View Full Version : Hav eyou ever had a panic attack like this?
On October 18th 2012 I was driving home when I suddenly started to feel "spaced out". I wasn't far from home so I carried on driving. I could then see flickering in the corner of my eye (like steam coming out of a kettle). I then felt VERY panicky, sweaty, hot and shaky and when I got home the flickering had gone but I had a "worm" in my vision. It was making my vision weird (slightly kaleidoscopic). I went numb all over, but predominantly down my right hand side. It lasted 40minutes and it was over, and I was left with the usual shaking and fear of another one.
That sounds more like an optical migraine and subsequent panic attack :)
That sounds more like an optical migraine and subsequent panic attack :)
EXACTLY what I was gonna say! Bloody awful. My migraines became sooo bad they make me panic if I feel like I'm gonna get one.
Horrid things :winks:
I didn't have a headache afterwards...my therapist said it was a panic attack
Sometimes u don't. Your therapist maybe right but, I've suffered these for years & I'm sure some docs would agree with what me and pancho, have suggested.
Migraines and headaches are distinctly different & put it this way not everyone who gets headaches suffers with migraine.
Vice versa.
Migraine doesn't always include headache, that's something I've learned this year! It's a disturbance of the nervous system, which is why you might get odd things like numbness, vision problems, temperature changes, sweating etc.
It's possible it was a mix of migraine and panic attack, since the odd sensations were so scary and may have frightened you. This has happened to me, since I had no idea that the weird things I was experiencing could be migraine!
Everything you've described sounds incredibly like migraine, has it happened to you again since then? Were you overly tired/hungry/stressed on the day that it happened?
No to all of the above. I am now worried that I will have another one and the antibiotics I am already scared to take have become a definite worry. I'm worried that they will cause another one.
Tense - I know Hun , I now have such a bad phobia of them. Seriously even if I'm fine but say its a sunny day. & I look at a shiny object and then turn to shade -MY GOD - my heart sinks and adrenaline floods my body.
I've had em a couple of times a year since primary school. But when I had my breakdown 2011 at the age of 30 I had 2 consecutive ones , one particular weekend. I was clinging to my hubby screaming in panic, begging him to call 999!
I had one this year very similar, I was taken to hospital for a suspected miscarriage which was traumatising - luckily baby was fine but.......day after I had a migraine. I'd only just woken up as well ???
I'm due in 2 weeks so can u imagine what I'm thinking, migraine durring labour etc.
Your not on your own.
It's been so long since you had it, and there hasn't been a sign of one since, so you don't have to worry too much about it. Plus, you handled the other one very well, and you got through it - so you know you can get through it again if it does happen, and this time you'll have a better understanding of it. You're more equipped to deal with this than you're allowing yourself to think x
---------- Post added at 10:59 ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 ----------
Col - that sounds like a horrible experience you poor thing :( Wishing you well on your due date! I bet at the time you'll have so much else on your mind that you won't have time to think about possible migraine x
I haven't officially been diagnosed with migraine, but my doc is working on the theory that I have something called vestibular migraine or migraine associated vertigo - I'm just waiting to see a neurologist about it but it's taking so long. I have migraine symptoms to varying degrees every day, without much headache though fortunately, it's mainly balance & visual problems. I've been this way for almost a whole year now, and so frustrating. Was scary initially but I've gotten used to it!
:hugs: yes honey love, I'm a depersonalised mess at the moment because of all this & a GAD sufferer for the past 2 years as well, I just don't know what to think anymore.
Im just preying the baby will pop out:roflmao:. It's an awful time at the minute. I've got 2 other children & also told I've got pelvic girdle dysfunction - never had it before & I can't walk sometimes.
I've got family issues I threaded about yesterday for advice. I can't believe all this myself.
Sounds like a blumming movie script.
Sorry to moan xxxx
You have a lot going on right now! No wonder you're feeling overwhelmed. Have you ever gotten any help with the anxiety?
One of my work colleagues had that pelvic thing in her last pregnancy I think - is that the one where your pelvis is kind of moving out of place? Makes it very hard to walk around and even sit comfortable sometimes, sounds very painful!
I agree with Pancho and col. IMO if that was a full blown panic attack I doubt you would have been able to drive home.
Migraines/headaches have taken 18 months of our life recently with our daughter and they haven't led to panic attacks in her case,just that she is naturally more and more anxious as no one can find the cause.
I agree with Pancho and col. IMO if that was a full blown panic attack I doubt you would have been able to drive home.
Migraines/headaches have taken 18 months of our life recently with our daughter and they haven't led to panic attacks in her case,just that she is naturally more and more anxious as no one can find the cause.
I've continued to drive with many panics attacks, especially if I am just a couple of streets away from home.
I spoke to my mum and she used to get the same panic attacks as this one, only on a regular basis and her doctor said that they were panic attacks. No offense to anyone on here but I am going to take the word of my therapist, mum and subsequently her GP.
I spoke to my mum and she used to get the same panic attacks as this one, only on a regular basis and her doctor said that they were panic attacks. No offense to anyone on here but I am going to take the word of my therapist, mum and subsequently her GP.
Migraine has a strong genetic factor to it. If you suffer from any type of migraine there's usually someone else in your family who does too. Don't you think it's unusual that you and your mum both had this problem? Seeing flickering lights in your vision is a classic migraine symptom, but it's not classic anxiety although anxiety can affect your vision in different ways.
I guess it doesn't really matter anyway, and you're right to trust in your GP. I hope you don't experience one like it again x
I don't know, I have a book on panic attacks and flashing lights and Kaleidoscope vision is listed as symptoms. I'm all confused and very scared. I'd much rather a panic attack than a migraine. At 25 it was the first one I've ever had (if it was a migraine) and I have been under a LOT more stress that what I was at the time.
Hmmm tense NOT SURE, I've had "proper panic attacks" & "proper migraines" separately & now only recently at 32 years of age - one can affect the other! My panic attacks - I had to quit my post graduate teaching course, which has financially killed us as a family! My panic attacks started 2 years ago & my life's never been the same and at the height of my episode with GAD 2011 - I became agrophobic for 6 months , I have kids ..... So for me I really really wouldn't choose to have either. They are both debilitating or at least can be!!!! Then look at Ricardo's poor daughter - she still hasn't got to the bottom of her migraines and the trauma that's caused her entire family.
At the moment my advice to you , go see your GP. I don't really think you or anyone can give you an either or answer.
Good luck
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