Aa
Panic/Anxiety Attack!!!
It had been a while since I had a full-fledged attack. Last night as I was getting up on the bus to get off (it was my stop to go home), my heart just started pounding so hard and so fast for NO REASON. I got off the bus and made it to the store on my corner, where my heart continued to pound and beat so fast and I got sweaty and I felt like I was going to pass out and I got this strange metallic taste in my mouth. The whole episode lasted about 10 minutes and then I started to calm down. It took everything I had not to go to the hospital because I was sure I was having a heart attack. I still don't feel quite right. I am so tired of this anxiety, I just want to be normal again! =(
I just read your post and it is so crazy. I have been experiencing the same thing. Last night My heart was pounding out of my chest I felt a feeling like I knew I was going to die. Then this metallic taste and weird burning in my throat/chest . My husband called 911 because I woke him up. When the Ambulance came and did my vitals I guess the fact that I was going to live calmed me down
But this wasn't the first and probably not the last and I hate it so much because my husband thinks I'm crazy and faking.Has this condition affected any of your relationships
M
But this wasn't the first and probably not the last and I hate it so much because my husband thinks I'm crazy and faking.Has this condition affected any of your relationships
M
I am sorry too about your panick attack...the post by JSGEARE is right on the button. Those are some of the main steps a psychiatrist will have you go over to determine if it's something you are conflicted about, etc.
What I wanted to add, is for me...it wasn't really about thinking about something negative that had happen or could happen to me..it was more physical. I suffered a herniated disc early last year and 3 weeks later on a cruise while walking around in the Dominican Republic, I started slowly feeling weak and out of breathe. Long story short, I had a major anxiety attack (no heart pounding, tightening in chest/throat and out of breathe). After everything was said and done with doctors, I recognized that my BODY was totally under major stress with the injury and that threw my system(hormonal level) out of whack.
Now, a year later, I still have anxiety (good days and bad days)..still healing from a herniated disc plus experiencing perimenopausal symptoms which one of the main symptoms is anxiety and panick attacks.
So therefore, if you rule out any emotional problems, you might want to consider thinking if your body is going through some major stress that you don't know about. My Physical therapist suffered anxiety attacks and they checked out her back and recognized that she too had a herniated disc. It took her 4 years to recover from anxiety attacks. But, it was her back that was causing all that underlying stress.
Hope this helps and gives you another direction for answers. God Bless.
What I wanted to add, is for me...it wasn't really about thinking about something negative that had happen or could happen to me..it was more physical. I suffered a herniated disc early last year and 3 weeks later on a cruise while walking around in the Dominican Republic, I started slowly feeling weak and out of breathe. Long story short, I had a major anxiety attack (no heart pounding, tightening in chest/throat and out of breathe). After everything was said and done with doctors, I recognized that my BODY was totally under major stress with the injury and that threw my system(hormonal level) out of whack.
Now, a year later, I still have anxiety (good days and bad days)..still healing from a herniated disc plus experiencing perimenopausal symptoms which one of the main symptoms is anxiety and panick attacks.
So therefore, if you rule out any emotional problems, you might want to consider thinking if your body is going through some major stress that you don't know about. My Physical therapist suffered anxiety attacks and they checked out her back and recognized that she too had a herniated disc. It took her 4 years to recover from anxiety attacks. But, it was her back that was causing all that underlying stress.
Hope this helps and gives you another direction for answers. God Bless.
As always, thanks guys for your encouraging words, I know I've said it before but I don't know how I ever got through any of this without you guys.
Cori, to answer your questions, yes I am currently on medication. I just started my fourth new med (Cymbalta) on Tuesday. So now I take Cymbalta and Klonopin daily, along with my cholesterol and BP meds.
So far today, I've been ok, just a bit wiped out and nervous. Hope everyone else is having a good day!
Cori, to answer your questions, yes I am currently on medication. I just started my fourth new med (Cymbalta) on Tuesday. So now I take Cymbalta and Klonopin daily, along with my cholesterol and BP meds.
So far today, I've been ok, just a bit wiped out and nervous. Hope everyone else is having a good day!
That was a classic, alright! Just for reference, have a look at Jess990 Help Right Now, posted yesterday. You guys need to do some hand holding right now while the rest of us circle the wagons and look after you. I swear to you, if we were actually living in the same neighorhood, we would be right there with you and the inability to do that is one of my greatest frustrations with this form. There should be a "teleport" button: Click here to teleport to member. Poof -there I go! Lousy, cheapo website, anyway.
But I digress.
You said, "NO REASON." I'm going to challenge that idea. Thats one of the reasons I wanted you to look at the Jess990 Post, because, based on her initial report, this was one of those "out of the blue" deals too. With all due respect and every tender thought for Jess, I must say, however, that there WAS something. It is almost funny (almost) when you read through the post and replies, and she reveals that she had just learned the check for the mortgage bounced -and her mother and father announced they are breaking up. Jess, God bless her, asks, "Do you think that could have something to do with it?"
Oy.
