"Mini" panic attacks?

[bandella]

Hi everyone. There's really no way to make a long story short in this case, so please just bear with me. :)

In 2001, I was diagnosed with depression and put on Zoloft. Since then (barring the first few weeks of trying to find the right med/dosage combination for me), I've been on 150 mg of Zoloft daily, and it's always seemed to work really well for me. Over the past three years or so, I've experienced really rapid weight gain and excessive sweating (and I do mean excessive), so sometime around mid-September '09 I asked my doctor to switch me to something else to try to curb those side effects that I associated with the medicine because every other medical test basically said I was healthy as a horse. Okay, so my doctor switched me over to Cymbalta, 60 mg/daily, and that seemed to work fine and actually helped the sweating problem. The week before Thanksgiving, I had a miniature nervous breakdown. I don't know how else to describe it. I was frustrated because the semester paper I was working on for one of my classes (I'm a grad student) was falling apart, and rather than just buckling down and working through it like I've always done before, I snapped. I started worrying uncontrollably about turning in horrible work, failing the class, dropping out of the program, quitting school entirely, and I actually probably would have dropped out if one of my profs hadn't talked me back down a couple days later. Emotionally, it felt very much like when the depression first started when I was 16: the constant, uncontrollable crying, the lack of energy or will to do anything, lack of appetite, all that. My parents suggested that maybe it was just because the Zoloft had finally worked its way out of my system and the Cymbalta wasn't working for me, so after a quickie consult with my doc, I went back on the Zoloft, knuckled down to finish the paper, completed the semester, and have been good ever since. I even started this semester (last week) with high hopes that things would be mellow this time.

Wrong.

Last night, I was minding my own business, reading a book for another class, and for some reason happened to just think about my thesis (part of which was the issue with the breakdown last semester, as the paper I was working on in that class was actually a chapter of said thesis). Never mind the fact that my thesis has nothing whatsoever to do with the book I was reading; I started obsessing and then all of a sudden here came the racing thoughts that kept spiraling from bad to worse scenarios, and I couldn't get it to stop. I started shaking and feeling like my heart was speeding up, my breathing sped up and got really shallow, but the worst part was this really cold lump in the pit of my stomach that made me feel like I was going to throw up. This in turn caused my IBS to flare up despite the fact I haven't had a major IBS episode in a couple years.

So I ended up crying myself to sleep. Got up today and felt okay, was just checking my Facebook before heading off to class, and for some reason started panicking again. I got to school to do my usual GA office work, just photocopying and stuff like that, and felt very sick, dizzy, sweaty (but cold inside, and that's just bizarre to describe), weak, you name it. I did my office chores and headed back to my little office, and promptly had another little crying spell. After finally breaking down and going to one of the on-campus counselors, I came back to attend my evening class, and this was...odd. It seemed like every couple minutes or so, I'd have a "mini" panic attack, if that's what indeed is happening to me, but they only lasted about maybe 30 or 60 seconds before I'd manage to calm myself back down. Then I'd return to normal, get an almost *happy* feeling just because I'd stopped panicking, and then just...lather, rinse, repeat. For two hours.

So, am I crazy? Is there such a thing as "mini" panic attacks? Or is this symptomatic of just generalized anxiety problems? I've never been a stressed out kind of person before, or at least I don't think I have been, and I've always been really good in school, so it's not like this *should* be freaking me out as much as it does. But everything I've ever heard about panic attacks says that people always feel like they're having heart attacks, or they start *really* freaking out (my mom has a panic disorder and I've seen some of her episodes, so I've always associated that with panic attacks, I guess). Mine's more like depressive symptoms, almost, since that's all I have to compare it to, at least in that feeling of hopelessness and obsession over something, but the counselor today was the one to point out it might actually be more of an anxiety disorder. I know you can't diagnose me, but is that what's going on with me? Has anyone else ever had this? Is this just the precursor to full-blown panic disorder, or is it something that, if I seek treatment for now, I can actually stop in its tracks before it gets way too out of hand?

Any and all help, advice, and comments are greatly appreciated, and if you made it through that entire diatribe, bless you. :)

[Paxiled]

Can I ask if you tapered off the Zoloft, and if you tapered off the Cymbalta, or did you stop abruptly and start taking the other drug?  If the latter, you might be suffering withdrawal symptoms rather than something new.  Or, it could be something new, but withdrawal is something to consider.

[mammo]

It may be that the Zoloft is not working for you.  I would discuss this with your doctor, as it sounds like your are extremely stressed and dealing with a lot of anxiety, and some symptoms of depression.  Go back to your doctor and have him evaluate this.  I think you are experiencing panic attacks of a lesser degree.  Take care...