View Full Version : Helping Daughter with Panic attacks
Hello everyone. I am a father of a 16 yr old daughter who was diagnosed with panic attacks 2 years ago as a high school freshman. I found this place doing some searches trying to better understand panic attacks.
As I said she was diagnosed with panic attacks/panic disorder 2 years ago. The doctor put her on 25mgs of a generic form of zoloft. Relatively soon after being put on medicine she went from having panic attacks almost every day to only having occasional random attacks. She has visited with people who have also had panic attacks and tried to learn breathing techniques and coping skills for these. And for the most part things have went great with them.
This last year has been a crazy set of ups and downs with them. From February to June she did not have any panic attacks and we were all thinking maybe she was finished with them. In the middle of June she had a small attack, but nothing major. Then lately she has started having way more frequent attacks and some of them have been pretty severe. When she has an attack she starts crying and hyperventilating, her arms and legs and lips tingle. Sometimes she will start screaming. She has vomited a couple times during them. She acts pretty much out of it and at times has trouble standing up and walking. She even said one time that it felt like she had forgotten how to walk. Usually with 10-15 mins the symptoms subside especially if I am around as it seems she calms down the most when I am there to comfort her and talk to her. Sometimes she bounces back right away and you cannot even tell she had an attack and other times she is tired and out of it for the rest of the day.
We contacted her doctor and her doctor increased her meds to 50 mg per day and wants her to come see her after she has been on the new dosage for a month.
I am just really frustrated as her father. I want to be able to help her more. I want to understand them more. I keep thinking there is something physical that is going on that could be triggering them. 2 years ago her sugar, her thyroid, her iron were all checked and came back fine. I really wonder about her thyroid because everyone on my wifes side of the family has thyroid issues and sometimes they have not shown up in tests right away.
I also wonder about some type of deficiency. She craves sunflower seeds a lot and especially after an attack. I have read that they contain magnesium and that can be a deficiency.
All throughout this my daughter has managed to keep up with her school work. She is top 5 in her class and has gotten straight As as a freshman and sophomore. She is also a very active athlete involved in tennis and basketball. She has been the starting PG on her varsity basketball team the first 2 years of high school. It amazes me that she can handle the pressure of running a basketball team and doing great. Last year during a game she had a panic attack, came off the floor with an assistant coach. She went to the locker room for a few mins, got calmed down and came back to play her best game of the season. It amazes me. Yet sitting with some friends at an amusement park and she has a really bad panic attack.
All the while you have so many people that think they have all the answers for your situation. One lady who saw one attack told me I needed to get my daughter more help or I was going to be putting her away in a mental institution.
It is so confusing to me. I love my daughter so much. I look forward to hearing any of your responses. Sorry for such lengthy rambling first post.
I am so sorry that some lady said those terrible things to you!! That is not true. Panic attacks are not going to lead her to become psychotic. My therapist gave me a really good technique that gets me through my attacks. I think of a catagory (ex fruit) and then I would say (in my mind) a is for Apple, b is for banana and so on. And I imagine whatever I'm thinking of. She said if you're using the back of your brain for thinking of the object that begins with the letter and using the front of your brain to actually envision the object it's basically impossible for your brain to have time to panic!! :) there is this app "Doctors on Demand" and it's free and you can set her up an appointment to talk with a therapist right in the comfort of your home. The first appointment (25 mins) is free if you use the code "AppStore" I was VERY skeptical but I promise it's worth it!! :) you'd have to set up an account bc you have to be 18 but then you can schedule appointments for your children! May be worth a try! My therapist helped me DRAMATICALLY! :) hope this helps someone!! I know how terrible attacks are and how miserable it is to have to live with them! But just know she IS stronger than this and she will come out on top!
Went to see her doctor today. She is doing a blood workup, and is referring her to a Pediatric neurologist to be examined.
Hello :) so sorry your daughter is going through this. I have had panic attacks since I was about 16 so I know how she feels. I'm 31 now and have had many ups and downs in that time. That also led me to the conclusion that something was physically wrong (although doctors don't usually want to hear that and usually much less want to do blood work.)
