PDA

View Full Version : Hello and Help?



Andyandy1984
10-01-15, 23:08
Hey all,
My name is Andy and I just signed up. I was hoping I could tell you what has happened to me and get some feedback/re-assurance that what I am experiencing is anxiety attacks and nothing more serious....

I am 30 years old and have been healthy my entire life. About 6 weeks ago when I was in work at the bank I was sitting at the computer when I felt a weird sensation pass over me - through my head and down my shoulders. I passed it off but about 10 mins later when I was serving a customer when I realised I hadn't breathed for a few seconds. I tried to force myself to take a breath but struggled to do so - after a few seconds I managed to breath and again I felt these strange sensations coming over my body - like a buzzing felling, not painful in any way, but just a really weird "buzz" as if I had drank 5 espressos. I sat down and my chest started to feel empty and light and I suddenly felt very fragile and as if I could have died at any moment. The strange sensations kept coming. At this point my colleagues at taken me into another room as I was feeling so strange. I began to shake and worry that I didn't have a pulse and my heart as racing pretty quickly. As the minutes passed I began to shake as if I was going into shock, I got really hot and had to unbutton my shirt and apparently I went very pale. I laid on the floor for a few minutes but felt like I was sinking into myself and I had to jump out of it or I felt like I would have died. My mouth went really dry and my lips felt strange. This whole experience lasted for about 45 mins until the ambulance arrived. Once they showed up I started to calm down a little but then started shaking uncontrollably like I was in shock. I went to hospital where they did an ECG and blood work which all came back ok - they said that my heart was great and that there hadn't been any heart attacks or any heart issues. They sent me home without much info. For about the next week I felt very weak - I had diarrhoea for most of the week, felt very fragile, tired and still had weird sensations during the week. At one point, 4 days after this happened, I felt like the same thing was starting to happen again. This time I was able to wake up my wife and tell her it was happening, she was able to comfort me etc and I managed to "fight" it away - I feel like if I had been on my own then it would have been a bad as the first time.
After a full week I finally began to feel like a normal human again and felt less fragile.

That was six weeks ago. Today when I was at work I suddenly had 2 bouts of bad diarrhoea andbegan to feel a strange sensation again. This time it felt like my tongue was going a little numb and the back of my throat was numb and it was hard to swallow - the thing was, it wasn't physically swelling or anything and my throat wasn't closing over. It was just a really weird sensation that got me panicked. I had to try to not think too much about it but it did start to freak me out a little.

My question is this - can I be sure this is anxiety/panic attacks? Do all these symptoms match in with other peoples? Could it be something more serious?

Here's a little rundown on my life at the minute - I am 30 years old, married with a 10 month old baby. I moved to North America from the UK 3 years ago. I miss family, friends etc back home. I am getting a lot less sleep than I used to. This year I have been working a lot more than I ever have too - I work in 3 different locations in 3 different towns. Having turned 30 I am worried about the whole "life direction" thing too. Could all this money, baby, work, living in another country "stuff" cause me to start having these symptoms whenever I don't feel overtly anxious on the outside?

My other question is this: both times that I have started to feel strange I have been in front of a screen and have had a few cups of coffee in the past few hours. I have been a big coffee drinker most of my life so I find it hard to think that I could suddenly be having a reaction to it now.

Anyway. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Thanks

venusbluejeans
10-01-15, 23:13
Hiya Andyandy1984 and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

Toynova63
11-01-15, 01:35
Hi Andy!
Did the hospital mention anxiety to you? I had a fairly similar episode. The evening after an extreme life changing event I began to feel lightheaded like I might pass out. Went home to relax but continued having "waves" of this feeling in my body. That night I felt tingling sensations all over my body, somewhat like an electrical current was running through my body. All this would come & throughout the night. I finally insisted that my husband take me to the emergency room. Had many tests & lab work, all came back normal. The Dr said it was anxiety & prescribed a tablet for me to take. I took it for about a week & it helped. I do not like to rely on pills to feel good so I stopped taking them. The sensations continued for a few weeks & finally began to subside. I will still have episodes of these feelings and I just try to talk myself through them, most times if I just get to doing something else it will go away. Best cure is take the dog for a walk or just get outside for a bit.
Good luck to you. I know it's an extremely frightening feeling...I was also convinced I was dying!! Anxiety can do all sorts or horrible things to your body. What I was told & try to remember is that this is only going on inside your head, not really happening.

:) Mary