before you hit on the right ones for YOU. Please do not put off seeing these doctors and getting some relief. You sound exhausted!
Keep us posted, we care!
Peace
Greenlydia

[greenlydia]

First things first here. Chronic diarrhea for 6 months is not a good thing! IBS is a possibility, but even IBS will not give you chronic diarrhea for 6 MONTHS! You need to get in to see a gastroenterologist and have a colonoscopy done. The sooner the better!! Unless you are drinking a lot of water, then you are probably severely dehydrated which can cause a lot of the symptoms you're describing.
Then you need to get back to your doctor and have a very long and serious discussion about your anxiety/panic! Sounds like what you're taking is not helping you very much, so I think a change is in order. Not every med will work for everyone.........these meds are not a "one size fits all!" You may have to try several before you hit on the right ones for YOU. Please do not put off seeing these doctors and getting some relief. You sound exhausted!
Keep us posted, we care!
Peace
Greenlydia

[greenlydia]

Sorry for double post...........apparently my computer is mad at me.

GL

[teacherman60]

I had literally thousands of panic attacks over a period of 20 years; probably a third of them left me out of commission for 2 to 3 hours and longer. I took three different medications for it. All worked. Clonazepam worked best and I am still on it after 24 years of continuous use. It is darn tricky to get off this med, but it seems that they all have their problems. I did not take an anti-depressant with the clonazepam, so perhaps your problem lies there. I am, however, disabled with severe depression now. I suspect the clonazepam, but I don't know. I am starting to reduce it now. This will take many months. I never took more than 2 mg a day once I settled into the rhythm of the med. When I started, 24 years ago, I went up to twice that dose and went into a manic state. Good Luck,

Craig

[cj29]

I was suffered my first panic attack in my mid 20's about three years ago.  I thought that I was having a heart attack and went to the ER.  They said it was just anxiety. Well, things started to go downhill from there.  Despite reassurances from the doctors, I became depressed and was even afraid to leave the house just like you.  Before that I was extremely confident in my abilities, I was a military officer with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, I exercised 6x a week, was extremely social and loved life, so naturally it hit me pretty hard, and especially in our military culture it is sometimes hard to accept something like this.

I started to get better once I started seeing a therapist and was put on some medication.  Now, at first I was against ANY sort of meds, because of what I had heard, but in my experience, they were a useful tool while talking it through.  By talking and learning about the anxeity/panic cycle I started to 'recover'  There were good and bad days, but in the beginning, I did not see any hope whatsoever, but my confronting it, little by little I noticed that I was beginning to get better.  I had done so much and never felt the kind of fear that this caused and it took alot more courage to face this than anything I had ever done (and I have been in some sticky situations).

I was panic/anxiety free for years until it came back this year.  However, I am able to deal with it so much better because of what I learned last time.  The knowledge gained by learning about this, is invaluable.  I also suggest joining this group.  There are many here that know EXACTLY what you are going through and genuinely care about how you do.  Feel free to ask as many questions as you want.

[Heather3418]

I am so sorry to hear that you are going through all this trouble.  It sounds like you have had contact with your doctor about the chronic diahhrea.  Have you been checked for Irritable Bowel Syndrome?  Sometimes, my friend, anxiety and stress along will trigger these bouts of diahhrea.  Get rid of the anxiety and the diahhrea goes away.

I assume that your doctor has done the proper testing to make sure there isn't another problem at work so I would suspect that your diahhrea may indeed be caused by nerves.  I know, I have been there.

If you find that your panic and anxiety is not being helped by present medication and therapy, then it's time for another call to your doctor.  You don't have to suffer this way.  There is help out there, but we all have to learn how to ask for it.  Something I myself, have a hard time doing, sometimes.  I think I know what's best for my body and I follow what "I" think, instead of contacting a doctor.

I suffered from panic and anxiety for over 20 years.  I went through extensive counseling and what they call "aversion therapy."  I think that's what it is called.  My therapist took me through panic attacks in his office, with his gentle voice and constant reassurance during the whole time that this panic attack was not going to kill me.

This kind of therapy is like when a person is afraid of elevators.  To "cure" the person of this phobia, a therpaist will introduce him/her to elevators, one step at a time, until he/she becomes desensitized.  This is exactly what my therapist did with my panic disorder.  While I was going through this therapy, I was on medication to help me through the rough spots.  If you are asking to yourself whether I was scared to "let those panic attacks happen," you bet I was scared.  I did start to notice that the more "attacks" that the therapist took my through the less and less I was afraid.

I realized after each attack, that hey, I am not as scared as I was when we first started.  I began to realize that no matter how bad the panic attack was, I was NOT going to die.  I felt like I was dying, for sure.  With each therpay session, the attacks were less and less intense.  Then my therapist started relaxation therapy.  Hypnotism.  It worked wonders for me.  Absolute wonders.

This intense therapy took me about 8 months to complete.  The panic attacks totally stopped. I was able to go off of any medication, but was kept on anti-depressants for awhile after that.  I was free again.  I couldn't believe it could happen.  I went into this kind of therapy as a none believer and came out free from panic.  I was amazed.

I could not believe how my life changed after that therapy.  Now many years later, if I ever "feel" like I am over anxious, I can take myself directly into the relaxation techiniques he taught me and poof, the anxiousness goes away.

This therapy may not be for everyone, but after I tired everything else out there, with no success, I found that this is the kind of therapy that finally rid me of anxiety and panic all together.  My irritable bowel problems disappeared also.

First, I recommend that you make sure that there is no other physical cause for your diahhrea.  Open a good dialogue with your doctor.  Then see if you can find a therapist that may use aversion therapy and see if it works for you.  Conventional therapy; talk therapy, is invaluable under all circumstances, when trying to get this monkey off your back.

I wish you well and most of all I wish you good health.  There is a big beautiful world out there, just waiting to be explored.  You CAN find relief from this constant state of anxiety.  It can be overcome.  I am living proof.

God Bless you and I wish you all the luck in the world.  Hang in there...you are among friends, who really DO understand what you are going through.

Best Wishes,
Heather

[panicmann]

Thanks to everyone for all your advice and sharing, it helps.  Its nice to know other people in the military have had similar experiences also.  Its very hard to accept that after ALL I have done (the panic attack in the army was in PLDC, last day) that I am reduced to not being able to buy my own groceries, but I know I need to accept that and keep working on agoraphobic situations.  I do have good news, I had a therapy appointment today and Dr.s are one of my current biggest fears because I have had so many panic attacks either with them or in the waiting room.  My goal in the morning was literaly to just get there and walk through the door, then I had planned on running away.  But somehow, I just kept going, got to the check in and made it through the wait, just as I was about to jet, the therapist came out and called me and I made it through 30 mins of an hour appointment.  So facing and over coming what I would consider to be a 9 out 10 panic situation was a very big win for me.  One thing that has me puzzled is that she suggested I might want to try seroquel.  I didn't mention before but I have run the gambit on anti-deppresants trying at least 10 of them for at least 3 months each.  Has anyone tried seroquel for panic?  It sounds pretty extreme and she admitted that she wasn't a Dr. and was just throwing it out there.  Ok, again, thanks for all the support.