This past February I was at my wits end and I insisted on blood work. I had to go to a couple of doctors to get what I wanted but it was worth it. I knew I had thyroid nodules for years but my thyroid blood work came back good. I wasn't satisfied. I did my homework and found that you need to have your Free T3, Free T4 and thyroid antibodies tested. I discovered I have Hashimotos disease, an autoimmune disease of the thyroid, basically my body is attacking my thyroid and eventually it will stop working. Most doctors will tell you that as long as you TSH is good you shouldn't have any symptoms but this simply isn't true. You can google Hashimotos and panic attacks and the response is enough to prove it. I was also extremely deficient in vitamin d. This summer I have brought up my vitamin d a little (still deficient) but I feel so much better. I highly reccomended those tests. Especially if thyroid issues run in the family. Good luck and please let us know how it goes.
Thanks for that info.
If I remember correctly they are testing her T3 and T4.
So hopefully that will give us some answers.
I think it's very wise to get your daughter's thyroid levels checked-also a full blood count would be advisable. Just to eliminate any obvious physical causes.
I really hope that you make some progress and can get her some appropriate and effective help and support. It's very tough watching a loved one go through this.
The most important test for thyroid disease is thyroid antibody tests. That is the only way to know for sure. They probably won't do them unless you ask but it is the most important to diagnose thyroid disease. If TSH, T3 and T4 come back with normal range they will say the thyroid is fine when in fact you could have thyroid disease. Anti TSO and anti TGAB, I would insist on those tests.
---------- Post added at 14:32 ---------- Previous post was at 14:30 ----------
What kind of thyroid issues are on your wife's side? Thyroid issues are extremely hereditary.
I think they have underactive thyroids.
Yesterday was such a up and down day. Daughter had a tennis tournament. She knocked off one of the top seeded girls in the tournament. Then played the #1 seed and the overall champion of the tournament and had her on the ropes for awhile and played her great. Then just before her 3rd match of the day while she is warming up I look over at her and her legs are shaking and twitching as she is warming up. I go out on to the court and ask her if she is alright and she tells me "leave me alone I want to play." And then she starts crying and screaming and goes into her attack.
Later in the day I had a talk with a friend of mine who is a Physician. He said the more he hears about it that it sounds to him like she maybe having some type of seizure instead of panic attacks. Hope to hear from the doctor soon about getting into neurologist.
Going to see a pediatric neurologist a week from today.
chrisalexander1985
04-10-15, 13:31
Hello everyone. I am a father of a 16 yr old daughter who was diagnosed with panic attacks 2 years ago as a high school freshman. I found this place doing some searches trying to better understand panic attacks.
As I said she was diagnosed with panic attacks/panic disorder 2 years ago. The doctor put her on 25mgs of a generic form of zoloft. Relatively soon after being put on medicine she went from having panic attacks almost every day to only having occasional random attacks. She has visited with people who have also had panic attacks and tried to learn breathing techniques and coping skills for these. And for the most part things have went great with them.
This last year has been a crazy set of ups and downs with them. From February to June she did not have any panic attacks and we were all thinking maybe she was finished with them. In the middle of June she had a small attack, but nothing major. Then lately she has started having way more frequent attacks and some of them have been pretty severe. When she has an attack she starts crying and hyperventilating, her arms and legs and lips tingle. Sometimes she will start screaming. She has vomited a couple times during them. She acts pretty much out of it and at times has trouble standing up and walking. She even said one time that it felt like she had forgotten how to walk. Usually with 10-15 mins the symptoms subside especially if I am around as it seems she calms down the most when I am there to comfort her and talk to her. Sometimes she bounces back right away and you cannot even tell she had an attack and other times she is tired and out of it for the rest of the day.
We contacted her doctor and her doctor increased her meds to 50 mg per day and wants her to come see her after she has been on the new dosage for a month.
I am just really frustrated as her father. I want to be able to help her more. I want to understand them more. I keep thinking there is something physical that is going on that could be triggering them. 2 years ago her sugar, her thyroid, her iron were all checked and came back fine. I really wonder about her thyroid because everyone on my wifes side of the family has thyroid issues and sometimes they have not shown up in tests right away.
I also wonder about some type of deficiency. She craves sunflower seeds a lot and especially after an attack. I have read that they contain magnesium and that can be a deficiency.
All throughout this my daughter has managed to keep up with her school work. She is top 5 in her class and has gotten straight As as a freshman and sophomore. She is also a very active athlete involved in tennis and basketball. She has been the starting PG on her varsity basketball team the first 2 years of high school. It amazes me that she can handle the pressure of running a basketball team and doing great. Last year during a game she had a panic attack, came off the floor with an assistant coach. She went to the locker room for a few mins, got calmed down and came back to play her best game of the season. It amazes me. Yet sitting with some friends at an amusement park and she has a really bad panic attack.
