Anxiety Attack Now

[tooyoung99]

I am having an anxiety attack right now at work and need to find a way to calm my self down.  I have been having on and off chest pain for about 3 years.  I have had ekgs, chest ct, tons of blood work ups and everything has come back normal.  I have been on Protonix 40 mg per day for GERD for about 4 years.  I am 27 and have two young children.  The anxiety for me didn't start until after I had my second child.  I feel like I am having a heart attack, but the doctors have assured me that my heart is fine.  He gave me Paxil but I only took it for about a week because it made all of my symptoms even worse and made it so I couldn't sleep for 3 days.  He wants me to switch to Zoloft, but I am afraid to go through all of that again. I am a female and always hear that heart disease and attacks in women are different, so how do I convince myself that this is just anxiety.  Should I ask for any further heart testing or not?  I have also stated to feel dizzy (foggy) for the last couple of days and that is just adding to it.  Can anyone offer any advice?

[marv7]

When you stated that you took Paxil and you were awake for 3 days, do you think you were manic?
The reason I ask is because I have bipolar along with depression and anxiety.
I have been on several kinds of antidepressants along with anticonvulsant medications that, in my case, are used as mood stablizers.
My doctor took me off of the Lexapro because certain  antidepressants, if not all, are known to cause manic episodes in people with bipolar.
Remember that anxiety can manefest itself into physical symptoms.
When you have these thoughts, try to think of something else. "Thought blocking" is what my therapist calls it. Hang in there.

[goodeys]

I would say that you need to see your doctors and get started on some meds again for your anxiety, I know that it is tough when you begin them but you have to stick with them to see the results.

If you have had the tests and they came back normal then there is nothing to gain by you going through the same tests again - the result will be same as before. Trust me I have had so many tests and duplicated them and wasted my money privately to be told that there is still nothing wrong with my heart. With health anxiety the more tests that you have the more it fuels the anxiety and the more it reinforces to you that something is physically wrong with you when it isn't.

I have made myself so ill through anxiety that I ended up in a psychiatric clinic for  weeks and it just seems to be never ending, I too am 27 and this has all came on instantly after giving birth to my first child.

Take a look through my journal 'diary of a nutter' to see how deluded and obsessed I have become with my heart, when I read it it scares me!

Good luck with everything and I am sure that you will not have a heart attack
Samx

[tooyoung99]

Thanks for all of you suggestions, I actually already have Xanax 0.25mg to take as needed, it just seems that taking one of them just dosen't really help anymore.  Also how can I convince myself that I do not have a heart problem? My biggest fear is that I will die and my kids will have to grow up without a mom.

[CaliGirl48]

Please go look at my journal entries on my profile. I have a couple techniques I used that really helped me calm down when I was having bad anxiety

Good Luck

Crystal

[hopeless872]

I just was told I have very high blood pressure. I have had sharp pains as well in my chest. It seems that that is common for anxiety. My cousin would have anxiety attacks and she would feel as though she was having a heart attack. She called the medics a few times thinking something was wrong because her chest hurt so bad. She was terrified. They said it was anxiety. That was six years ago. She is fine.

[amish1979]

If your doc wants you to start a new SSRI you should ask for a prescription for xanax or something to take along with it for the first 3-4 weeks while the your body adjusts to it.  Because in all honesty an SSRI will generally make you feel worse before it starts making you feel better, which is exactly what happened with the paxil, you just didn't make it to the "feeling better" stage.

[hopeless872]

Get up and walk around and take deep breathes. Breathe deeply in and out as you are walking. It helps me a little. I wish it worked with my twitches.