Years of Panic

[FenderMadison]

Hey all, I just found this site. I thought I'd start by sharing a bit of my story with you. I've been experiencing what has been diagnosed as panic attacks since I was 15 years old. I'm 23 now. The most common symptom that I experience is the inablity to catch my breath. I feel as though I have a yawn that I can not fulfill. Terrible feeling. Feel like a fish out of water.

Anyways, this mostly occurs in the middle of the night. Lately I've been waking up at Mid-night or 3:00am in a state of pure panic. The best way that I can describe the feeling is if you were on a plane and you were 99.99% sure it was going to crash and there was nothing you could do. I've been on Celexa for a couple of years now and it seems to help. I sometimes keep a bottle of Ativan around when it gets too hard to cope. The Celexa helped almost immediately but has recently not been doing the trick. Like many, I probably rely entirely too much on meds and do not participate in any form of therapy at this time.

All of my symptoms leave me entirely drained through out the day and I'm currently not doing so well with this whole panic thing. I just wish I could feel like a 'normal' person and not have these feelings.

I hope that participating in this community that I might learn how to deal with this better.

Thanks and great to meet you!

FenderMadison

[nomorepanic]

Hi FenderMadison

We just wanted to welcome you aboard to NMP. We hope you enjoy your stay here and get all the support and advice you need.

Please take some time to read the website articles on the left as well for loads of advice and tips.

[secretlyscared]

Hi,
I'm in a bit of a similar situation with meds / waking in the middle of the night with a terrible sense of foreboding / feeling like I'm about to die. It's so draining, I feel I spend most of the day in a zombie-like / jet lagged state> Sometimes I almost don't want to sleep as I know what's coming for me in the middle of the night--> My own mind!!!

[KayleighJane]

hi guys, I have been experiencing exactly the same sensations for about 7 weeks now, I have been on citalopram 10mg and propanolol 80mg for a couple of weeks now and am due to be upping the dose of citalopram to 20mg in a couple of weeks. I get the same feelings when i wake up in the night, feelings of fear and dread and my stomach is in knots but the meds are definately helping with these feelings. before taking the meds I was hyperventilating practically all day with no let up but in the last couple of weeks I have been having longer breaks in between, I even managed to go and meet some friends in the pub the other day. I still don't feel 100% by any means and am still waiting for CBT to start but I am feeling more hopeful than I was several weeks ago. This website and forum has been very helpful to me in being able to hear from others who feel the same and there is some great information on here aswell. x

[nikkikamm]

Im new to this, actually have never used a forum at all..so I guess Ill just say a little about myself and maybe someone can help me out as to how to use these. I have had anxiety for 6 yrs at least. It started when one day I went to get up from bed and the whole room was spinning. I could go to work to say the least. It felt as if I was walking and the ground was moving below my feet..scary. From then on I was scared to DEATH to pass out (biggest fear) I have never but am close to it a lot! Its a horrible horrible feeling and the worst is that I dont know whats causing the dizziness in the 1st place. I had every test known to man done..cat scan ,mri, went to the e.n.t dr, tilt table, ekg, xray..Ive had a LOT. As many of you can probably relate to..we get test after test done to make sure we arent dying! lol I laugh bc I have to..really my main problem at the moment is I have these chest pains that I would call "twinges" they are under my breastbone but can be in the middle of my chest...I went to the er last month about it. Gave me ekg, chest xray, and blood work..all was normal but Im worried that I have a blockage and that well...quite frankly Im going to die bc my heart is going to stop...I live alone and this scares me a lot! I know an ekg cant detect valve blockages so I fear the worst. I do Massage Therapy and thought maybe this is what it is but It doesnt feel the same and It could be GERD but who knows..Tums dont work really. Sorry this is so much, like I said I want to be able to talk to ppl with anxiety issues, just hope Im at the right place