Anxiety Attacks, prescriptions and stomach

[RMClarke]

I have observed a correlation between eating, being occasoinally followed by an anxiety attack with stomach discomfort/bloating.  When an attack occurs, I feel very weak, get shortness of breath, feel like I may pass out, and my blood pressure may go to 240/110 heart rate 111 bpm, and glucose 209. Are these normal attack numbers?  An Ativan and 3-4 hours of rest normally does the trick.  My attacks were happening 3-4 times a week until I discontinued taking Altace (ACE inhibitor) for my blood pressure.  I had noticed that my anxiety started a week or so after I started Altace. The attacks disappeared for several years when I stopped taking Altace.  Just recently, I have several new prescriptions and the attacks have started up again;  two attacks in 2 days, and one trip to the ER.  Following my old scheme, I am stopping all medications (with my doctors supervision) and adding them back one at a time to see it any are the cause.  Can the liver be involved in this?  I feel a lot of the tension in my stomach along with swelling, but I do not have chest pain.  The heart area tension (not pain) feels like it is coming from the stomach area.

On a related note, I may have strained my lower spine in moving a piano.  I started having weak thigh and tension symptoms shortly after the piano was moved. The panic attacks started up again when I was given a Beta Blocker and regular small doses of Ativan for the weak thighs and anxiety/tension.  Can spine nerve damage cause or affect the weakness and anxiety attacks?



This discussion is related to Abdominal pain-Fear and anxiety after eating.

[ggreg]

All I know is, I was on Ativan for a while, and it gave me Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I had diarrhea for six months straight, got dehydrated from that and the drying effects of Ativan, and in fact, when I realized that drug was causing the IBS, when I quit it, the diarrhea instantly went away.

There are other milder drugs you could be taking for your wrenched back... Ativan is a very powerful tranquilizer and really shouldn't be given except in a hospital setting.  But yes, the low back injury can go into your legs and cause pain.  You need bona-fide pain medicine, as a short-term solution until perhaps your back gets better.

Your heart rate and blood pressure readings are very high.  But the Ativan has nothing to do with those, altho I imagine that's why they gave the tranquilizer to you, in hopes it would help relax you.  But the best things for all that are a totally unrelated group of drugs used for high blood pressure, like the Beta Blocker you were given.  If you'll notice, you were given Ativan and the BB at the same time, and you thought it was the BB that made you anxious.  It was the Ativan that made you anxious.  The BB has a very calming effect, a very good drug to take, and you can handle it long-term.

I hope this clarifies things a little bit for you.  You need to be on different drugs than you are taking, NO ativan, please, and the Beta Blocker was a good choice, plus you need either a higher dose of that and/or some other medications, too, to get that blood pressure and heart rate down.  I hope they have checked your thyroid, you can get hyperthyroidism, which will goof up your BP and heartrate, and if you're a very thin and active person, that may be what you have.  If you are overweight, obviously that can cause the high readings, too.  Same thing with high cholesterol, it can clog up your arteries and make your heart have to work double-duty to pump, and this is dangerous.