Ridiculous panic triggers

[Canadiana]

I'm only getting worse.
My triggers are what the title says.
I was watching a show a few days ago. This guy had a chance to fly in a stealth jet. I though hmm pretty cool, so I'm watching it and they are going straight into the sky, all of the sudden the guy starts breathing super fast, then he goes onto describing how he was feeling he said he was well obviously having difficulty breathing, and started to get tunnel vision. As soon as he said that, along with watching that I had a huge panic attack. Never before has a show done that.
Going out is a nightmare, because of the depersonalization. Every looks and sounds so weird, and I find it such a scary feeling.
If a cloud goes in front of the sun, it leads to a panic attack.
Large stores suck. The lighting is another trigger. I find when I walk down the aisles I'm always focused on the lights. They flicker, and cast a weird glow on everything.
I also noticed sounds are a trigger. Even if its just people talking to one another, its like all the sudden I hear everyone all at once and I find it to be too much. I call it sonic ears I pick up every bloody sound.
If my ears start to ring, its a panic attack coming forsure.
I wouldn't wish these feelings on anyone, most wouldn't even think twice about lights, and the sun etc. Anyone have panic triggers like these?

[Boingboingboing]

Hi There I'm exactly the same, especially in the supermarket everything feels weird sometimes I can still shop, other times I just can't concentrate on what I'm buying as fixed on how I feel.Then same as you other people can just say something to trigger them I try and let them pass but after reading a few books they say its just how our nerves are sensitised and it's like a switch being flicked on
Ang:yesyes:

[Col]

Hi I can not emphasise enough how much I can relate to what you've described! I don't get the sound thing but everything else - absolutly!!!!
The sun thing , light and shade awful. I've had vertigo sat watching the tv.
As I described its like places I've visited 1000 times or roads I always drove down BECAME alien, NOTHING seemed real and everything seemed weird.
Try a hobby and rest and be where you feel comfortable agin until this calms down!

[HypoCanuck]

Indeed, I was telling my GF many times in the last couple of years when I go out I feel like everything is so robotic, almost animated like. I feel the depersonalization allot. That has to be one of the worse feelings. I used too at one time have severe hypervigilance to sound, like when i heard a sound i had to make sure i knew it was real and i did not hallucinate it, i recall for months whenever a noise was made like say a dog barking outside, I had to physically go out and look to make sure it was real. That was my sonic ears.

[Pinky_Chelle]

Hiya

I totally relate to the light thing. I noticed when we shopping a few months back that some of the lights were just strange to me and didn't feel right and I just have to get out of the shop, it's the same with the lights in mums house seem to have the same affect. I slightly understand the cloud thing most of the time I'm ok with it, it's only certain times I'm not.

Even going to places I've been to hundreds if times has caused problems in the past. I've been feeling more anxious lately so I'm going to see my gp tomorrow.

Chelle x

[owlkeeper]

This sounds very familiar.. Noise/lights/images can all trigger panic attacks. Changing light conditions are horrible when you are in a panic period (this is what I can a time in which I get more panic attacks) I usually wear a baseball cap to prevent at least light from above (sun, lights from ceilings) from having an impact. I also keep my headphones and mp3 with me at all times.. When the noise gets to much I just put on some of my music for a while and calm down a bit.

Hope you feel better soon!

[Pinky_Chelle]

I always feel as though I'm going to faint and that's what also triggers my panic & anxiety attacks.

Chelle x

[stonecutter76]

Grocery stores trigger me every so often. I think it's the frequency of the light flicker.

I also get hit going to lunch at work. It was where my first panic attack started, so something is stuck in my head about that. I've learned to ignore it when it starts, and just get some food.

[yoyolandi]

Yes! Grocery stores and supermarkets are the worst.

If I can make it in and out quickly I can calm down, but if it's busy and I have to wait in line I usually have an attack.

Another weird thing that gets me is when I can hear/see people eating . . . a lot of people at once, like at a restaurant or in a cafeteria. I can just hear every noise and see everything so vividly and it makes me feel so ill. I have to cover my ears and close my eyes sometimes, it gets to be too much.

Y x

[hellan1980]

Here i was thinking it was just me. At the moment it really doesn't take much to panic me. I can be just reading a book, nothing monumentally exciting in the paragraph I am reading. All of a sudden it just starts. It's happened to me in stores my husband will ask if i want something and it isn't what we went in for I just seem to panic.

[rb1978]

Supermarkets definitely. It's that thought that "Oh God I'm committed to this and I can't get out of it"....once the groceries are on the conveyor belt at the till, you're committed.

I remember that for ages I used to go to the self-service till at the end with all my shopping. Silly really cos if I'd had a panic attack, I could no more run away from there than from the guy on the till :wacko:

I've kind of got over this now after once seeing an elderly shopper feel unwell and unsteady at the till...and what happened? Did the world end? Nope....the staff just rushed over to help them. :)

[xvolatileheart]

I have ALL of those triggers and more! Lately public transport has been the worst for me. Any sensation the train makes, like speeding up or going over a bump, sends me into a complete panic attack. I think my body is mistaking it for a sensation inside of me rather than from something external.

Vision and sound things get to me a lot. A recent one has been the sensation that I'm going blind or getting tunnel vision but when I actually test my vision, everything is fine yet by then I'm in a total panic!

If I lay on my arm or side for a while and my arm starts to feel heavy, I freak out thinking it's a heart attack or MS.

None of these things make any sense. I've always been an outgoing, adventurous person and now I'm like a crazy hermit. I force myself to live a normal life but it's torture everyday.