View Full Version : Medication for Panic Attacks
Hi All
This is my first post on the forum so please be gentle!!!
I had a panic attack at work two weeks ago which has left me a mess. The panic attack started with a tickle in my throat which wouldn't go away, then my throat ceasing up and then not being able to breathe. This has happened before but I always got over it quickly - until now. In the build up to the attack, I was having an awful time at work (which I have now left) - it was so awful that I couldn't go to the toilet as it would mean passing people's desks - is that strange?
Since the attack, I have not been able go beyond my local shop by myself. I can't work. The doctor prescribed some tranquillisers which strangely made the symptoms worse (swallowing and throat tightening).
I am now on Citalopram, an anti-depressant, which is treating the anxiety to a certain extent; however, I still have a tightness in my throat. Does anyone know of medication which will help me relax but allow me to carry on with my life? I totally appreciate that I need to learn how to live with this WITHOUT medication, but I need to get to that point with the medication, if that makes sense.
Thanks for reading this
C [Sigh...]
hi cath as im in the middle of a nasty relapse dont know if i should be offering advice but here goes!!! its quite normal to not want to walk past people or things when you are having an attack i too suffer from the tight throat problem and i always find a stiff drink helps tho not a good idea if you are on meds!!! i did a course of cbt some years ago and was taught that if you stay in the situation the panic will subside sounds easy i know but as im sure you know all you want to do is run but if you can force yourself then it does work have you tried kalms tablets ? they may help with the throat problem
hope you feel better soon
best wishes kazzie
Hi Cath
I had some severe attacks a couple of years ago and hardly went out for a few weeks. All I will say is what worked for me was a combination of medication (I was on Effexor) and therapy. Unfortunately things don't happen overnight and as you know medication takes a while to take effect. But give yourself time and be kind to yourself. I also found that reading helped loads - there are some great recommendatsion on this website.
Take care and we're all with you
Jo x
Hi - I will try to help, when your throat feels tight and you desperatly want to swallow and you can't even breathe you of course panic more, if you open your mouth wide (pretent to yawn if you have to) and then close your mouth and swallow. Then I suggest you relax your tongue to the bottom of your mouth, open the mouth a little, and breathe slowly in through your mouth out through your nose for arew times and then just through your mouth and slowly close your mouth and try to relax, the tongue is a big muscle that at times of stress we tend to tense up, I have already suggested this on the forum before, and quite a lot of people have commented on how good it was to relax the tongue, try it.
Citalopram will take a good 2-3 weeks to be fully active, try to have it everyday at the same time and on an empty stomach. Alternative medicine I would get some Rescue remedy in a spray and some Avena sativa Copm, both from a health shop.
Good luck sweetie, we are all here for you, some of us have been through it - we all survive
there's a place that I dream of when I sleep, so peaceful, so quite, I call it mother earth.
hi i am on citalopram and my gp and others have all said it takes roughly 6 weeks to kick in. I know that seems like an eternity but it does help lots. I also went to a panic/anxiety group which helped heaps. Your reaction to walking past people was perfectly normal for a panic attack and I also did not want to go out at all until my sister forced me to walk down the local shops with her. Just see if you can grab someone else to go for a short walk together and build up your confidence and just remember you have done this a million times b4 and nothing happened. Hope this helps
Having been through the Benzo and AntiDepressant situation myself I know the concerns, withdrawal symtoms and whatnot.
I take it very seriously when anyone else is going through this situation.
I have to be very clear Im not one of these 'black and white' types and I can very much understand where there is a time and a place for a drug.
The time and place would be a situation where you can momentarily suppress the symtoms (actually sensations is the better word) and then take advantage of the drug-induced repression to change your mind and physiology.
Having said that
You are not sick.
You are not having some 'disease' or some sort of 'illness'.
Your body is doing EXACTLY what it was designed and built to do when it perceives an immediate threat to your health and safety.
Let me put this to you in a surprising question: What if I told you that your sympathetic nervous system, your body was working 100% PERFECTLY?
In fact, your throat seeming to tighten, your heart racing, the shaking limbs, the throat sensations are absolute proof your body is in brilliant and perfect health?
