Panicatthedisco
22-08-13, 17:31
Hello everyone,
Been having panic attacks on and off for around 10 years albeit with a huge gap between the first ones 10 years ago and now.
I think I managed to stave it off for 10 years by unconsciously managing the way I thought about stuff and basically being a typical bloke and ignoring the symptoms if they started to crop up.
Sadly in the last 2 weeks, this has been impossible where the attacks have reached a crescendo and are occurring several times in a day. It has probably ramped up in severity due to a hellish pace of work, a difficult economic climate and some interpersonal problems in the work place. All of this resulted in a progressively worsening sleep pattern over a period of months bringing me to where I am now.
I've been to the docs and been given a clean bill of health in terms of 24hr blood pressure, ecg and fasting blood count. This helped for a short period and I went back to work after a week off (probably too soon) and managed a couple of days then - bam - back to square one.
I've been given 10mg of propranolol on an as needed basis and they do seem to help keep a lid on things. I've also upped my exercise which helps and cut out the booze (mainly because I just don't feel like drinking any more). I'm waiting for a CBT referral to come through that I asked the doc for, but it feels like it's taking an eternity.
As a result, I wanted to try and help myself as much as possible while waiting for the referral (who wants to feel this way?) and I thought a good, positive step would be to talk to other people in my boat.
So here I am :), hello. Sorry for the wall of text and thank you for your time in reading - there is something cathartic about committing it to writing.
Been having panic attacks on and off for around 10 years albeit with a huge gap between the first ones 10 years ago and now.
I think I managed to stave it off for 10 years by unconsciously managing the way I thought about stuff and basically being a typical bloke and ignoring the symptoms if they started to crop up.
Sadly in the last 2 weeks, this has been impossible where the attacks have reached a crescendo and are occurring several times in a day. It has probably ramped up in severity due to a hellish pace of work, a difficult economic climate and some interpersonal problems in the work place. All of this resulted in a progressively worsening sleep pattern over a period of months bringing me to where I am now.
I've been to the docs and been given a clean bill of health in terms of 24hr blood pressure, ecg and fasting blood count. This helped for a short period and I went back to work after a week off (probably too soon) and managed a couple of days then - bam - back to square one.
I've been given 10mg of propranolol on an as needed basis and they do seem to help keep a lid on things. I've also upped my exercise which helps and cut out the booze (mainly because I just don't feel like drinking any more). I'm waiting for a CBT referral to come through that I asked the doc for, but it feels like it's taking an eternity.
As a result, I wanted to try and help myself as much as possible while waiting for the referral (who wants to feel this way?) and I thought a good, positive step would be to talk to other people in my boat.
So here I am :), hello. Sorry for the wall of text and thank you for your time in reading - there is something cathartic about committing it to writing.