PANIC ATTACK DURING SLEEP

[JAIDAN2200]

I need help and I need it now, I just woke up from what some people may think was a nightmare, but in my opinion was me at the verge of death; let me explain, in my opinion I should have just died which is why most people would not have got to hear this story, but something (my wife or thought of losing her) was what ultimately saved me.
I suffer from Panic attacks, but I have overcome these fears lately and have learned the "Flee or Fight" explanation and also how drugs play a HUGE roll on this altering mind experience; because everrytime I have had a panic attack I have always been on a type of drug, (xtc)but not tonight:
My dream, without going into to much detail, my wife was in the room with another couple and me, she wasnt acting normal and I sensed that she had been drugged, at that point the person from the other couple offered me some drug as well, whatever they may have gave her, I kept feeling her faint and tell me "Baby, Im not feeling good" The more she started to pass away the more I felt I was going to die, when I say DIE, I dont mean "Damn, I am going to DIE, NOOOOOO, I mean my heart was goign from normal to mach 10 and I was in complete FEAR, to the point that I kept saying her name (HENCE why i believe she was the one that ultimately saved me, without really wanting to) my heart beat was so strong that I felt even the words that she was saying, fast and evil and when it felt like she was going to be ok, it started to sound normal again, either way, it as scary and I finally gathered the strength to say her name and it WOKE me up. I woke up in tears, breathing heaving and my heart pounding. Now, I am a pretty educated adult, very spirital, loving father and happily married. To answer any future questions, Yes, I did do drugs this weekend; which I regret now then ever before and if anything this was a freakin wake up call and I just got diagnosed with high blood pressure,I have no family, besides my son and my wife, I am under alot of stress since we are having to move, low on cash and I am a  Broker and times are tough, so the stress is HIGH, I need help and I need it fast, any advice not only can save my life but the possible hardship that my death may cause them without future treatment.
Here are my questions:
1) How do I treat this if it happened when I was in my sleep, an obvious uncontrollable state of mind that I am terrified will/can happen again, will I be so lucky next time.
2) How do I express my fear to my wife so she doesnt think that I just had a silly bad dream and I just need to relax. I know what I just went through and there is no way to just relax, I was in tears!
3) what type of medication should I take, if any  I dont want to become dependant on anything, anything that may effect me worse.
4) I went to some cuban doctor who diagnosed me with possibly suffering from panick attacks but in order to get a real diagnose, I needed drugs out of my life, which they were until this weekend, fine, I agree, but what do I do until then...? UNtil I get them out of my life.
I am extremely scared of going to sleep and thats not going to good for my health, so any help and fast would be appreciated, forward this to any expert on the situation because I am sure I am no the only one in the world that may have survived this...any help would be soooo appreciated.

Thank you and God bless.
Julian

[JAIDAN2200]

Your Absolutely RIGHT and it makes sooo much sense, I often say to myself, "Man, this isnt how people die..." but it was sooo intense and different from my first panic attack that I didnt know how to respond, I woke up in tears, scared and thinking about my little man...scared to go back to sleep.

Wierd thing is when I did go back to sleep; it happened again, but this time it wasnt sooo evil. I saw my wife dressed in a blue T-shirt wake up scared, frightened, I asked "What happened..." She nothing baby, dont worry about it...." I asked her are you sure, your eyes were bright wide open, you seemed terrified and she again, responded" With nothing, I just saw my reflections"....
At that point I realized that I was still asleep because my wife had already kissed me bye to go to work, I remembered and I said to my wife in the dream" Wait, this isnt REAL...Your not real....and I started to panic..." She then said "Your right, this isnt real.." as her voice started to change and I started to panic...but this time I was able to wake myself up, but it was coming...

Good thing is I was able to control it, in my sleep, kind of...I mastered controlling it in real life.Well, just wanted to share this with you guys as well.
I am kind of sad that my wife hasnt shown me alot of importance on this, I really dont think she realizes that I need her to understand that I am not crazy and I am not ALONE and I need her for real.

[JSGeare]

You need to read some lips here. ALL of us experience what happens in a way that causes us to ask the BIG TWO questions:

1. Is this normal, and

2. Has anyone else had this?

Scary, evil, nasty, maliscious - whatEVER (and I'm not belittling the experience) it is PROFOUND and makes a big mark as you have noticed. I can't say as I'm especially sympathetic with your wife's reaction -she falls into the category of needing to be "waterboarded" so she understands what its like. But it really doesn't matter, at the end of the day, what the devil she thinks because this is YOUR DEAL. And you need to get moving toward a resolution, and that means getting credible help from a professional. Drugs, in fact, MAY be indicated, though the street kind won't be on the list.

As to dreams, most of the time they are, as you know, mostly visual. But they can reach out and touch you in other sensory areas as well, as you have experienced. Part of your alarm is not just over the CONTENT, but the mode of presentation which is foreign -dare I say alien- to you. The bootm line is that the little guys who work in your head are screaming for attention, so they're throwing stuff at you that can't be ignored. What you need to do now is figure out what the dicknes the mental emergency is, so you can start the work of putting the pieces back together. That's where the therapist comes in. And obviously, in order to focus on that task, you've got to be calm enough to do so -which is where medication MIGHT be indicated.

I look forward to hearing more (and soon) about the program you and your therapist map out to get to the root of things.

Please keep us in the loop. Action is the first step to recobery -so get moving. We're with you on this.

