Hello New to this site

[jjs315]

Hello. I had my first panic attack in 1996. Coming home from work at station after walking up big flight of stairs.........I came lightheaded, everything went in slow motion it seemed and my body felt numb. I was sweating. I thought this is how it feels to have a heart attack. An ambulance was called and by that time I was feeling better. But they took me to Stony Brook hospital an they kept me overnight. All test results were negative. I do have heart disease in my family but my heart was fine. In 1996 I was 35.

Forward to today and I am now 51. My heart has been checked endless times and its "perfect" from all tests. After these years I know I cannot have a lot of caffine and being very tired sets me off. I do get a detached feeling now and then and that sometimes escalates to a big time panic attack. I do try to tell myself to just breath. I fine it helpful to have a Vicks inhaler on me to clear up my nostril passages to feel the air.

For all these years I do keep xanax on me at all times. But I only go through about 60 pills a year.

I came to this site because reading others makes you feel better that your are not alone or "nuts" This is not about been anxious. This is about panic attacks. About an hour ago was in my car and my brain felt weird, like it was detached. You get that odd floating panic feeling. It goes away but there is the lingering feeling of just feeling odd after. I chewed an asperin and took 1/2 a xanax. Could be I had little sleep and needed something to eat.

Please free to comment what I wrote and if you feel similar to what I have felt.

Thank you.

PS: I never take any drugs or stuff then or now. Those things scare me. The xanax is only when I am having an attack.

[Veronica H]

:welcome:to NMP. Glad that you have found us.

Vx

[Lo]

Hi, I'm new too. I can't remember my first panic attack. I have been nervous since childhood, I'm now late 20s, and it sort of gradually got worse. I used to feel dreadful at school (which was a truely odd fundamentalist Christian place) in a particular stuffy classroom and would go dizzy and faint and unbearably hot. No one really bothered about it, they'd just let me get on with it! I think me taking my jumper off and on and sitting with my head between my knees was a normal sight.

Things were better in my late teens and early twenties. I'd go nervously to new places but knew I'd be alright and I was. In the last couple of years I was in a bad situation at work, problems with my boss. It got to the stage where my legs felt weak all the time and I was convinced that in the next moment I would faint, each day was a battle. I had symptoms exactly as you described when I was rushing to work one morning, it was embarrassing. My biggest fear is passing out in front of people and causing a fuss, so that was horrifying.

I don't take anything, maybe I should but I clam up when I visit my doctor. They know I have problems because they noted how tense I am when I'm there and told me I have white coat syndrome. A nurse told me I could talk to them any time about anything. But I don't know that I could describe to my doctor just how I feel, and I worry that I'd cry instead of talk.

This website is such a help though. The symptoms page was a revelation, right down to the metallic smell that puzzled me so many times at work that no one else could smell.

I hope things get better for all of us :)