Overwhelming fear

[helenki]

Hello
I've been struggling with anxiety and depression my whole life, to an extent, but it comes and goes.

Recently I have been getting extremely intense fear.

If I hear wind at night, I can convince myself that the sound was actually someone waiting outside my window about to break into my house and kill me.

But this fear gets so intense that I will just sit shaking and frozen on my bed, I won't be able to move, I'll be sweating, having palpitations, struggling to breathe and incapable of doing anything.

When it gets this bad I almost always consider calling the police, because in that moment I am 100% that the sound i'm hearing is a person who wants to hurt me.

I'm terrified that i'm either:

1. going to have a panic attack so strong that it will damage my health
or 2. End up calling the police over nothing and wasting police time

I'm even scared of wearing earplugs because then I won't be able to hear if someone did try to break into the house.

I'm so frightened and I have no idea what to do

[Gary A]

A panic attack cannot harm you, it's nothing more than an exaggeration of your body's natural reaction to a percieved threat.

I would advise speaking to your doctor, you're clearly suffering from some form of anxiety disorder here. You should hopefully be referred to a therapist who can make the correct diagnosis and provide the proper treatment.