[Jennifer375]

Oh definatly there are lots here who can relate! Iv seen 2 posts just this weekend about nightmarish panic attacks that woke people from sleep... have a peek around the board and dont be afraid to post on any threads to bump them up. :0)

*With deep apprication*

[JAIDAN2200]

In a wierd way that does make alot of sense, but does anyone relate to what I am saying, is this normal? When I tell my wife she just says, God Relax, it was just a bad dream, but it wasnt, I have had bad dreams before, even nightmares, this was a physical/illusional type dream, where I felt my heart pounding, like I was gasping for air...trying to figure out if I should wake up or continue sleeping...but scared to make eother decision, but ultimately I made the right one.

I am just very confused.

but god bless all of you for your insight

[Jennifer375]

From somone (me) who has almost litterally died on 2 different occasions... death isnt like that. If your horribly scared,, your not dying. When your 'soul' or 'energy' begins to leave the body... the feeling is strangely very calm. Thats probably why I dont have panic attacks anymore... Iv died and found its not nearly as scary as living.

*Bows in respect and apprication for your discomfort*

ps... evil is a verb, not a noun

[JAIDAN2200]

Thats very comforting, because it was soooo scary. I am scared to go to sleep now, the first thing I am going to do is clean my system. NO MORE DRUGS. but its going to be hard to go to sleep, what if I really do die in my sleep and it could have all been avoided...
I am scared to get help because it doesnt really seem that anyone understands, they think its just a bad dream, they dont understand how EVIL it is, the way the sounds change, from Normal, to wierd to Evil and your heart starts to beat, the fast it beats the scarier it gets.....Then you feel like your going to DIE. Then what happens if one day I go, never see my little boy again or my beautiful wife, please help me guys.

[Jennifer375]

I hate to tell you this,, but if you take a benzopine to control the anxiety attacks, those are STILL drugs too.. and they have a withdrawl effect that can cause the panic attacks to continue coming once the pill is no longer in your system. Incidently , many of the other drugs with a simliiar but longer acting benzopine action are even worse...

As JSG said,, your best bet is to join this forum and start talking to people..... THEN once you've read the stories of others, decide what you really want to do about things.

*Bows with respect*        Jenn

[MMomma]

JSGeare is a Life safer, If it wan't for him I don't kno what I would do with myself, There are so many ppl on here that kno what i went through or what ur going through. Theres atleast one person on here that will always have a wierd symtom that u describe. This place is great, Though I have been slackng on my part latlely....best of luck.Ur in my prayers

[JAIDAN2200]

Thank you for welcoming me but also for taking the time and relaxing me a bit, it felt wierd and was defenite wake up call. for me, NO MORE DRUGS,

[JSGeare]

I hate to burst your bubble here, Ace, but what you've described sounds pretty ordinary and routine in the wonderful world of panic and anxiety. The racing heart, the whole thing (yawn). That's what the disorder is all about: everything becomes more magnified, with jagged edges and strange levels of intensity. You're sure you are going to die. Well, one day you will -but probably not today or tonight. And, if you add recreational drugs into the mix, now you've got some real excitement.

Here's the deal: if you just can't cope, get your butt to the ER. Otherwise, you need the services of a shrink and you need them yesterday, so that's job 1. You can tell your wife that your reaction to the dream has convinced you it is time to call in some professional help. Now, if what you really want to do is find some way to suppress the panic/anxiety thing while you do recreational drugs and otherwise pay no attention to your welfare and that of the people who depend on you, you're walking on thin ice here, because this is a community of people who want to get better with as little need of any drugs of whatever kind as possible. So, you need to decide what you're really after.

One thing that will help is joining this forum, so please, please become a member. Its easy -just click the Join Link -enter some profile information about yourself -even a picture if you care to- and anything you think would help us get to know you faster and better, and you can change this material whenever you like. You will also be accessible to receive private messages when other members click the name you've given yourself -sort of a "push to talk" feature. After you've done that, spend some time just using various features of the forum. For example, to see all the posts or responses that someone has made, just click their handle, go to their profile, click Posts, and read to your heart's content. You may also enter search terms -including member names- in the search box at the upper right of your screen and the system will retrun everything matching the term(s) you entered. This INCLUDES a drug database that will give you both user posts about drugs as well as the medical information about the drug. A great way to get quick answers about therapeutic effect, side effects, interactions, etc.

One of the profile categories is your mood, which you may change anytime you like.

Along the right side of your screen is a section of Recent Activity, which not only alerts you to new posts, but new ANYTHING, including journal entries and mood. This is a way to telegraph the community at large without actually creating a separate post. Thus, if you see a friend's mood has changed while you are working on a response or post, it can alert you to send them a private message to learn more or simply let them know you're thinking of them. Likewise, if you are going to be "out," you could enter something like "off line for the night" as your mood, and people would know you're away from the forum for awhile.

If you do this kind of exploring and experimenting right away, you'll be up-to-speed quickly. If you see the message you are reading now as part of a direct response I (or anyone) has made to one of your posts, it was probably copied and pasted from this journal. I hate form letters and auto-responses as much as anyone -but I also hate forgetting to tell people what they need to know, so this is my safety-net. Consider it as part of your "Welcome" kit. So -please join and try things out.

You might also want to read my entries for the "Right Click Trick" and "When in Haste, Use Copy 'n Paste" for some other convenient time-savers.

Please let us know what you're able to accomplish today -the first few hours are critical.

Stay with us!