Jolene
01-06-13, 21:41
I'm new here and my panic problem is new to me so I hope some of you can give me some pointers.
I'll try to cut a long story short. I'm in my early 40's, a mum and wife in a very stable and happy marriage. I've intermittently suffered depression since my teens, but nothing devestating.
At the end of last year I was taken very seriously ill, very suddenly and almost died. I lived to tell the tale, but have had a long road to recovery, resulting in a long period of sickness absence from work.
I think I seemed to have coped very well, and over the last few weeks had started to feel well enough to plan my return to work.
The only thing is that I started to have what i called "thoughts of doom" where I saw the danger in very ordinary situations, to the extent that I could envisage death - but I didn't really let these get to me too much, I knew the feelings were ludicrous, dismissed them and carried on.
Then, I started to get a bit twitchy when my husband was driving us on the motorway, this came on over a weekend, so when we were returning from our weekend I decided to drive as I thought Id be less twitchy. Anyhow, after driving for a few minutes on the motorway I suddenly realised I was going to black out, as I realised this I also realised I wasn't breathing. I was really dizzy, legs shaky, heart was pounding and racing. I started trying to control my breathing, undid my trousers, nothing I did made any difference. I was in the middle lane, so started trying to move in to the inside lane, but it felt so unsafe.
I pulled off at the next junction so husband could take over driving (he said I looked really pale).
It really worried me at first, but it didn't happen again so I forgot about it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was driving my son and I on a day out, thinking nothing about it, as soon as we pulled onto the motorway I started to get the panic feelings again. This time I tried to stick it out, but eventually I had to pull off.
For the time being I've set the satnav to "avoid motorways", but I'd obviously like to sort this out! Any pointers of where I should start in geting help or helping myself?
Thanks in advance.
I'll try to cut a long story short. I'm in my early 40's, a mum and wife in a very stable and happy marriage. I've intermittently suffered depression since my teens, but nothing devestating.
At the end of last year I was taken very seriously ill, very suddenly and almost died. I lived to tell the tale, but have had a long road to recovery, resulting in a long period of sickness absence from work.
I think I seemed to have coped very well, and over the last few weeks had started to feel well enough to plan my return to work.
The only thing is that I started to have what i called "thoughts of doom" where I saw the danger in very ordinary situations, to the extent that I could envisage death - but I didn't really let these get to me too much, I knew the feelings were ludicrous, dismissed them and carried on.
Then, I started to get a bit twitchy when my husband was driving us on the motorway, this came on over a weekend, so when we were returning from our weekend I decided to drive as I thought Id be less twitchy. Anyhow, after driving for a few minutes on the motorway I suddenly realised I was going to black out, as I realised this I also realised I wasn't breathing. I was really dizzy, legs shaky, heart was pounding and racing. I started trying to control my breathing, undid my trousers, nothing I did made any difference. I was in the middle lane, so started trying to move in to the inside lane, but it felt so unsafe.
I pulled off at the next junction so husband could take over driving (he said I looked really pale).
It really worried me at first, but it didn't happen again so I forgot about it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was driving my son and I on a day out, thinking nothing about it, as soon as we pulled onto the motorway I started to get the panic feelings again. This time I tried to stick it out, but eventually I had to pull off.
For the time being I've set the satnav to "avoid motorways", but I'd obviously like to sort this out! Any pointers of where I should start in geting help or helping myself?
Thanks in advance.