struggling with anxiety

[mahemm]

I am a 28 year old male that has a very difficult time believing that i am ok.  I had pericarditis when i was 19 and ever since then have believed that there is something wrong with my heart.  I have had ecg's done that show i have inverted t waves from one lead that i am told is common and nothing to even think about. i have had echo's, stress tests and nothing appears to be wrong. I will go through phases where i am fine- play hockey, travel, workout, etc.  Then i go through phases where i can barely leave the house for fear of another anxiety attack.  I start to feel symptoms of anxiety and my hand goes to my neck to check my pulse, and i think i hold my breath while doing that which makes my heartbeat seem irregular.  My heart pounds for no reason sometimes, shortness of breath, dizziness, disassociation, etc.  I feel like i cant stand to be in my own skin sometimes.  I have tried zoloft and celexa and i cant deal with the side effects, plus i hate to take medication.  What can i do, am i ok?

[MADDY123]

I AM ALSO 16 YEARS OLD AND HAVE THE SAME EXACT PROBLEMS AS YOUR FRIEND HAS. I WENT TO MY DOCTOR AND HE GAVE ME KLONOPIN FOR PANIC ATTACKS. THEY SEEM TO WORK WELL FOR ME. MABEY YOU SHOULD RECCOMEND FOR HER TO SEE A DOCTOR OR A PHYCYATRYST.

[ebonee]

PLEASE READ!!!!! I NEED HELP!!!
My friend is 16 years old and she gets panic attacks all the time in class.She starts to hold her chest and starts breathing real hard.She says she thinks about a lot of negative stuff and that causes her to catch these panic attack.She sometimes takes my celluar phone ear piece and takes the clip and puts it on her arm.She hurts herself on purpose.I am very worried about her becuase she doesnt want to get help from a doctor. What can I do to help her?

[bbettersoon]

Holy Hana , I am not crazy !That is the first thought that came to my mind on this site. I am so with you all.I am 26 years old and to make a long story short have the same problems as talked about on this site. I to am scared to death to take pills and to give you a idea of how bad i will suffer a headach for days before taking a advil and then have a panic attack because i am scared as to how it will make me feel(dizzy,sick etc)I tried taking paxil and the side effects are just to much for me.I see that some of you have tried other meds until you found one that works but being someone who hates pills i can not seem to get the nerve to do that. i have been through alot for a 26 year old and to say a little bit, 3 children from a 9 yr relationship that was hell.I am over that now but the doctors say that i am having this stress from stuff back then , i find that hard to understand when it made me happy to finally be away from him.I have had mri's, x-rays , blood work , i can not tell myself that there is nothing wrong with me . I have good days when i say ok i will not let that pain in my chest get to me and then other days i have the phone in my hand ready to call 911.I wish that there was some sort of something that can be done to clear the mind of all these neg thoughts. I am doing cognitive therapy and it works on my good days.My children is what keeps me motivated and i am glad i have them !! Good luck everyone and hope you all do well, and if you get the cure(ha,ha)be sure to post it. thanks for all your insight!

[KEV78]

Hi EVERYONE...I'm new to the forum.  Ive got tons on my mind and many questions to ask.  Seems as if my probs started one day when i used cocaine.  Just that morning I suddenly freaked out and was afradi my heart was going to explode cause of how it was beating etc.  Had used the stuff for two months on weekedns with no probs.  EMT's told me everything seemed fine and that it was prolly a panic attack.  But deep inside i thought for sure i may have screwed up my heart or something.  Few weeks later i tried it again and a few times after that and each time i freaked out swore I was gonna die.  Anyhow i stayed clean and didnt mess with the stuff anymore. However then i starteed to get thesee weird episodes like I had trouble breathing like a smothering feeling and concentrated alot on my breathing cause thought if i didnt i would stop also a slight abnormal feeling or i guess sense of sight was weird or seomthing not sure how to explain it.  Suddenly one day i had a panic attack i guess again and that was the end of that afterwards i think i fell into depression.  Then started to get these weird heart skips..alot everyday for about a month and a half all day long really scarey.  Bad thing is i was afradi i messed up my heart and now it was doing all that weird stuff.  got my heart checked out and doc said everything came back normal maybe just stress.  Ive got alot of symptoms including sleep disturbances like i wake up suddenly in a panic i guess doesnt last too long and i go right back to bed easily but very scarey.  I still worry about my health alot..just wondering if something is being overlooked etc.  get tons of muscle twitches all over my body..in the mornings when i wake up i feel shaky inside and out..i also kinda feel off balance like i feel like i sway alot when standing straight up or light my head or body rocks back and forth when i am at rest kinda goes along with my heavy pulse rate.  I am taking paxil 37.5mg CR.  I am alot better than I was but still have tons of doubts.  Can somebody help me with my questions or have any responses..please email me at ***@****  THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!

