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Strange Anxiety
I apologize for continuing posts about my petty anxiety attacks. I have learned the pattern. I posted that I had an anxiety attack 2 weeks ago today. It was this time last year that I began having attacks again for the first time in a while. I began seeing a therapist and have ever since (except I have missed Feb and Mar). After Wednesday (2 weeks ago) attack I have had (only in the weekdays) high anxiety at around lunch time (which is when I had the initial attack). I scale my anxiety 0 to 10, where 7 and up is an attack. Every day last week and this week I would wake up as a 0 or a 1 and then at around 11:00 I would rise up to a 4 or a 5. If I can make it through without getting higher then by 1:00 I am back down to about a 3 or 4 and with depression. Does this seem weird?
Hi, I'm 27 years old and think I am experiencing health anxiety but not sure. I can't think of anything in particular that may have triggered this off. I have been a bit stressed at work lately but I don't see what this would cause it. Anyway it comes on mostly just before lunchtime and whilst I'm eating, and because of feeling anxious my stomach tenses up and I struggle to eat. Maybe It's a vicious cycle and I have associated it with this time of day or something I'm not sure, but I do find that I get quite anxious around people, like in a meeting for example, and I work as a receptionist so that can be a bit of a struggle. I'm always feeling really nervous like something bad is going to happen to me, for example I might be sick or faint. Those are the 2 main things I fear at the moment. I know that I definitely have a big fear of being sick so that doesn't help. But I also think that this anxiety is causing physical symptoms. I have been feeling a swaying feeling in my head for a good couple of months now every time I'm on the desk at work, but if I'm at home or distracted it doesn't seem to be there, but it feels so real sometimes that something is actually wrong with me but who knows. Recently I have also been feeling a weird sensation over the past few days, where I would get a very nervous butterfly feeling in my stomach that would rise up and make me believe that I might be sick, which is obviously going to cause me to feel more anxious! also the weird butterfly feeling in your fingers? like when your looking over a cliff or something. That's probably the best way to describe it. I forgot to mention earlier that my anxiety gets quite bad late mornings and around lunchtime but then a couple of hours later I feel much better again, and get hungry because I couldn't eat much at lunch time, but I do still have this swaying head feeling which is very strange! The whole thing is also making me feel very fatigue, because I feel like my body is fighting it off every day. I have been to the doctors who hasn't given me anything to take but has said to maybe talk to a counsellor or someone about it? but I don't really feel comfortable doing that. I really want to just be able to get rid of this stupid feeling myself, because I do believe that it's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken somehow, and I really don't want to have to resort into taking beta blockers or anything as I know they are very strong and can cause some horrible side effects. Thoughts anyone?
WAY TO GO!!!!! Try not to overthink it right now and celebrate this accomplishment! That's an important aspect of changing your mindset too...by patting yourself on the back for every little step forward, no matter how "small" you perceieve it to be. The small victories win the war!
Keep up the great work!
Keep up the great work!
The very best thing you can do is try to stay SUPER busy and preoccupy your mind with as much as possible! This is simply "conditioning" where you've begun associating one thing (time of day) with another (panic). If your most "memorable" attack had happened at bedtime, that is likely when you'd be struggling with this. The same thing used to happen to me after an awful panic attack I had first thing in the am after waking up. I struglled with daily am panic attacks for months until I could undo that thinking.
It's your own mind playing tricks on you. There is no actual REASON for you to have fear at this time of the day. Remind yourself of those things over and over if you start getting more anxious. Also, self talk about the fact that anxiety and panic are just EMOTIONS and will not harm you in any way helps. I know it's awful...but the more times you push through this time of day and manage to avoid an attack (or lessen the severity)...you start breaking the cycle and send the message to your brain that the two are in no way connected, other than your own association. Just like we can put negative thoughts and ideas in our heads (even unconsciously)...we can also put positive ones there. Just, for some reason, the good ones are harder to get to sink in.
Hang in there...you can do it!