All the while you have so many people that think they have all the answers for your situation. One lady who saw one attack told me I needed to get my daughter more help or I was going to be putting her away in a mental institution.
It is so confusing to me. I love my daughter so much. I look forward to hearing any of your responses. Sorry for such lengthy rambling first post.
Hey - I sympathise with your daughter and to an extent you. It must be tough dealing with things like then when you do not know exactly what is happening.
My anxiety started years ago - a mix of situation/intrusive thoughts. The best piece of advice I can give you to give to your daughter is to simply accept the panic/anxiety. This might sound silly but in the middle of feeling awful we tend to forget that it is ok to feel this way. It is not going to kill us or harm us in any way.
I notice that you mentioned your daughters frequency of attacks has increased. About 3 months ago I was going through one of my 'episodes'. I had 23 panic attacks in one day. That is not a typo, I mean 23. Just one after the other almost and inbetween felt the worst anxiety.
However, I have been dealing with it a lot better after I got a book called '' at last a life '' by Paul David.
It has taught me what I said above - it is ok to feel crap sometimes. It is ok to feel panic. Life will still go on. The sooner Your daughter accepts her condition, the better she will be and will be able to start her journey to overcome it.
It is not easy - I have had some crap days but the good have outnumbered the bad so far.
I hope I have been of some help!
Chris
---------- Post added at 13:31 ---------- Previous post was at 13:30 ----------
In addition - I think your daughter has exactly what I have. I can switch from being fine to awful in the space of a second!
Thanks for the thoughts Chris. I will be checking out that book as well.
She has not had an attack since Tuesday. But that one on Tues was a doozie. She started screaming and crying. As I tried to comfort her she fought me really bad and for awhile I was scared I was not going to get her calmed down. When she did start to calm downs she just went limp, could not sit up, could not keep her head up, her eyes rolled back in her head. She says that when an attack happens lately she feels pain in the back of her head and when it is over she has pain in the front of her head. She remembers nothing from the attack after it starts. She does not remember screaming or fighting me at all. Are all of these things normal for panic attacks?
We go to consult with a pediatric neurologist on Wednesday.
She has been on her new dosage of medicine for just over 3 weeks. Could the attacks be slowing down because she is adjusting to new dosage? I have read on here several times taht during periods of adjusting meds that the symptoms can be much worse.
chrisalexander1985
04-10-15, 22:10
Certain medication will make it way worse before it gets better. I take 20mg of Citalopram with no ide effects. IN addition, I take a beta blocker called Propanolol... I take one slow release tablet of 80mg per day. Is she taking this? It takes the edge of the physical side of the symptoms but wont stop the mental.
I know from experience that her crying and getting upset will make it much worse. I know it is easier said than done.
I promise you - get her the book I mentioned.
She needs to change her attitude and thought process in order to deal with this effectively and this book will help her do that.
Once she realises whats happening to her ( which, is a simple chemical reaction really and the body playing a trick on you ) and that it is ok to feel this way, she will start to feel better.
Trust me, I know!
The only thing she takes right now is 50mg of generic zoloft. She was on 25mg for just about 2 years and 3 weeks ago the doctor raised it to 50mgs because her attacks were more frequent and intense. After being on the new dose for about 2 weeks she went for a period of about 6 days where the attacks were happening 1-2 a day and really intense. They have now calmned back down again. She has not had any since Tuesday.
So the things like being limp, not able to keep her head up, eyes rolling back in her head, acting like she is not there are all things that go with panic attacks?
chrisalexander1985
05-10-15, 18:39
Panic/anxiety attacks basically are rushes of adrenalin cause by a percieved threat by your subconcious. Nothing more.
The side effect of this is that she will feel really tired from doing nothing, probably wont get much sleep, have racing thoughts, wont be able to concentrate, might retreat into herself a bit.... the list goes on.
As I have said she needs to understand exactly what is happening to her.... educate herself in what is going on. This will help her see that what is happening is nothing more than realy side effects caused by a trick of the mind/sub concious.
