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adrenaline/anxiety rush ..please please help

I am really praying someone will be able to help me with some advice. I really have not wanted to take any medicine atall for this but now I am scared for my health. I am a single working mum ( i do have a boyfriend since a while though but our relationship is stressful ). I have hectic adrenaline rushes that kick as soon as i relax to go to sleep. Mostly it happens at night but i still cant sleep during the day. I feel like i am going crazy and the only way i can sleep atall is by taking a bunch of sleeping pills but now they dont even work as my body has got used to them. I was prescribed Propranolol by the doc a year ago and taking 80mg seems to help sometimes but i have low blood pressure anyway and i really dont want to take these as they only sometimes help. I took 2 last night and here i am awake at 3.30am. I am super healthy, and dont drink caffeine, alchohol. I do breath work etc and excercise when i have the energy. I have slept now for 10 days and i feel so so low. My heart has a huge pressure in my chest and pain in my upper back. My periods have stopped and I am at my wits end. Does anyone have a recommendation of what to take temporarily that will help with this?? Its feel so lonely in this and really could do with some advice asap.. I have just moved to sweden with my boyfriend and don't know anyone here. I will go to a doctor this week but I wanted to see if anyone here had some sound advice?? thankyou for reading..much love... Love21 ( i am not 21..i am 39! )
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Avatar universal
Hi Shibumi,

I've got the same condition as yours since three months, after a serve flu (viral infection). I'm very curious to know if your condition has got any better which I hope and what did you do about it since 2011? How did you deal with it.? How long it took etc?
I'm currently taking Propranolol to (20mg daily). It helps for the rushes but not for the heart palpitations at the very moment I'm going to fall asleep. I'm also on antidepressant Sertraline.

Please send me as much information as you can. Please. Thank you so much.

Mani
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Avatar universal
Hi tty_wong,

I've got the same condition as yours since three months. Also after a serve flu (viral infection). I'm very curious to know if your condition has got any better and what did you do about it since 2012. Please send me as much information as you can. Please. Thank you so much.

Mani

PS: Excuse me if you've received this email for the second time. The first one I sent before verifying my email for the Medhelp registration.
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Avatar universal
Hi tty_wong,

I've got the same condition as yours since three months. Also after a serve flu (viral infection). I'm very curious to know if your condition has got any better and what did you do about it since 2012. Please send me as much information as you can. Please. Thank you so much.

