Your panic attack symptoms? and how do you cope?

[AngelHeart]

Just wondering what everyones panic attack symptoms are?

I've just had what I would describe to myself as a major panic attack.

Got up to go the toilet then I started with pins and needles in face and a weird swaying , then I felt like an overwelming feeling was coming over my body, started feeling faint, had a coldness inside my chest and my heart beat accelerated. So I sat at my front door in the cold with the wind blowing on my face taking deep breathes and focused on the wind and I calmed down. Took me about 20-30 mins to calm down though :(

I would love to know wha symptoms people experiance when having a panic attack, how they cope and how long they last please? Would love to know if anyone experiances the same as me. Would be very reasurring.

Thank you so much xxx

[MVP123]

Hey there, I hadn't had a panic attack in ages, but had the worst one ever on the Sunday just gone. I started feeling extremely sick, then my head symptoms started, which I can only explain as the blood continously rushing to my head. I had to sit rocking back and forth and pulling at my hair and scratching at my head due to the horrenduos dizziness and head rushing. I actually thought this is it, I'm going to die, or faint at the very least. I couldn't stop shaking. My husband held for me to try and calm me down, and this lasted for a couple of hours, and in the end the only thing that calmed was to take a sleeping tablet, which didn't put me to sleep, but did calm me, it was horrible. Also since then I have had the most horrendous cold\flu\virus so perhaps it was warning me of something lol xx

[paula lynne]

Hi there x
My last one was-
Extreme light headed
Pins and needles
Diarrheoa
Vomiting
Feelings of unreality
Chest pain
Palpatations
Sweating/hot
Vertigo

After Ive been sick, I go to bed and use a paper bag to re-breathe, and smell lavender to help calm me down. It lasts around an hour. Im exhausted afterwards (feels like Ive run a marathon).....Sometimes I sleep, sometimes I can get up and relax on the sofa. Ive had them 11 years, so Im aware that despite how awful they feel, they always pass. I know they will not hurt me. Once Id convinced myself I could cope with them, they started getting less and less. They lost their control over me.

Ive gone from 5/6 severe panics a week to.....about 1 a month (usually in the week before my period). Lose the fear of them, and you take back your power over it.
Your not alone hun x
Paula x

[qrydem1987]

Feeling hot
Sweat
Breath heavy
Heart beats fast or normal but very hard
Feel slight dizzy and lightheaded
Shaky legs and hands
Feel like a hot flush of adrenaline in my stomach and sometimes chest

First attacks lasted about 30 mins - 1 hour but after each one it got better and better once I knew exactly what it was and finally knew and accepted it can't kill me. My attacks last about 1 minute now. And when happen I don't ever think I'm going to die or something terrible about to happen. Just like Pauline I know It passes. Now I just have a cigarette and sit down. I normally get like a panic hangover after. Weak shaky legs and slight mild headache which takes about an hour to pass. I ust to retreat to bed or home but now they are so light and I had so many and so aware even in the grip of one. I'll be O.K that it's easier now to just take a quick rest and carry on. The first ones ere truly horrific but my knowledge and experience now I will never have a bad attack as the first one

[london]

say a prayer thay go
god bless

[MVP123]

So sorry for hijacking your thread Pauline but I'm beginning to worry that because other peoples descriptions of their panic attacks are so different to mine then maybe mine aren't panic attacks at all. Mine seem to last for more than an hour and the only way I can stop it is to take drugs to knock myself out. I have got a really bad head cold right now, so have got that horrible dizzy pressure in my head, so now I'm worrying that its all connected to somat more serious. And sorry once again Pauline xx

[AngelHeart]

Hi everyone thank you so much for all of your replies , it reasurres me that am not the only one having these unpleasent feelings. do you ever find that you can bring a panic attack on by just thinking of them?I feel like I have to re train my mind again. Suffered from them for years and hadnt had any more for months before they started again in July, but Ive been going through a really stressful time, so I know thats the cause of them.

MVP123 you havent hijacked the post, we are all here for help hun, what are your symptoms like that you get and how long have you been having them for? xxx

[honeyp1e]

Hi.....
My first sign that am about to have a panic attack is i get this red hot feeling that just comes all over me starting in my back and works right up into my head and my stomach just goes into a big sickly knot, body starts trembling, heart pounds, bad taste in throat, negative thinking, sweaty palms, shaky nervous belly feeling i used to totally freak out and would have to go for a walk to calm me down no matter what time is was but now am not so bad i just tell myself it will soon pass and it does they used to last from an hour to a few hours but now i no longer go for a walk and my attacks dont last that long

Thank god x x x x