Fight, Flight and ....Freeze????

[Alexisd89]

Hello,
I am new to the forum. I have had some terrible panic attacks (or what I believe are panic attacks) over the past two years. My panic attacks always start the same... tingling sensation in y fingers and toes, overwhelming sense of un-called-for terror and then it gets worse from there. The tingling persists up my arms and my legs and I go completely pale and start to hyperventilate. So far this probably sounds familiar to many of you, here's the kicker... after the tingling heads up my arms and legs my hands start to freeze in, what my husband described as, Rigamoris form. Like frozen dead body. So there I am hyperventilating and completely frozen, and I MEAN FROZEN, my jaw is even frozen open and slightly to the side, I cannot talk or call out for help, I cannot hold a bag to my face to help with the breathing because my hands are frozen in an open position.... I am literally FROZEN, and then there comes this sense of a belt around my ribcage that gets tighter, and tighter, and tighter until I just kind of pass out at which point my husband says I start breathing normal again. All of this happens in about 20-30 minutes and then I just want to sleep for hours. Anyone else have anything similar happen??? I feel like these symptoms are very bizarre, Is this a panic attack.... I feel like I am dying!!! Truly terrifying.
~Alexis

[sputnikmoon]

Yea, that's really common with severe hyperventilion - your muscles go into spasm and lock up... Which only makes you freak out further!

Totally safe, apart from the fact you can't move , and totally expected in severe hyperventillation :)

You just need to know it's nothing to fear and try to let the sensations run their course, don't worry if it happens again and if your able to not be scared off it, you'll soon find it becomes less severe.

You should look into breathing exercises to nip the hyperventilation in the bud before you get to the lock up stage as you must have been over breathing for a while before the lock starts to set in?

I know it feels like you can't breathe when it's happening, but you can and your fine - the act of over breathing brings on a sensation of suffocation as your body can't measure oxygen in the blood, it can only measure the carbon dioxide - so when you push all the CO2 out of your blood and replace it with oxygen, your body assumes it's suffocating even though it's far from it, and your conscious mind freaks out and starts trying to get more air.

Give it enough time, your body gets sick of waiting for your mind to calm down so it just knocks it out so it can take over the proper breathing again and gives your mind a time out on the naughty step :p