All Im getting at is this - you do not have a benzo deficiency and therefore stunning the sympathetic nervous system is (in itself) not any sort of cure of anything.
Likewise, the depression is going to be there 'as night follows day' as a perfectly natural response to the high anxiety.
You definately do not have a 'Paxil' deficiency (or effexor, or prozac or whatever SSRI type product)
I understand that people are theorised to have a lack of 'Seratonin' or whatever the 'feel good' chemicals of the body may be.
Yes.
But it has 'gone down' because of what we think first and it will go up again (given time) because of how we think and percieve and react to the world around us.
So, I totally understand having a Benzo to snap you out of the high anxiety and get you to a temporary artificial state of 'relaxation' where you can take advantage to begin working on your thoughts.
But
They 'cure' nothing.
There is nothing to be 'cured'.
*it is possible you could have a thyroid problem but if that were the case you would treat it with thyroid medications and not antidepressants or anxiety drugs.
Believe me, I just went through another week of horrific depression so Im not just shooting my mouth of here.
I mean this with sincere compassion.
OMG I have had that throat tightening thing until I've lost so much weight I'm nearly invisible. For months! I wish I would have known about the described tongue exercises. As I read that I could feel my throat tightening just slightly and it hasn't done that for awhile. I still chew all my pills I have to take. I'm so afraid of choking but I have another problem that causes choking too but I've choked on pilils so much for years? If a pill comes in a capsule, I'll open that up and swallow the power. Choking is very frightening. Breathing is pretty fundamental to life! Anyway after reading this thread I tried relaxing my tongue first, instead of my throat or rolling my neck and golly, it worked. Thank you so much!
I've had panic attacks nearly all my life. In the UK? Your medications are called different names, same medication tho, than in the US where I live. I don't know the medication mentioned here. However some years ago I was put on the benzo Xanax. I have free floating anxiety that comes and goes too. The bad thing about Xanax was it made me feel so wonderful, but wore off in about 4 hours, I found myself obsessing about my next Xanax. That worried me, I quit taking them and the withdrawal after about a month was ferocious. That is prescribed a lot in the US but just my pharmacist, so this isn't advice, it is one person's opinion is that Xanax is too addictive, should not be used. The withdrawal wasn't fun. I felt horrid. Then I was put on Zoloft (antidepressant, nonaddictive) and Clonipin (long half life benzo). I have a disease where Clonipin is frequently used to calm the brain and central nervous system. The Zoloft (an SSRI) helped my social anxiety tremendously. It's a miracle drug for my husband's explosions - he just doesn't have them on a low dose. The Clonipin I have to take for something else but my psychiatrist said he only uses it for panic attacks because it comes on slow, wears off slow so I don't feel those big ahhh's of relaxation and then panics when it wears off. Xanax for me made it worse. I know a lot of people like it but I'd never take it again.
If I'm lucky I start feeling hot and anxious a few minutes before a panic attack and then it hits me like a wall. I had one in my SLEEP about 2 years ago. Was sure that was highly unusual. I've been afraid of waking up again with one like that so I posted, asked if anyone else experienced that, thinking everyone would say heavens no or not answer? The nice thing here is - I'm finding out I'm not so odd after all. Many responded they too have had them in their sleep.
All to say - I feel you and I are in good company. It's a relief for m
Meggy (good grief I signed one of my dauighter's name first)
I know that here in Canada, Xanax seems to have gone out of popularity for the very reason (Im told) that its wicked addicting and you have that fast suppression followed by a nasty kickback.
My own Doctor does not like handing out Ativan for the very same reasons.
It seems like this Clonoptin is the benzo of choice now.
Having said all that -isnt it our goal to withdrawal from medication?
Hi Jay -
You know what? I liked your first post on this thread a lot when you said it's not all black and white. I certainly agree. We're not all the same, so why should we be treated the same. Plus for me? I've changed throughout my years. My 20's were just miserable with depression, panic attacks, free floating anxiety. Valium was the drug then. I think at that time there were only two other benzo's. I was given 15 mg a day, in the days your doctor could write a script called an "open" script meaning the pharmacy could fill it forever, and for me they did, several years.Getting off Valium after that long and I never over took it? I do think contributed to my epilepsy. Even if it didn't consider this. The withdrawal from that Valium over that long a period of time caused me to seize for 5 days straight and I didn't even have epilepsy then. That is a potentially expected phenomena from Valium withdrawal. I've heard of it in others who took it like me, for a long time. When I was put on it? I had NO idea how addictive it was, knew next to nothing about addiction or what would happen when I withdrew.
