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What's causing my cronic and major panic attacks?

This is something which I want to get in depth with since the more I help you guys the more you can help me. So where do I get started?
These 'panic attacks' have been happening off and on for a few years. It was around the time I started taking benzodiazapines drinking alcohol and smoking weed.

Most of what i feel is in my head light a really light feeling second to that I have strange feelings in my left arm and my heart rate does go up quite a bit. Most the time it's not hard to breath like a typical panic attack and nothing that I know blatently causes them to sprite up.

Now heres for the symptoms: when I take a little extra of any medication I have these big time freak outs which are actually worse than these cronic panic attacks i've been having. It doesn't happen as much but when I used to take benadryl or anything along those lines I'd have severe panic attacks.

I talked to a pharmecist technician about the medicines I was taking and he told me that I was having some withdraw symptoms of benzo's by my arms and face moving involuntarily. And I mention this because these cronic panic attacks that I have now are similar to that of one of those supposed withdraw symptoms i was having. He also told me of an artical he read about how marijuana and benzo's can cause a mutation in which some receptors influence other receptors. (or transmitters forgot what he said specificly)

This makes sense to me as everytime I have a drug or something which shouldn't be giving me panic attacks like coffee it seems to spark up. Also it seems to have gotten worse now that I have moved out of my old place and into a new. Perhaps some bad mold in there ****** me up? Thanks amillion guys
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Avatar universal
I can even feel it in my chest now and my left arm. Do you think a heart condition could cause this almost pass out like symptoms?
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Probably not, but obviously I'm not there and I'm not a cardiologist.  But it's very unlikely.  Many many people get their first anxiety attacks while stoned, and if you check the archives on this forum you'll see a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of people that happened to.  For us unfortunate ones, we were probably inclined anyway by personality or genetics or whatever to develop an anxiety problem and we couldn't let it go -- a lot of people get paranoid while high but don't get a chronic problem.  However, it usually means it's time to stop smoking the stuff.  It's not fun anymore, and it's triggering bad memories.  It's intended effect is to drive you inward and intensify experience, but if that experience is you remembering your anxiety attack, then it's just time not to do that anymore.  I grew up in the Sixties, and almost everyone used pot, though it was much much weaker, and almost everyone quit as they got older because it got too strong and they started getting anxious on it.  Maybe it's age, who knows.  I think you analogy to PTSD is right on -- those of us who get chronic anxiety have attacks triggered by all kinds of things and it tends to get worse.  It is what it is, it is your new reality unless you find a way to stop the process.  The first step is therapy, stop thinking about mutations because it doesn't matter -- if you can talk yourself into it you can at least theoretically talk yourself out of it.  Those who do are cured.  Those who can't end up on medication.  It's just time to try to fix it and stop taking recreational drugs, they just aren't going to be fruitful anymore.  Peace.
You've helped me plenty but I have one more question. I started taking benzos (Clenazepam) again and I try not to but I use it recreationally sometimes ... i think it's making things much worse. If that's the case what do I do now? Stop taking them abruptly or take more consistantly and taper off? Perhaps something I should talk with the psychiatrist about? She's pretty stupid she didn't even know I was having withdraws and this time she assured me nothing like this would happen and now it's really bad I feel like I'm going to stroke out it's that bad. It's withdraw symptoms that's being sparked by something. Something like what I read in the protracted withdraw page I saw seems like it definitely has something to do with that. Don't really think PTSD is what I'm dealing with not with this anyway perhaps with other things but I think this is more like something triggering in my head rather than me just sitting there being a worry wort which everyone seems to think I am. And that's not it at all. If you don't get back to me that's fine this was all good enough my dude. Bless you for trying to help people. I'll go ahead adn take this to my psychiatrist and my neurologist to help fix things it was good some of the ideas we came upwith. Thanks again.
First, I really can't know what's happening to you since I'm not there, I can only offer suggestions about what might be happening.  Secondly, when your psychiatrist is clueless, and most of them are, find one who isn't.  That will probably mean seeing one who doesn't take insurance.  A clueless psychiatrist ended my life and that's how I ended up having to teach myself about withdrawal.  For me it was too late, but I'm trying as hard as I can to make sure nobody on this site has that problem.  You don't have PTSD, I was using that as an analogy, that it's like that in that you might be affected by something that happened to you and is being triggered again and again when you feel like you did at that moment.  Neurologists can't help with mental illness -- it's not what they train to do.  They help with nerve pain.  Talk to one some time, as I have, and ask them if they can tell you anything about why brains go bad and they will tell you they just don't know yet except in those few cases where they can see something growing there that shouldn't be.  As for taking a benzo recreationally, that's bizarre to me, frankly -- they just don't do that much to you that's fun.  If you're not taking them regularly but only on occasion, there shouldn't be any withdrawal -- it's when you take them regularly it's a problem.  Quitting abruptly if you take them daily can also cause seizures.  So yeah, if you take them regularly, you do have to taper off them slowly, especially clonazepam.  And if you're going to get stoned, man, get stoned, don't take medication that doesn't do anything but put you in a fix or relax you a little -- now, I'm not recommending that, for you I'd stay far away from recreational drug use from now on, but for all of human history people took plants that did interesting things to them for ritualistic purposes -- they didn't sit around and pop peyote every day.  That's something modern industrial societies have gotten into because we're broken in some ways while we've gained in others.  Life is hard.  Peace.
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Avatar universal
Well, a drug really can't cause a mutation.  That's something you're born with.  Also, marijuana and benzos are very different in how they affect the brain.  Marijuana is not an addictive drug, and really doesn't have the withdrawal effects that antidepressants and addictive drugs have.  We can miss it, but it just doesn't do that.  Maybe some the newer pot will be found to do that because it's so much stronger than what people have been using for all of human history -- it's not a natural product anymore but a highly bred drug that is quite strong.  So maybe they will eventually find the brain having a harder time stopping it than they have so far.  Benzos, on the other hand, probably have the worst long-term withdrawal problems of any addictive drug, according to some research done in England.  Hard to know, really, with this stuff.  My guess is the reason you get panic attacks from taking the drugs as you do is you get physical feelings that mimic the feelings you experience when you do get panic attacks, triggering you to experience one.  This is how chronic anxiety works and spreads -- you expect to get one and you do.  It can be caused by something as simple as drinking a beer or spinning around too fast on a dance floor.  It depends on the person and the nature of the anxiety attacks, but they involve disorientation and so anything that leaves you feeling disoriented might trigger your brain to remember that's how it felt when you had an anxiety attack.  Coffee, by the way, is speed, and speed can definitely cause anxiety attacks in chronic anxiety sufferers.  Doesn't mean it will, but it can.  The important thing is to get treatment for the anxiety problem -- hopefully, therapy can help you and then you won't have to use these meds that are affecting you so badly.  As for benzo withdrawal, did you abruptly stop taking them after taking them regularly?  Some people get what are called protracted withdrawal, which last longer than what most people get.  At any rate, here's hoping you beat this.
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"protracted withdrawal" I heard from my pharecuetical friend that there's something that happens when you stop taking them abruptly and then you have to get back on them and slowly taper off to get such effects to go away. Perhaps this is what I must do?