It's your own mind playing tricks on you. There is no actual REASON for you to have fear at this time of the day. Remind yourself of those things over and over if you start getting more anxious. Also, self talk about the fact that anxiety and panic are just EMOTIONS and will not harm you in any way helps. I know it's awful...but the more times you push through this time of day and manage to avoid an attack (or lessen the severity)...you start breaking the cycle and send the message to your brain that the two are in no way connected, other than your own association. Just like we can put negative thoughts and ideas in our heads (even unconsciously)...we can also put positive ones there. Just, for some reason, the good ones are harder to get to sink in.
Hang in there...you can do it!
Needing to break that anxious cycle of thinking is vital...it doesn't matter what kind of treatment you try to do so.
The "patterns" you talk about are sooo typical for anxiety/panic sufferers, it's basically caused by ourselves FEARING the last anxious episode. Examples...if you had a panic attack in a library, the chances are good you'd have another there eventually. Sometimes it isn't a place but rather a TIME of day, like for you, lunch time. You are relating the panic attack to that situation. Some people are even triggered by other people. There really isn't (most times) some big deep reason behind where and when we have an attack...more just conditioning that WE ourselves subconsciously create. The longer we worry about a place, time, situation...the more likely we make our own fears come true, hence the anxious cycle of thinking.
Again, anxiety treatment (meds, therapy) is so important in being able to learn how to break that cycle of thinking.
We're always here and glad to help...don't ever apologize for needing support. It's what helps so many people muddle through this.
The "patterns" you talk about are sooo typical for anxiety/panic sufferers, it's basically caused by ourselves FEARING the last anxious episode. Examples...if you had a panic attack in a library, the chances are good you'd have another there eventually. Sometimes it isn't a place but rather a TIME of day, like for you, lunch time. You are relating the panic attack to that situation. Some people are even triggered by other people. There really isn't (most times) some big deep reason behind where and when we have an attack...more just conditioning that WE ourselves subconsciously create. The longer we worry about a place, time, situation...the more likely we make our own fears come true, hence the anxious cycle of thinking.
Again, anxiety treatment (meds, therapy) is so important in being able to learn how to break that cycle of thinking.
We're always here and glad to help...don't ever apologize for needing support. It's what helps so many people muddle through this.
Thanks everyone. I just feel like I over-post sometimes. The thing is, I have a good job and most things now are going relatively well in my life. I really need to change my thought pattern, but sometimes it is very hard.
For me, anxiety could strike at any time. In my opinion, it can and will affect us all in different ways.
Also, do not apologize about posting about your panic attacks. There is nothing petty about them if the are interfering with your life, in my opinion. You are sharing your experiences and reaching out for help and I believe that takes great courage on your part and is the exact opposite of petty, so don't get down on yourself while going through this experience.
I would continue going through therapy. I know that it can be slow going sometimes, but in the long run, I believe it is important to continue learning about and confronting your anxiety. Progress can sometimes seem painfully slow, but each time you talk about it you learn something and it gives you the tools to confront it. Keep us posted!
Also, do not apologize about posting about your panic attacks. There is nothing petty about them if the are interfering with your life, in my opinion. You are sharing your experiences and reaching out for help and I believe that takes great courage on your part and is the exact opposite of petty, so don't get down on yourself while going through this experience.
I would continue going through therapy. I know that it can be slow going sometimes, but in the long run, I believe it is important to continue learning about and confronting your anxiety. Progress can sometimes seem painfully slow, but each time you talk about it you learn something and it gives you the tools to confront it. Keep us posted!
This doesn't seem weird to me at all - I've been there. Before I was being treated, I experienced what I called a "ramping up" anxiety or panic. I was worried that maybe I was the only person that ever experienced that pattern of anxiety (or that something else was wrong with me) because a lot of web sites and things say that panic attacks are "10 minute episodes" ... for me it'd be an all day thing that would peak at a certain time of day.