I don't know tho if we're all to stay off benzo's. I have two minds on it. One thought I've had is that some people's lives are trashed by anxiety and/or panic attacks. If, after a decent period of time, it doesn't respond to alternative treatments, is continuing for long periods of time, is costing relationships and jobs? I'd choose the benzo. My life was robbed by epilepsy. I don't need anyone's pity over that. I've maximized my life but it's hard to keep my head up on some days. You're darn right tho I'd take anything if it'd stop my seizures. For me, there is nothing, but something to slow them down. So I been there, done that, and loosing a large part of your life is very very hard to accept, if anyone ever really can. I mean it's a great theory, I personally also use three non medicine treatments that help me, but is it really realistic day in and day out, every single day for long periods of time to suffer so much, if medication can bring relief or stop miserable persistent symptoms? I don't think so. None of us are machines but we all run out of gas.
Expanding on that if I had panic attacks all the time, no breaks, and if Clonipin took care of that or helped a lot? I'd gladly take the addiction for the relief. I'm finding out PTSD is currently a buzz word. I hear people blithely say, oh I have PTSD from that final I took. I have to grit my teeth not to say something."Addiction" is a buzz word too. It's become like a dirty word but for some, like me, it's necessary for epilepsy in my case. I never feel like I'm taking anything, it doesn't seem to help panic attacks or anxiety and I was told because my central nervous system is lacking serotonin (or something in the synapses) it absorbs the Clonipin, and that's a theory, not a fact. The only time I do feel it is if I forget to take it and then my muscles get jumpy. That's why I was put on it to begin with, twitching muscles. That IS miserable. In my case with my severe uncontrolled epilepsy? One of my 3 drugs is Clonipin. I swear to you if that goes off the market? I'm hanging it up. My central nervous system would go so haywire I couldn't stand it. Many epileptics take multiple drugs and one of them is Clonipin for many. For some epileptic children it is the only drug they take and epilepsy can, often does, cause brain damage in epileptic children. Two of my children are E's, one g-daughter. I wouldn't have hesitated to put any of them on Clonipin, to heck with addiction if other medications didn't already work for them. For testing purposes I've had to go off all my medicines for 2 days or so periods of time. I think at the end of those periods of time I started to withdraw from the Clonipin but honestly? It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as just waiting 4 hours for that next Xanax. After being prescribed Xanax a few times, I am strongly opposed to it. I wasn't going to post this because it's purely anecdotal, meanin
Me again! I'm so sorry. I thought in this discussion I'd add that going on Zoloft (SSRI), and I'm reading it's literature and typing it here "can cause mild to severe anxiety for most people lasting 2 days to 2 weeks. A starter pack of Zoloft is recommended and can be obtained from your physician to slowly raise your dose to a therapeutic level. The new starter pack used by some physicians includes a second medication, Xanax .25 mg, to be taken three times a day for a period of one week. If you continue having anxiety after one week contact your physician." Hmmmmm. I no longer take Zoloft, my husband does, but we both had screachy anxiety on it when we first went on it but no one told us that was normal. I was so anxious I rear ended someone, just a tiny bit (smile). Like the thread starter wondered, is something physically wrong with her and as Jay eloquently put it, no, but I have to say that's a hard sell when it feels like my emotional dam suddenly broke all over me,and I'm a quart of adrenalinen over the line, but what Jay said, how you put that Jay, I thought was quite good. I printed it out for my son who has panic attacks, natch. I hope the woman who started this thread is getting some comfort. (pul-leeze don't feel bad I can't remember names. I've had a head injury and a little bit of memory probs) It IS nice to know why you feel so abnormal tho. In my 20's I figured I was just crazy then had it confirmed by my doctor who didn't know about panic attacks. Then I guess a salesman visited him and he put me on Tranxene. I was a zombie. Which is worse? I'm of two minds after reading Xanax is being combo'd with Zoloft for the first week? Someone's in bed with someone it sounds to me. I had every test in the book, at that time, run on me to see why I had panic attacks in my 20's. The phrase, as I said, wasn't even in use in my town at that time. The treatment was some whopper injection into your back side of Valium. OUCH, I still remember how much that hurt. I wonder when the diagnosis, panic attack, was invented? Sure was a relief to find out for me in my 30's, I wasn't nuts. I had to take a neuropsych test to be a hospice nurse that was very long and they told me I was perfectly normal. I thought secretly, no I'm not, I have secretssssss.
