A late hello

[SyrianPanda]

When I first joined this forum I was in a panicked state where all I could do was read through the symptoms on here and the responses in regard to what I was experiencing. I went to the doctor and he said I could have anxiety initiated by my panic attack (after this panic attack I was in a major panicky state for days). I read posts on here and many of you guys have suffered from anxiety for years so I'm worried that it will never end and I'm glad I joined this forum because I read it while panicked and your responses helped me calm down. I don't know if it would be all right to ask this question here since this is an introduction of myself post, but is my doctor's diagnosis even right, like is it possible to have anxiety with physical symptoms and worried thoughts just because of a panic attack but not consider it an anxiety disorder? My doctor didn't say I have an anxiety disorder but it seems that it has to be a disorder and not just anxiety itself because every site I've read, it places anxiety into disorders; GAD, OCD, etc. I was prescribed 25mg Atarax to take as needed for anxiety/panic attacks but I've only taken one 3 weeks ago and do not want to take anymore unless absolutely necessary.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You don't have to have an anxiety disorder if you suffer from panic, but they have a common co morbidity due to the impact it can have on your life.

At this stage it may be that your doctor is looking a diagnosis of Panic Disorder. Unless you fit the description of other anxiety disorders e.g. persistent worry over X period for GAD, then it may not change.

However, don't worry that it might.

Just because others suffer from anxiety disorders for years does not mean that you will be the same.

Since this has just started, I would encourage you to tackle it now because it can be more difficult when it becomes embedded.

What exactly caused the panic?

Panic floods out system with adrenaline. If you read about how adrenaline works, you will see that it has a very short half life of a couple of minutes. However, it then has to be either excreted through our urine or metabolized by our body. Until then it gives us the after effects of panic, anxiety symptoms. The best way to encourage it to reduce it through exercise, even if its gentle like going for a walk because exercise burns off adrenaline and the extra work your body does to repair itself from exercise will metabolise it into something else that it needs.

[SyrianPanda]

Thank you for your response. I've had a panic attack on September 18th and seemed fine afterwards but the next day I had another one and I remained in a panic state for several days before finally calming down after going through these forums. When I had a panic attack, I had a wave of panic and then the worrying about what was going on, pacing back and forth, inability to do anything, couldn't sleep or eat, etc. came afterwards. I don't know what caused the panic in the first place but I could recall feeling weird during the week before it happened. I calmed down a little and could watch TV or do things to distract myself but I still got weird feelings such as physical symptoms and feeling like my thoughts aren't normal. This week it escalated and I started worrying immensely about everything I was feeling. I feel like I will not be able to feel hunger ever again or feel tired, my thoughts are just jumbled up like I'll think of something and then a new thought comes along without me finishing the last or sometimes I just feel like I stop thinking all together. I have a lot of other worries about how I feel and "what-if" thoughts that are making me feel helpless. I'm so confused about what's going on. I don't think it's just panic attacks because I researched them a lot and I found that panic attacks usually keep occurring because of fear of having another one. This is also what is said to become panic disorder. I don't fear having another panic attack (I did about driving but I made myself drive anyway, since my first panic attack happened while I was driving). When I started getting intensely worried all over again recently, I didn't get a wave of a panicked feeling like I did before which concerns me. I know that most of my worries are irrational but I don't understand what's going on, so I can't stop freaking out. To answer your question, what I believe caused this panic (if that's even what it is, I'm sorry I'm so confused and worried) is something I saw on the News about a kid that had no urge to eat or drink and that no one could figure out what was wrong with him. The adrenaline thing makes sense so I'll try to exercise, despite being worried about my breathing. Another concern I have is that I have a stuffy nose and will sometimes get a burning wood smell, which makes me worried too.

