Panic Attacks

Following some comments and thoughts made earlier I wonder if anyone would like to add their comments here. Have you suffered panic attacks, maybe some thoughts on how you cope with them?
I suffered panic attacks [along with worse stuff] which I think worsened after the birth of my first son. It got to the point where I could hardly leave the house and suffered dreadful symptoms the worse being heart related. I eventually sought help after two years when hubby took me to the GP but I couldn't even get out of the car so the GP came to my home the next day. Thank goodness I don't really get them now but the feeling never completely leaves me.

 

Dont set me off!! im not impressed with docs/hosps over the yrs and panic attacks....i had a stint of them 20 yrs ago i was in a state for 12 months at the time and its never leaves you x
This yr by chance a doc heard a heart murmur and it didnt even show up on my ecg they did on me i was sent for a chest xray before they would consider a ecco scan is it ?? but my xray was fine thankfully
But i dont understand how it hadnt been picked up yrs back,the palpatations must of sent me into panic 20 yr back and it was awful,ive always had chest flutters/heart pounding feeling but just put up with it,at least now i know its a murmur.
Also 1 doc in our surgery heard my murmur and another checked me and didnt...he said she was good to spot that cos he hadnt x

 

Dont get me started on Doctors.............

I've had a few panic attacks, not for a while now. I try and extricate myself from the situation before they get full blown. Usually its people that set them off. Not even crowds, just walking around town will do it.

 

Have suffered with Panic attacks since I was 16 and am only just getting Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for it now. I've nearly been doing it for a year and I feel much better for it, although I still have a long way to go. It's changed my life though and would recommend it to anyone.

Don't just think Panic attacks will disappear on their own you need to think about what the core fear is and confront it as soon as possible.

 

Funny you should put a thread up about Panic attacks as I and Loli have been talking about them and our experiences on the Muppets Wakey wakey thread and you may wish to read that to see if the experiences and possible avoidence of them are similar to your own.

 

ooh, me too a few years back, along with the more serious stuff that can go with them, at one stage i was really ill, but hey, that was then and today is now.

made me re-evaluate life and what its all about.

met the mrs, had children and have been as happy as pig in muck since.

 

i know what causes/ caused mine .... i am screwed up lol ( you got laugh or you'd cry)

seriously horrible feelings/ emotions that just take over your rational being, then there is the physical effect too ....

you can with help get these under control but from my experience there is no one fix for all, more is the pity !

 

Not panic exactly, but a great difficulty in getting off my backside and finishing the dozens of 'projects' I've started while I was feeling 'better'.

At best it is procrastination, at worst it is bone idleness!

Cheers, Tony.

 

I really sympathise with anyone who is suffering with panic attacks, absolutely dreadful, frightening feeling I used to think I would just pass out especially in supermarkets and such places. Also suffered depression (both triggered by bereavement) and I now take Clomipramine daily, don't ever expect to stop taking them and all is now under control thank goodness!!

Val

 

I have no idea what this must feel like and my heart goes out to those who have to endure it.

It does mean, I have no experience to draw upon; only a philosophycal point of view. When adrenaline kicks in, we have but two responses: fight, or flight. Those of the flight response will experience (loosley termed and no offense meant) panic, anxiety; in other words, *non-confrontational* methods of survival. That is cool! Scarey, unstabling, but, cool! That is *your* survival instinct and will serve you well. Embrace it for what it is. An adrenaline response!!! Nothing more, nothing less. And, quite outside your (initial) response.

Conversely, are those who have the "fight" response and will throw themselves into whatever life throws at them because that is how they are hard-wired to respond. It is a fight for survival response. Does that mean they experience no anxiety, or reflective response? No, of course not; it merely means, the methods in treating the two are different, but not mutually exclusive

I think I'm saying: do not see this as a form of "weakness"; it is a form of survival and the mere fact that you have this heightened response only illustrates that you are ... Survivors!!!! Embrace it; do not fight it.

 

Moyra, I commented on wakey wakey and thought it might be a good idea to start a thread to share experiences
Joolz, how interesting as I had the same thing, had been complaining of racing heart, missed beats [hundreds a day] and it wasn't until a couple of years ago I saw a different cardiologist who diagnosed a heart murmur the minute she listened to my heart. An echograph confirmed it so now I am on anti arrythmic meds as well as others. I am sure that was what used to make me feel so panicky. I have also done cbt, it's hard to apply it when in a panic though! Interesting comments everyone.

 

Thank you jazmine,i will now go back and see if i can get a echograph,the phone call i got form my doctor( after the heart murmur find) saying i would have to have a chest xray first before they would consider an echoscan, led me to beleive if the xray was ok that it wouldnt be persued. He got my xray results( no phonecall to me) i ended up ringing the docs to ask for results ,now you have told me about arrythmic meds(which i knew nothing about!) i have feel i have grounds to ask for one esp if they could help me
The amount of times my heart thuds in my throat(or feels like) it makes do a cough and i try to calm down cos i think im going to go into panic like i did all them yrs ago
And all them yrs i didnt know what the cause of my own panic attack yr was
The female doc who recently spotted my murmur must of been about 8yrs back then xx