Meggy
It interesting what you said about Xanax and the drug tests.. it seems that its more popular than ever for the 'youth culture' around here to do Prescription drugs and Xanax has been a really popular one.
It also seems like the people who started on Xanax (Im thinking of a relative now in his 70's) they just refuse to switch.
His Doctor is still fighting with him to switch to one of the Paxil 'SSRI' type drugs and he refuses.
A Xanax and a bottle of wine a day or nothign at all.
I have been told by one RN that alot of the Docs just dont like Xanax anymore.
It probably had something to do with a series of 'murder-suicide' type crimes in which Xanax was called into question.
(Im saying it gives the 'appearance' of a dangerous drug and doctors will avoid that like the plaque)
Well, I have to say I dont know anything about Epilepsy and what that must entail drug-wise.
I mean, I honestly hope every one of us is consulting a Doctor and when discussing withdrawing from anxiety medications we also discuss other unrelated medical conditions of course!
Yep, my experience was with a Doctor who was so happy to throw me a big handful of 'Natural' meds called 'Paxil'.
Paroxetine.
Wow.. these are serious drugs folks.
Then... he was VERY CAUTIOUS to prescribe Ativan.. I got a 5 minute stern warning these were very addictive and worked 'too well' and warned of the kickback.
Switched those for another type/brand/dosage of Lorazepam (same benzo.. even stronger though) and I was so naive.
I actually thought this was a 'medicine' that was 'healing me'.
I felt a lot better didnt I!
My nerves really felt a lot better and calmer so it must be 'curing' me.
Whoa.. when that prescription ran out after three weeks I was in for a nasty nasty surprise - if anything I had twice the anxiety to 'Kick Back' at me and a whole knew set of physical withdrawal symptoms on top of the anxiety.
I weaned off the Paxil by using my 'Nibble Method' of literaly cutting down the dosage over a two month period by 'nibbling' off percentages of each tablet.
I experienced no side effects other than being 'scared' that a coincidental 'bad day' was a sure sign the lack of Paxil was the reason.
I gotta tell you something funny though, my very latest new Doctor just loves prescribing stuff.
If I asked him for a open script of valium i bet he would lol.
The interesting thing:
I have a particular problem with muscle spasms and pain due to some pretty serious Scoliosis and corrective surgery.
Ok.
Doctor cant believe I have not been taking these Cyclobenzadine muscle relaxants.
I take them for a day or two and sure enough they work alright but they cause Dizziness (says on bottle).
Ok
My brain then goes shopping and decides that suddenly i feel dizziness and 'therefore' it looks like another Panic Attack is on the way.
Yep
I went into a 'set back' phase off that lol.
I really like what you are saying about 'Panic Attack' as a term.
I have used it for 5 years.
Now, I have come to the realisation that it is the worst possible term we could ever have invented!
Its panic yes.
It is NOT AN "ATTACK".
Boy oh boy.. that is what I believed and it will still 'Feel' like Im being 'Attacked'
But..
... The actual problem here is that we are NOT being 'Attacked' and WE are doing this.
WE are reacting this way because we mistakenly believe that we are being threatened by something.
Quite frankly - the Panic is doing exactly what it will do, just perfectly and to PROTECT us from an Attack.
Know what Im saying?
Its a Panic Response.
Its not even a 'Disorder' because quite frankly the Panic Response is working exactly in order that it should work in the event of a Bear Attack!
Its not 'attacking us' but in fact we are in such a high state of anxiety that we are responding to the slightest 'threat' (a busy queue or being stopped in traffic) as if it were as serious as a Bear jumping out of the woods.
In a way, its unhelpful to us to hear that term.. it gives us the wrong concept of whats happ
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