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Benja54
16-11-06, 04:24
Hello everyone I am new to this site and have just registered to be able to make this post.

I'm an 18 year old male from Australia and I 'believe' I have been suffering from panic attacks for a couple of years. I say 'believe' because i am still unsure of what I suffer from but I'm pretty convinced that panic/anxiety is the cause of my symptoms.

I completed VCE (year 12) last year and this was a great deal of stress to me. The years previous I put a great deal of stress on myself also. My whole high school career has been plagued by my inability to complete homework, in short, I am totally unmotivated to study outside of the classroom. Teachers/Lecturers would also argue that I am highly unmotivated inside the classroom.

Anyway i noticed that in year 11, slightly over 2 years ago that in class i would become nervous and I would get sweaty palms. It wasn't so bad when I only had nervousness and sweat problems, so I ignored it. Then came the toilet issues! It was generally on a monday morning in biology when i had these problems. I would be sitting in class, listening to a lecture and then I would notice that I would have to use the bathroom. Not wanting to disrupt the class i would sit idly by and try to deal with the stomach pain and cramps. In the meantime my palms would be sweating profusely and I was moving about in my seat - it was easily visible that i was becoming restless. I would finally give in and ask the teacher if i could be excused, whether he said yes or no, I got up out of my seat and left the classroom. This isn't a charming point of the story but I always noticed that i'd have diarrhea. Anyways after visiting the toilet i generally became relaxed and returned to normal functioning.

This happened for the whole of year 11 and 12, I made note to most of my teachers that I was prone to running out of class because of my 'abnormal stomach.' I was put on drugs to help combat my irritable stomach but these never worked, I kept having to run out of class because of the constant need to use the toilet. I became aware that my stomach problems were stress related, moreso related to sitting in a class for an extended period of time. I noticed that I was running out of most of my classes, my monday morning toilet problem had now extended into my midday and afternoon classes, it was slowly interrupting all of my classes.

So I basically put up with this problem for the whole of year 11. In year 12 the toilet issue subsided somewhat, although it happened now and then in various classes.

However, that year there was various occasions where i had to sit down for a long period of time in a crowded room. These occsaions were such things as school assemblies and the like. In these scenarios it seemed my problems were exacerbated. It seemed as though the large crowd and being required to sit for long amounts of time were making my nervousness worse. I would become irritable in no time and i would have to get up and leave, if i could bear the embarrassment of standing up to leave - in front of the whole year 12 crowd. If i couldn't bear getting up, then i would remain in my chair, being an uncomfortable wreck because of stomach pain.

The stomach/bowel pain was one thing.
One day my parents decided to take me to the city to do some clothes shopping, that was fine, i thought. So we parked the car and i noticed i wasn't feeling the best but it was ok, it was only a small 'headache' so i didn't speak up. We walked into the nike store and went up to the 1st level and this is where it happened. While the parents were looking around i began to feel extremely faint and i felt as though i was going to pass out. The sweaty palms returned and i felt generally cold and clammy. I grabbed onto my mum as i felt faint and mum suggested i sit down. So i did, rather i lied down on the nearest chair. "What the hell was that?" i thought to myself. I still felt as though i needed to pass out but sitting down kind of took my mind off it. I stood back up and felt extremely dizzy, once again. I decided i had to go to the toilet,

Aussie
16-11-06, 07:39
Hi Ben,
You'll find lots of great help here.
You are not alone in what you are feeling at all, the more you learn about it the less scary it will be.
All the best

LickeyEndBlues
16-11-06, 09:01
Hi Ben,

Welcome to NMP. I have no doubt that you will find lots of help, advice and support in here. I am newish to the site having been here for around 6 weeks and it has been a great relief (no pun inintended!!)

I can't relate directly to your symptoms but it does sound to me like an anxiety problem that creates your "need". If you feel thet you are having PAs, then you probably are.

There are a couple ofthings in your post that suggest both social anxiety and health anxiety and I feel that there might be a "chicken and egg" thing going on there....which came first!!

Most of the posts in this particular part of the forum are just to say "Hi", so it might be worth taking some of this to th erelevant forums where they might get a bit more specific feedback.

The admins on this site are great at creating links etc to archive posts thta will be important to you.

Hope that has been useful Ben. There are a growing number of you pom bashers coming into the site which is great, the most important factor to realise is that no matter how insular you feel there are loads of folks across the planet feeling the same way.

Take care and good to see you

Iain

slightly off topic...I saw The John Butler Trio (from Oz) during the summer...what a band!!

Laissez les bon temp roulez

trac67
16-11-06, 09:28
Hi,

Welcome to the forum, you will get a lot of good advice here and make some new friends.

Take care

Trac xx

'Live your life with arms wide open, today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten'

honeybee3939
16-11-06, 10:45
Hi Benja

A BIG warm welcome to you, lovely to see you here, im sure you will get some great advice while making new friends on the way.:D

Heres a post that may help:

First Steps:
First Steps to overcoming Panic and Anxiety (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=942)

Love

Andrea
xxx

Benja54
16-11-06, 10:52
Iain. Thanks for the reply mate. Good to know that replies are quick around this joint! Well i may just consider reposting the full story in a relevant forum, so thanks for the advice. uhhhh other than that - yeah this site was the first one i stumbled across in relation to panic attacks and it seems to be the best, all the aussie ones are really poor, from what i have seen anyway.

lol pom basher. how dare you stereotype me :D haha jokin... but yeah the replies are greatly appreciated

LickeyEndBlues
16-11-06, 10:59
Good to hear you laughing Ben.

btw...I'm Scottish so I bash them as well!!

Cheers

Iain

Laissez les bon temp roulez

Benja54
16-11-06, 11:09
lol yeah and we will kill them in the ashes (cricket, if wondering)

manmoor
16-11-06, 15:12
Hi Ben,

A big warm welcome to you.

Take Care

Mandyxx

nomorepanic
19-11-06, 20:43
Hi Ben

Welcome aboard and lovely to see you here.

Hope you get some great support and advice on here.

Please feel free to ask us any questions you need answering.

Nicola

People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel