What brought on your first anxiety/panic attacK?

[megs18]

I am a 20 year old female and I'm new here. About 2 and a half months ago while laying in bed watching TV at about 10 pm, my muscles began to twitch as if I was shivering but I wasn't cold. My heart was also racing and this didn't stop for about 30 minutes after controlling my breathing and trying to calm down. It came out of nowhere, as I did not feel stressed or panicked about anything. This was the first time anything like this happened to me.

The next day after this happened, I carried on with my day, thinking everything would go back to normal. However, I felt lightheaded, dizzy and just "off". I have felt weird and been suffering from various, constantly changing symptoms ever since.

I have seen many doctors who all think it was either an anxiety attack or something where your heart just speeds up for a bit and is harmless. I had an EEG that came back normal.

Ever since that "attack", I've had pretty bad health anxiety and have convinced myself I have a brain tumor.

Anyways, is it common for anxiety attacks to come out of nowhere? Or was your first one triggered by something? My doctors have said they can absolutely come seemingly out of the blue, but I'm still concerned.

[swgrl09]

My first experience with anxiety goes back to when I was 10. I know I was predisposed to HA because my mother had it and was vocal about it a lot. I remember at age 10 a peer in school got diagnosed with a brain tumor and our health teacher came in and said if we have lots of headaches to tell our parents because we could have one too. WELL that was enough to scare the absolute daylights out of me. I went home crying because I had headaches sometimes. My parents called the school and complained about this teacher.

I can't remember earlier than that if I had anxiety at all. I was always shy, but that is the first time I really panicked about my health. I don't really have classic panic attacks, but rather anxiety.

[sial72]

Hi
They do seem to come out of the blue, that is what makes them soooo scary. If we felt they were for a reason we wouldn't feel so terrified by them.
Mine first panic attack was when I was 16 and on holiday with a friend having a good time.
We were just walking down the street in a town when suddenly BAM!!! out of nowhere I felt so bad that I was sure I was dying.
And from then onwards the fear of it happening agains has kept it going X

[megs18]

swgrl09, that is so insanely scary. I can imagine I would be the same if I had that experience as a child. Sial72, that's exactly how mine seemed to be. I haven't had one since though, which is what is also weird to me and makes me think that it may not have been an anxiety attack, but something physical and maybe serious.

[sial72]

I didn't have another actual panic attack anytime soon after the first one, but I did have a lot of fear which now I see that over time is what triggered further attacks later on.
You say you have been to various docs, if you had something serious I'm sure they would have seen. You are young and still in time to break the fear/panic cycle. Maybe you could ask for some help from your doc for managing your anxiety x

[Davit]

A very large amount of what we absorb and what we do and think is subconscious and controlled by core beliefs. This happens without being noticed, until it goes through Amygdala and then it comes to the surface and Amygdala (fear centre) reacts. So there is always a reason even if you can't find it. If you are doing something positive but with a negative rider attached it will go through Amygdala even if you don't know why.Think of it as a trojan for the brain. Silently destructive. This can be fixed.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'll post this thread in since a similiat question was asked on a different board recently so it saves me typing it all up and there are some other users stories on here too:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170419

They can "appear" to come out of the blue but without a substantially terrifying event or a physical disorder/drug related cause, they won't just appear and I doubt someone working in the psychology field would agree with your doctors.

Wow swgrl, what a spectacularily ludicrous health teacher! Lets hope she hasn't been around since the media started reporting more about child abductions or else all the childena and parents will be terrified to leave their houses!

Its a good example of what Davit says about out core beliefs. The schemas too, since they are really deep.

[GingerFish]

I was in a biology lecture at college. I was 20 at the time and I was feeling fine, just doing my work and minding my own business and out of nowhere I felt like I couldn't breathe, the room started spinning, I was boiling and I ran to the toilet. As soon as I got out the room, I instantly felt better. This should have screamed to me it was a panic attack as I have seen my mum and gran deal with them all my life but I refused to believe something that felt that strong could just be in my head and nor dangerous at all.

So then I started getting them in every biology class, then in every other college class, then on the train to college to then just every where - outside, in shops, my flat.

[youdontknowme]

I used to have anxiety issues when I was just a little girl. I would describe it as "nausea" to my parents, but looking back it was really anxiety. I was always afraid that my heart was about to stop beating, that I wasn't breathing right, etc.
It went away for years in elementary/middle school. Then one of my high school friends died a sudden, unexpected death. A few months later I had my first, full blown anxiety attack.
I was sitting in class watching "Pay it Forward". The film was reaching the final scene with the candle light vigil. Maybe it was the emotional intensity of the scene, or maybe it was the passive aggressive, gray haired teacher lording over the class, but something suddenly felt very, very wrong.
My heart start thudding. That scared me, which only made things worse. Next thing I knew my hands were going numb, I couldn't feel my lips, and I was starting to hyperventilate.
I was terrified. I thought I was having a heart attack or stroke. My friend escorted me to the office. Once I got home I looked up the symptoms and realized that I'd just experienced an anxiety attack.

[Libra]

I was absolutely fine until year 2000 .Although going through all kinds of strange symptoms it didn't worry me at all, just dealt with it and saw Gp, etc.. The Full blood count was what did it !!.. I don't like needles but I coped ok and that wasn't really the issue.. It was the week waiting on results when I went into overdrive.Results were very good and yet I went on a downward spiral for almost 12 months..then I went back to my normal self.. 2010..similar symptoms appeared to 10 years prev.. again Full blood count ordered...again.the health anxiety raised its head and really knocked me sideways for 12 months..Cant figure what it is with the FBC ?