What was your WORST panic attack like

[MidnightCalm]

What did you feel and what set it off? Where were you?
I've had many terrible ones and I think I recently had my worst.
I was walking back from my local corner shop and my breathing started to get faster and more shallow, I felt like my lungs shrank to the size of a pea!
My head went dizzy, I sweated, couldn't place my feet. My eyes went blurry, I was confused, heart POUNDING so fast there were barely spaces between beats. Headache, pains all over body.
They're horrible aren't they?

[Catherine S]

Mine are usually connected to my claustrophobia and the very worst one was some years ago when my two girls weren't very old and we were watching TV one Saturday night when without warning everything went off...TV and lights and the whole house was in complete darkness. I fumbled and stumbled to the front door only to find the street was in blackout too! It felt really oppressive and I couldn't breathe and felt like I was going to pass out and to my shame I left my girls behind in my panic to get out into the air. My neighbour got into his car outside and started the engine and put on the headlights...such a relief to be able to see again! I've heard the term 'blind panic' and it was. I've had many panics since but this one sticks in my mind the most. After that I made sure I always had candles and matches within reach

[MidnightCalm]

I always have a big bag of tealights just incase a situation like that happened! Haha.

[angels22165]

Hi
How did your anxiety levels calm after your attack walking back from the shop? I had one of first panic attacks about 20 years ago walking with my two young children then, I rushed home with them feeling like I couldn't breath it was the scariest time of my life, when I got in I quickly sat down and took a Diazepam talking to the children all the time for distraction and within minutes my breathing did start to calm, I put this down to taking the diazepam and now 20 years later I don't walk any distance and especially not up any hills, the least bit of exertion makes me panic and the breathing symptoms start again, the odd few really scary panic attacks I have had has really taken their toll. I know the diazepam dont instantly work so it must of been the panic levels decreasing on their own accord, but to this day I fear walking any distance againXx

[t0rt01se36]

I've had a few bad panic attacks and it's the trembling that's worse for me and I too feel claustrophobic.

I was in a taxi nearly 10 years ago and I trembled so much, I could hardly talk, my hands were shaking so much so, that I could hardly get my money out of my purse, to pay the taxi driver and I just wanted fresh air. I was going to a hotel to meet some famous people, at the time, as a last min decision and when I got out of the taxi, i was still trembling, holding my autograph book.

On a train journey I had a panic attack and had to ring people to make me feel calmer.

Took me a few years to get my confidence back, to travel by train again.

[ColourODarkness]

I've only had 3 or 4 MAJOR panic attacks that I've not been able to cope with alone since I started having anxiety, and I think the first one I ever had was the worst, simply because I had no idea how to deal with it.

It started in my bedroom, I got pain in my arm and chest and thought I might be having a heart attack (I was 14), I ran down to my mum, legs shaking, sweating, finding it hard to breathe and she simply told me I was being stupid and overreacting. I spent 45 minutes breathing into a paper bag and my mum had to phone the out of hours doctor.

Other than that I had a particularly terrible one last year when I thought I might be diabetic. I was practically convulsing my shaking was so bad and I almost threw up on several occasions. I ended up calling my mum, crying, asking her to book me an appointment with a therapist because I couldn't keep living with the anxiety.

[GingerFish]

I had PD and agoraphobia for a year but I'm over it now. I have never been a fan of flying and flying can make those who don't even get panic attacks, panic like hell!

Anyhoo, about a month ago I was flying back home from Dublin. The flight was only 30 mins but felt like a life time. It was a Ryanair flight so we were all packed in like sardines and I was in the middle with my bf at the window side and a random guy on the ailse side. I had been feeling extreme nerves all day, even before I got to the airport and I took so many panics in the airport before the flight that I honestly didn't know how I would make it through the flight.

I've always hated take off but its so much worse when you are jam packed into the plane. I did feel panicky when taking off but its kind of over so quick you can't really act on the panic, you just feel it. Well after maybe a min or 2 of reaching the cruising height, I took the worst panic attack of my life. I suddenly felt fear I have never felt before. It only lasted about 10 secs, if that, I said loudly, not loudly enough for the whole plane to hear or anything though "I'm having a panic attack"and I grabbed my bf's arm plus the guy's beside me arm too by accident instead of the arm rest. He turned around like "wtf?!". I couldn't apologise enough and told him I had a panic attack. He said it was ok but he kind of sneered at me and his wife was on the ailse seat on the row next to us and you could see them sniggering and rolling their eyes. I had never felt so uncomfortable or embarrassed in all my life. I still cringe and want to cry when I think about it. Sadly, its those kind of things that always are in your head, never the good stuff! I honestly felt like I was dying. The room was spinning and felt like it was closing in on me, felt like I couldn't breathe, I took a hot flush.

Tbh its put me off ever flying again. I've not had a panic attack since the flight though which is good.

[koala]

one of my worst attacks was after a day at the beach. Me and my friends were walking back to my friends car eating ice cream then bam... panic attack. Think food is a trigger for me as i was absolutely fine until then. All i remember feeling is very sick and hot. Thought i was going to throw up in my friends car the whole way home. Infact i don't know how i wasn't sick i felt that bad. i was trying to take deep breathes but they weren't working then my friend took over an hour to get home cos we had had to drop one friend off in the town centre, got stuck in traffic works and rush hour traffic, she had to get petrol and then go to her boyfriends at the other end of town so he could get a change of clothes, he took forever to get ready, then we finally left town to head home. All this time they knew i felt really sick. I was cursing them the whole way home (not out loud though as i felt so ill i couldn't talk). My boyfriend tried to comfort me by patting my hand n i slapped it away cos it made me feel like i was going to vomit. Haven't been able to get lifts in other peoples cars since.

[krischoy]

Hi,

I have unforgettable experienced about panic attack. I am working as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse and that time I am on duty and I have a patient who was experiencing cardiac arrest and my panic starts. I am having hyperventilation. good thing that I was able to cope with it right now and resolve my panic/anxiety problems.

[DJP]

My worst ones always involve a very rapid heart beat. That symptom freaks me out like no other. I was driving and felt some kind of discomfort in my chest and since that only takes a split second to register in our brains as panic, the floodgates had been opened. I felt like I was being chased by a tiger, heart beating a million times a second. And it's not just the rapid heart beat, it's the incredibly uncomfortable, horrible sensations that accompany it. It is just the worst feeling in the world. Those are quite scary.

The incredible thing is that 30 minutes after the worst panic attack I ever had, I was able to attend a very important business meeting. I was a whisker from driving straight to the hospital, but was able to drive back to the office instead. My co-workers had no idea what I had just been through.

The takeaway for me is that the Panic / "feeling fine" line can be very thin - do not underestimate your body's ability to move on and recover. I am by no means 'fine' and have had numerous anxiety filled days since, but I have hope in knowing that these too will pass and that if I learn to take better care of myself, they will diminish. Kudos to our host for giving us all hope and for the many fine suggestions in the welcome article.