P.S.  also a little more depth about my history..previous to this all the only thing I can think of that has some importance is i ised to take alot of Ephedra dieting pills also drank lots of coffe and smoke cigarettes...and did have a bit of a stressfull realtionship too...dont know i was thinking maybe all that had to do with it too...who knows?

[Koala]

Panic attacks are a scary frustrating thing, I go thru the whole thinking I'm dying of "you name it" I have felt rotten for 3 months now... If you read my original post you will see my issues, I found a lot of support on this forum and another one, http://pub125.ezboard.com/fdizzyloungefrm0
I get very depressed I feel like my family doctor who has me on both Xanax and Paxil knows I don't have anything "serious" so he sends me on my way, then I have tried the "psychotherapy" thing a few times and been even more depressed that all I ran into were people who were far more concerned with getting paid and had little concern for me the human there for help, they never had answers for me...Anyway I agree with lucylucy it sure sounds like you are getting panic attacks and you might want to look into that possibilty...
Best of luck, @(*O*)@

[Kiwi_87]

Hi to all,  Wow, have not been on this site before found it by accident, what a relief to see I am not alone, I am 40yrs old and have been struggling with this for about 8yrs now.  Just to see the same symptoms, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pains, headaches, and also putting my hand to my neck to check my pulse (thought i was the only one in the world that did this), makes a difference. I have been to therapy, have had all the tests, ecg, chest x-ray, blood tests for everything. Therapy did help a lot, it taught me a lot about anxiety, talking to my doctor helped to and to see I didnt have a pysical problem which was my main concern, I seem to be all right for a while after my tests come back negative as I believed i had a brain tumour, lung cancer, heart problems to name a few, I seem to get over one and then something else comes along, I have not taken anything for this as i am scared to take pills, but some days i wish i could just take one and it would all go away. I dont know about anyone else but when I have good days i am thinking to myself, ok how long is this going to last, this time.  I know its all anxiety in my heart but my head wont always let me believe this.  I feel so good sometimes and want to feel like this all the time, its been such a long time since ive felt NORMAL!!.  I will not give up though, I know there is an answer, and maybe between us we can find it. I am seeing my Doctor again tomorrow and if she has any more advice i will pass it on.  Sorry if ive got on a bit, but it feels so good to be with people who understand.  
Thanks for listening.

[flnts]

I too have been struggling. I began having headaches and immediately started thinking the worse. Before I knew I my left hand and foot lost sensation and then my face. I still have not regained full sensation and it has been 6 days. I get lightheaded for apparently no reason and my heart begins to pound and cause pain. I am only 28. I went to the ER yesterday and they gave me Xanax which helped me sleep last night. This is the first time that I have ever experienced anything like this. I hope it will all go away soon. Good luck with your anxiety. I have heard many of my same symptoms mentioned.

[yarddog]

i think its putting off things you want to do. sounds like you are an active over achiever and if you think about something too long you panic! next time you have a panic attack ,get up and you do something!!! anything, just dont ly there! ill bet it will be better than what you experience now! walk, do your hobbies take out the trash clean just do not ly and panic. geusses are in no time you will realize the attack is gone!!!...good luck!!!!

[mahemm]

thanks for your comments. sometimes when you are in the situation it feels like there is no solution. it helps to hear an outsiders view that isnt just listening to you to get your payment for their 10 min. any and all comments are appreciated. thanks

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You can try a course of psychotherapy. Oftentimes a physical anxiety like you have that starts with a real illness, becomes the expression of other anxiety, but not the true source. If you get to the source, you can deal with that, and the anxiety about the heart recedes.

we can help you make the decision aobut online of offline therapy. Go to www.masteringstress.com.  there you can find some tools to help you.

[lucylucy]

Do you think u are having panic attacks? Sure sounds like it to me.  What didn't u like about those meds?  Would u consider trying something else? I tried a few before I found one that really helped me.  

I remember when I was not medicated my paranoia was out of control.. and I imagined I had all sorts of diseases, even had my lungs checked several times because I felt I couldn't breath, all to no avail.  It was panic.  Panic can make you feel u have all sorts of diseases, when simply you have panic...