[MyNameIsTerry]

You definately show signs of anxiety and rumination, but being anxious doesn't necessarily mean it will form into an anxiety disorder because you could experience this for a short time, deal with it and it won't continue. For GAD a doctor will usually look for a minimum of 6 months of generalised anxiety before making a diagnosis but you will know over the coming months whether that is going to be something you will suffer with as you will experience anxiety that is not as intense as panic but appears pretty much constant, regardless of what you are doing.

Other anxiety disorders differ in diagnosis and some are specific e.g. phobias.

Its good that you keep driving. Panic attacks are known to be able to retrigger based on location or activity so by not backing away from driving where yours first occurred, you are tackling it. This is good, even though it may not feel it right now. The more we back away from things, the more anxiety & panic disorders grow and we lose our self confidence with this pattern.

Its also good that you have been reading about this. Knowledge is all important with anxiety disorders as they are irrational & scary but through education we can take the mystery out of them and start looking at rational ways to tackle them. You will get loads of help on here with this, people on here are very supportive.

The reason I asked about an initial trigger was to understand more about whether there is a theme to your panic such as seen in PTSD, phobias, etc. I'm not sure this is the case with you. By feeling 'weird' can you explain this a little more? I'm wondering whether you were under any stress or had any symptoms of a physical illness at the time as these can weaken our defences. In my case I was so stressed from my work and let go of a lot of healthy behaviours which opened me up to an anxiety disorder.

Does that news item topic still bother you? Are you afraid of it for some reason e.g. you could become the same as that person? Have you been exposed to similiar things since? How did you react? Have you had similiar situations in your life that have made you fear the unknown?

The fact that you didn't experience panic again despite being intensely worried might mean that it is more anxiety that is the issue and that you became overwhelmed and suffered a panic attack. This is ok, it just means tackling anxiety as opposed to panic.

What are the weird symptoms you experience? Are they the same or similiar to what you felt in the week before your first panic attack?

It also sounds like you are ruminating over your issues, catastrophizing and risk assessing with the what it thoughts. These are all things that keep the anxiety cycle going so these have to change, reduce, etc which may sounds impossible right now but believe me, we've all been through this on here and we are coming out of the other end of it.

When you distract yourself, are you ok? When you stop the distraction how do you drift back into this anxious state? Is it more thoughts or physical symptoms that bother you? Do you notice that when these bother you, your thoughts patterns drift into negative spirals?

Asking yourself some of these questions can help you understand how you are feeling and why. Sometimes the original reason doesn't even matter, we just need to move forward in therapy or by inserting more healthy behaviours into our lives.

Anxiety really can affect our sleep and eating patterns. This will improve as we become less anxious though. What are you managing at the moment?

[SyrianPanda]

Thank you so much for everything you said! I've calmed down quite a lot and no longer feel so overwhelmed and worried. I'm also able to eat now and sleep. I don't worry about the boy on the news because I calmed down enough to realize that I don't have what he has nor do I have something the doctor's wouldn't be able to figure out. I've asked myself the questions you've mentioned and see how I keep placing myself into this vicious cycle of anxiety. As for your question, what I meant by weird is that my breathing felt off. It felt like I needed to make more of an effort just to breathe. My dad told me that it could just be the humidity in the air but I was still concerned about it. I usually play video games or other things of that nature but I remembered that week that for some reason I stopped playing them and didn't even want to watch movies with my family. I've been consciously aware of my breathing ever since my first panic attack but I'm becoming less and less focused on it.

My physical symptoms have been fading away since my first panic attack in September but there's a particular one of concern that remains unless I'm lying down. My head constantly has a weird sensation in it that is difficult to describe. It's like a headache and numbness. My neck also gets intensely numb. I haven't noticed anyone else on here have these sensations. I do not get tingling. When lying down, it decreases and goes away but then as soon as I get up, I feel slightly light-headed then it's back. I'm wondering if it's caused by the atarax because I can't recall having this before I went to the doctor.

Again, thank you so much for your response! Your reassuring words have destroyed my helpless feeling and calmed me down immensely. :D