Mani
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Can coffee/caffeine cause anxiety and panic attacks even after drinking it for a while?
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Avatar universal
Can coffee/caffeine cause anxiety and panic attacks even after drinking it for a while?
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Avatar universal
Can caffeine cause anxiety and panic attacks while eating and or on a full stomach?
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Avatar universal
Can caffeine cause anxiety and panic attacks even after drinking it for a while?
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10610562 tn?1411418414
I could not agree more. I have been suffering from panic attacks and anxiety for close to 8 years now. Went through basically all the ssri's, gave them plenty of time to settle in my system, and they all were absolutely horrible. If their in one thing I learned from ssri's, is that it taught me how much worse I could truly feel. Stay away from anti-depressants people. I am now taking propranolol for my anxiety, and it is doing wonders. Been on it for 4 months now and have not had a panic attack in that time. Not only that, but my hands don't shake like a 90 year old man anymore, and I feel much more at peace. Only problem is it is messing with my asthma that I have had my whole life, 28 year old male by the way.
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Avatar universal
I'm not really sure why most people with anxiety/panic are advised to take anti-depressants. Inderal is a great drug for anxiety and it certainly has not caused me ANY side effects except for the fact that I smile a lot!
I have suffered from chronic anxiety/panic for 12 years. Doctors gave me all kinds of anti-depressants, each of which were destroyed and vowed never to be taken again. I took Prozac (WRONG!) Paxil (EVEN WORSE) Luvox (UGH) and finally Xanax was prescribed, which has worked just fine without the side effects of the anti-depressants. I have never been depressed, why give me anti-depressants? There is a difference between being low and being clinically depressed! Anti-depressants are handed over way too often! I have now been given Inderal for migraine. Not only has it stopped the headaches, its made me a happier person, with not a hint of anxiety.
The attacks hit when everything slows down, hence the night time attacks. People need to stop the stressors in their lives rather than rely on medication to do it for you. Find the triggers for you anxiety and cut them out of your life. The cognitive therapy works in talking yourself down but sometimes youre too far into it for that. Find the triggers and get rid of them. Eliminate caffeine...so coffee, soda, chocolate, and some juices. Preservatives such as MSG can also cause anxiety attacks. Read about the disease, understand your body and what causes the anxiety. DO NOT settle for an anti-depressant!
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Avatar universal
Hi Shibumi, I just found your thread and I have exactly the same condition as you: being jolted from sleep and adrenaline surges. Tried a course of sleeping pills for a week (Zopiclone) but that is starting to loose its power. Now I'm switched to Propranolol and have to say it's not working all that well. It was my first dose tonight and I took 40mg. Still feel the adrenaline pushing through and I can't get a moment's sleep - it's real torture. My condition started after a sever viral infection. The infection is cleared now but the body is still reacting in a 'fight or flight' mode.
So I'm interested to know how you resolved your problems - any improvements since Oct 2011?
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1699033 tn?1514113133
I understand you don't want to take medication; it's not for everybody.  I also take an SNRI and it is Wellbutrin here in the states, bupropion is the generic name.  

Hope the hypnotherapy works.  There are a lot of things you can do for yourself.  Breathing exercises, exercise in general, reading before bed to relax.  Keep us posted!  
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Avatar universal
Thankyou for your feedback. i haven't been diagnosed with anxiety by a doctor but a healer told me that my fundamental reality is anxious. deep down survival stuff she is talking about. I do alot of meditation and that always helps my mood but its when i go to fall asleep that the adrenaline kicks in. Its like my body does not want to go to sleep. That sleep is not a safe place to be. I really really do not want to take an antidepressant as i am not depressed..far from it. I love life! i read some stuff in the forums and one lady mentioned SNRI duloxetine.. i am going to google it and see what it says. I believe in myself to be able to come out of this.. just some medication in the short term maybe helpful to get through. I have found a hynotherpist so i am going to hopefully see if he can give me some clarity.. thanks for your support
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1699033 tn?1514113133
This is what I found on the web for propranolol:

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Propranolol falls into the broad pharmacologic category known as beta blockers. Beta blockers block specific sites in the central nervous system known as beta-adrenergic receptor sites. When these sites are blocked, heart rate and blood pressure are reduced and patients become less anxious. Because of this, propranolol is useful in treating chest pain, high blood pressure, and excessive nervousness. Unfortunately, propranolol often makes breathing disorders, such as asthma, worse because it tends to constrict breathing passages and sometimes causes fluid to build up in the lungs if it excessively depresses the heart.

In the treatment of anxiety, propranolol is usually not administered on a chronic basis but, rather, prior to stressful events such as public speaking or acting.
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Have you been diagnosed with anxiety?  If so, I don't think that propranolol is the first line medication to treat long-term anxiety.  You seem to have learned the CBT techniques such as the breathing, etc.  What I'm wondering is if you are on the right medication.  It would sem to me you need to be one one of the SSRI and SNRIs.  Think Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin as examples.  

Right now you are not sleeping and who can function on no sleep.  It just makes anxiety worse.  Then you have the added stressor of having moved to a place where you don't know anyone.  What you need to do is start over agian with a new doctor.  One that is versed in how to deal with anxiety.  Find a psychiatrist that can treat you.  I know you don't want to take medication and who would if it wasn't helping them.  I think you need to be on the right medication for you to make the world of difference.  

Best of luck and keep the forum posted.

Helpful - 0
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