As for your episode, see if you can remember. Don't make anything up, but see if you can really remember: did that attack start before or after you stood to leave your seat on the bus? Was the bus still moving, even if just a bit. It may have been breaking to a stop. My point is this: that for panic people like us, changes in momentum and demands on our heart REALLY are a big, stinkin' deal! The demand on the heart is created when we stand up -especially while were on a moving platform. I don't care how fit you are -the simple act of standing up will spike your blood pressure momentarily and requires the little guys who work in the central control of our head to make adjustments. Is any of what I just suggested credible to you, Armor? Can you honestly say that the little scenario I just portrayed COULD have had something to do with it? And I don't care if it "never happened before."
OK, now: What were you thinking about just before your realized it was time to get off the bus? Armor, you don't actually have to tell me -but just get it in your head as to what it was. Were you sort of "day dreaming?" Maybe actually dozing? Looking at some attractive guy and letting your imagination run wild and free? WhatEVER. As I said, you can keep the actual thoughts to yourself, but be aware of what they were and think about whether a quick change from them might be disturbing, or whether abandoning the train of thought meant you left some unfinished business, mentally or emotionally. When you took leave of the bus, where were you going? Straight away home? Stop at the market or library or post office first, something like that? What was waiting for you at home or wherever you were going?
I know what you're thinking: "Stop analyzing me, damn you!" See, I'm psychic, too; I KNEW you were going to say that. But, enough about me; back to you. What I'm getting at with this mind probe thing I'm doing is that there possibly is as much a shift in thought or emotive content as there is in physical/spatial movement. Add the two together, and -for panic folks like us- there may be enough energy to set one off.
Something else: even though they may not have been in your conscious awareness at the time the panic started, there may have been "thoughts" in the back of your mind waiting their turn for you conscious attention. This sounds weird, and it IS weird, but if you think about it for a moment, it MUST be true. Look at it this way. When you read a book, you have the pages you have ALREADY read between the page you are reading and the front cover, and then the pages you have YET to read between the page you're reading and the BACK cover. Sort of a 'past-present-future' thing, right?
Now, if I asked you to tell me what you had just read 10 pages previously, you could NOT tell me, word-for-word, what it was, could you? You COULD, however, tell me the general idea and even fill in some details because you had just read that stuff. OK? OK.
Suppose I ask you to tell me what you had not YET read for the next ten pages -pages you have not even SEEN yet. Could you do it? Your initial response may be, "Idiot! Of course I can't, I can't predict the future!" And then you would be angry with me and we would have to cancel our cruise plans and everything. BUT, the truth is, you probably COULD tell me what those pages will say, even though you haven't even seen them yet. How is that? You would predict the content based on everything that you have read before, the title of the book, the cover notes, what your friends who read the book told you and every other piece of data about the material in your conscious awareness and unconscious storage and furthermore, you would do it instantaneously and furthermore AGAIN, you would, much of the time, be as accurate about what you have not yet read as what you just did read. That's all true, isn't it? OK, the cruise is back on.
Your brain, your thinking process, memories, ideation, feelings, etc. operate in somewhat the same way. The mere fact that we have not yet had the thoughts of 3 minutes from now does not mean the material that will go into them isn't being gathered up, awaiting its turn. And because we are smart creatures as opposed, say, to fire hydrants, we may even have some "back burner" stuff we promised ourselves we would get back to later. And then, there may be an agenda our subconcious mind also has, things like "You said you would fix that leak in the basement? Well, the leak is now a flood and the water is up to our knees down here."
Put another way, the thoughts we are going to have in a short while are by no means random: it is not as though there is some bingo machine that just randomly picks out a ball with a thought on it. That said, even though we know the thinking reflects some process, some kind of order, it does not mean we can look at a future thought right now -can't skip ahead as you could with a book. Or, if we do skip ahead, then we can't go back to the exact same spot because. NOW the mere act of skipping to the next thought has changed the whole story!
This is mind bending stuff and I don't play it all out here just to mess with your mind. What I'm really getting at is that there indeed WAS a reason for that panic attack. I don't know, Armor, that "replaying the security tape" over and over will necessarily pin down some shadowy figure who sneaked up on your brain. What I'm asking you to do is apply the above concepts and see if you can now detect how the panic fits in, how it "makes sense" in context.
Meanwhile, we all know exactly how miserable it is. You do whatever you need to do to give yourself the attention and live and kindness and safety and security to which you are so richly entitled.
But I digress.
You said, "NO REASON." I'm going to challenge that idea. Thats one of the reasons I wanted you to look at the Jess990 Post, because, based on her initial report, this was one of those "out of the blue" deals too. With all due respect and every tender thought for Jess, I must say, however, that there WAS something. It is almost funny (almost) when you read through the post and replies, and she reveals that she had just learned the check for the mortgage bounced -and her mother and father announced they are breaking up. Jess, God bless her, asks, "Do you think that could have something to do with it?"
Oy.