As for the rest of that stuff it's really informative. There was an artical that my freind (the phermecist tech) read that said that it was a rare occurance and it's not very well known from what he read in the article , but, however, a mutation can happen. And it might not be likely but it seems like it's entirely a possibility. To me at least. Sorry. But this does make sense on how my reactions with marijuana are really bad now like I feel like I'm having a heart attack I don't know where I am I get tunnel vision I don't know what people are saying to me and my throat feels like it closes up. If you want more info on that to help me I can summon some stuff up from what I remember.

The protracted withdrawel sounds like it's right on the money. One thing to mention as I read this stuff about health it makes me feel really bad like something is triggering in my head saying something is wrong as soon as I read anything or talk about anything health related.

Also could it be some form of PTSD? I've been through tramatic beatings in cells before and another thing to note is that I have noticed a big difference in these constant panic attacks from moving from one place to another. So my travel trailer it never happened and now all the sudden it seems like it's being triggered all the flipping itme. One thing to note is that when I take medications or drink caffeiene it seems to flair up not sure but since i moved in to my new place I've been drinking coffee whereas I wasn't before.

Thank you so much for setting some time aside to help me. Do you think I should see a neurologist and try to start there? THanks again.
Also another thing when I had that major panic attack thing happen to me where it increased my heartrate and everything using benzos after created a  similar effect to that but much smaller in potency. Thanks again.
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