I'd sleep pretty well at night (that was the only time I really felt peaceful) and start out the day relatively normal (little or no anxiety). Around 10-11am I'd start feeling some light pain and worries. By about 1pm, I'd start to get even more anxious, maybe because I was worrying about the pain (chest) that started around 10-11. From 2-6pm, I was in full blown panic or near panic mode... laying in bed, thinking I was going to die, and had all kind of other symptoms start with vision, tingling, headaches, short of breath etc. It was during these times that I was most apt to shout and cry, run off to urgent care, run off to the ER and beg somebody for help, it was an awful and desperate time of day. Then for no particular reason, if I made it past the 6pm hour, the panic dissipated. I went to bed later that night feeling a bit shaken and still slightly worried but not panicky.
I don't know why it happened this way, but I can tell you that for some reason after I started digging into the anxiety symptoms and triggers, the pattern started to change, or maybe I just got better at recognizing what caused it and differentiating "real" problems from anxiety-induced ones, so my capacity to handle it changed. I've found that personally, the hardest thing about recognizing the triggers is that they can happen waaaay before I experience any symptoms. For example (and this is very subjective/imaginary because I am still trying to figure this out myself) my son was up coughing all night so I was worried about him when I woke. I started work, got PO'ed over some work situation which adds to my woes for the day. The stress/anxiety builds til I have chest pain, and I start worrying on that, and later on have a panic attack. It's difficult, at least for me, to know what to address, when, or how, especially when you're looking back from the middle of an attack.
I know this doesn't give you much advice on how to handle the pattern, and what helped me may not work as well for you. I just wanted you to know you're not alone in how you experience this.
I'd sleep pretty well at night (that was the only time I really felt peaceful) and start out the day relatively normal (little or no anxiety). Around 10-11am I'd start feeling some light pain and worries. By about 1pm, I'd start to get even more anxious, maybe because I was worrying about the pain (chest) that started around 10-11. From 2-6pm, I was in full blown panic or near panic mode... laying in bed, thinking I was going to die, and had all kind of other symptoms start with vision, tingling, headaches, short of breath etc. It was during these times that I was most apt to shout and cry, run off to urgent care, run off to the ER and beg somebody for help, it was an awful and desperate time of day. Then for no particular reason, if I made it past the 6pm hour, the panic dissipated. I went to bed later that night feeling a bit shaken and still slightly worried but not panicky.
I don't know why it happened this way, but I can tell you that for some reason after I started digging into the anxiety symptoms and triggers, the pattern started to change, or maybe I just got better at recognizing what caused it and differentiating "real" problems from anxiety-induced ones, so my capacity to handle it changed. I've found that personally, the hardest thing about recognizing the triggers is that they can happen waaaay before I experience any symptoms. For example (and this is very subjective/imaginary because I am still trying to figure this out myself) my son was up coughing all night so I was worried about him when I woke. I started work, got PO'ed over some work situation which adds to my woes for the day. The stress/anxiety builds til I have chest pain, and I start worrying on that, and later on have a panic attack. It's difficult, at least for me, to know what to address, when, or how, especially when you're looking back from the middle of an attack.
I know this doesn't give you much advice on how to handle the pattern, and what helped me may not work as well for you. I just wanted you to know you're not alone in how you experience this.
Last year when it happened, I was just leaving the office and then it hit full force just while I was driving in my car. I take Cymbalta for anxiety and depression.
Try not going to lunch the days you feel this may happen. Do you take anything for anxiety ? You may be out of your comfort zone when you go to lunch. If you do decide to go out for lunch, try sitting close to the door or another opening. See if that helps.
Yes, no, and yes :)
I go to lunch and last March on one of my lunch breaks I had the worst panic attack I had ever had. I am at work all day but there's only 10 of us in this building. I have been on the atkins diet for 2 1/2 months now (lost 23 lbs!!!) which makes me happy and not depressed or anxious. I have a girlfriend that makes me anxious.
I go to lunch and last March on one of my lunch breaks I had the worst panic attack I had ever had. I am at work all day but there's only 10 of us in this building. I have been on the atkins diet for 2 1/2 months now (lost 23 lbs!!!) which makes me happy and not depressed or anxious. I have a girlfriend that makes me anxious.
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