As for your episode, see if you can remember. Don't make anything up, but see if you can really remember: did that attack start before or after you stood to leave your seat on the bus? Was the bus still moving, even if just a bit. It may have been breaking to a stop. My point is this: that for panic people like us, changes in momentum and demands on our heart REALLY are a big, stinkin' deal! The demand on the heart is created when we stand up -especially while were on a moving platform. I don't care how fit you are -the simple act of standing up will spike your blood pressure momentarily and requires the little guys who work in the central control of our head to make adjustments. Is any of what I just suggested credible to you, Armor? Can you honestly say that the little scenario I just portrayed COULD have had something to do with it? And I don't care if it "never happened before."
OK, now: What were you thinking about just before your realized it was time to get off the bus? Armor, you don't actually have to tell me -but just get it in your head as to what it was. Were you sort of "day dreaming?" Maybe actually dozing? Looking at some attractive guy and letting your imagination run wild and free? WhatEVER. As I said, you can keep the actual thoughts to yourself, but be aware of what they were and think about whether a quick change from them might be disturbing, or whether abandoning the train of thought meant you left some unfinished business, mentally or emotionally. When you took leave of the bus, where were you going? Straight away home? Stop at the market or library or post office first, something like that? What was waiting for you at home or wherever you were going?
I know what you're thinking: "Stop analyzing me, damn you!" See, I'm psychic, too; I KNEW you were going to say that. But, enough about me; back to you. What I'm getting at with this mind probe thing I'm doing is that there possibly is as much a shift in thought or emotive content as there is in physical/spatial movement. Add the two together, and -for panic folks like us- there may be enough energy to set one off.
Something else: even though they may not have been in your conscious awareness at the time the panic started, there may have been "thoughts" in the back of your mind waiting their turn for you conscious attention. This sounds weird, and it IS weird, but if you think about it for a moment, it MUST be true. Look at it this way. When you read a book, you have the pages you have ALREADY read between the page you are reading and the front cover, and then the pages you have YET to read between the page you're reading and the BACK cover. Sort of a 'past-present-future' thing, right?
Now, if I asked you to tell me what you had just read 10 pages previously, you could NOT tell me, word-for-word, what it was, could you? You COULD, however, tell me the general idea and even fill in some details because you had just read that stuff. OK? OK.
Suppose I ask you to tell me what you had not YET read for the next ten pages -pages you have not even SEEN yet. Could you do it? Your initial response may be, "Idiot! Of course I can't, I can't predict the future!" And then you would be angry with me and we would have to cancel our cruise plans and everything. BUT, the truth is, you probably COULD tell me what those pages will say, even though you haven't even seen them yet. How is that? You would predict the content based on everything that you have read before, the title of the book, the cover notes, what your friends who read the book told you and every other piece of data about the material in your conscious awareness and unconscious storage and furthermore, you would do it instantaneously and furthermore AGAIN, you would, much of the time, be as accurate about what you have not yet read as what you just did read. That's all true, isn't it? OK, the cruise is back on.
Your brain, your thinking process, memories, ideation, feelings, etc. operate in somewhat the same way. The mere fact that we have not yet had the thoughts of 3 minutes from now does not mean the material that will go into them isn't being gathered up, awaiting its turn. And because we are smart creatures as opposed, say, to fire hydrants, we may even have some "back burner" stuff we promised ourselves we would get back to later. And then, there may be an agenda our subconcious mind also has, things like "You said you would fix that leak in the basement? Well, the leak is now a flood and the water is up to our knees down here."
Put another way, the thoughts we are going to have in a short while are by no means random: it is not as though there is some bingo machine that just randomly picks out a ball with a thought on it. That said, even though we know the thinking reflects some process, some kind of order, it does not mean we can look at a future thought right now -can't skip ahead as you could with a book. Or, if we do skip ahead, then we can't go back to the exact same spot because. NOW the mere act of skipping to the next thought has changed the whole story!
This is mind bending stuff and I don't play it all out here just to mess with your mind. What I'm really getting at is that there indeed WAS a reason for that panic attack. I don't know, Armor, that "replaying the security tape" over and over will necessarily pin down some shadowy figure who sneaked up on your brain. What I'm asking you to do is apply the above concepts and see if you can now detect how the panic fits in, how it "makes sense" in context.
Meanwhile, we all know exactly how miserable it is. You do whatever you need to do to give yourself the attention and live and kindness and safety and security to which you are so richly entitled.
Sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time lately! What you described is the classic panic attack. I too experience the metallic taste in my mouth during especially nasty attacks, and after hours of research I finally found someone who said that we are actually tasting the excess adrenaline in our systems. If you don't mind my asking are you taking any medication or seeing a psychiatrist/psychologist? If you choose the med-free route (as I did) and would like a doctor that won't force meds on you, see a psychologist, as I was told that they can't prescribe meds. If you are medicated I would recommend that you speak with a psychiatrist who can help you pinpoint the source of your anxiety, or purchase an at-home self-help program (as I did) to help you recover. It takes alot of effort to beat this thing, but you must consider how long it took and how many "blows" you took to get where you are now. You CAN recover from this. I hope you feel better today!
Cori
Cori
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