Regards
Chris
I would say that those things "could" happen with panics attacks but I don't personally experience them and It doesn't seem to me that those are common. I would definately be looking deeper into this to be certain there isn't a medical issue. Please keep us posted.
I would say that those things "could" happen with panics attacks but I don't personally experience them and It doesn't seem to me that those are common. I would definately be looking deeper into this to be certain there isn't a medical issue. Please keep us posted.
Thanks.
It doesnt seem like chris really understood what I was asking.
chrisalexander1985
06-10-15, 19:07
Hi Billy
Sorry, I have misunderstood to a degree.
Side effects are as I have mentioned plus more.
However the blanking out and not remembering and the rolling eyes in the head I have no experience of.
Logically I can see that if the panic is severe, there could easily be some link however as you say she needs to be checked out.
I hope I have been of some help anyway!
Chris
No worries, I do appreciate your thoughts. Everyones situation seems to be different with panic issues.
I do wonder who is Billy tho?:unsure:
chrisalexander1985
06-10-15, 19:28
haha, sorry! I has just finished replying to someone called bill lol....woops!
In all seriousness, anxiety/panic ( if that is all it is ) is a state of mind which can be fixed with the right attitutude. I am proof of this.
Get her that book and things will improve.
Keep me updated and let me know how things go!
Chris
Saw the neurologist today. He examined her for quite awhile and asked all sorts of questions. He said he sees zero reason to believe there is any type of seizure going on and believes the original diagnosis of panic attacks/disorder is right.
Said the change he was going to make was raising her medicine to 100 mgs of generic zoloft. She has been on 25 mgs for 2 years and almost 3 weeks ago went to 50 mgs. He said her body is adult size (5'8" and 150lbs) and she needs an adult dose of the medicine. He said he was very confident that was going to take care of these attacks.
My daughter seemed relieved to get that opinion from him. Hopefully he is right. I do worry a little about possible side effects of raising the meds to 100mgs, but so far the 25mg and 50mg has had no side effects.
Hello :) was just wondering how she is doing so far on the higher dose of Zoloft? Also, did anyone test her for deficiencies at all?
Hello :) was just wondering how she is doing so far on the higher dose of Zoloft? Also, did anyone test her for deficiencies at all?
She has been on the new dose for 5 days and we have not noticed any side effects. She has not had an attack since a week ago today, and has not had one since she has saw the neurologist and since she has been on new dose.
The doctor did a full blood workup including thyroid screening and thyroid antibodies. Everything came back fine on that.
Since she saw the neurologist the first time she has had one attack. We had a follow up visit with the neurologist today and he is raising her dose to 150mgs a day. Said he does not want her having any attacks.
Well things change quickly.
Friday she had a panic attack with a nosebleed. Saturday and Sunday were fine. Yesterday she had 3 pretty bad attacks all with nosebleeds. This morning she had a very minor attack with no nosebleed.
We saw our family doctor this morning. She did not seem concerned about the nosebleeds, said they were not from medicine and probably from time or year and from having a cold recently.
She is giving her a low dose of Xanax to take if she feels symptoms coming on to help make things not so bad. She is also referring us to a counselor to try to get some help on coping with the attacks.
It is crazy how things go. A month with no attacks and now like 6 in a week. She is really frustrated. Her favorite sport has started in basketball and she has had to miss the last 3 practices because of these things.
---------- Post added at 13:42 ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 ----------
Ok vent time. How do you deal with people who say things like "I bet it is a brain tumor" ?
Saw a lady today who witnessed one of the attacks yesterday and that is what she told me.
So our family doctor and a 30 year neurologist have said nothing about brain tumors or CAT scans, and you witness one attack and now you have diagnosed the problem... ?!?!?!?
UGHHHHHHHHHH!
Update on our situation. Nosebleeds have continued some with panic attacks some without. We went back to neurologist. He consulted with a pharmacist and they said while extremely rare nosebleeds could be side effect of Zoloft.
So he is switching her to celexa. He is keeping her on the Zoloft for a week while starting the celexa. I was concerned about this but he said it was the best way to handle it. Later in the day I talked to a childhood friend of mine who is a pharmacist. He agreed and said the doctor was doing the best thing. He also told me that he has seen many peoples bodies stop responding to Zoloft and that could be an explanation for the panic attacks coming back and as they increased the meds the side effects started to be noticed. He also said he thought celexa was a better drug for her situation.
So today is her first day on celexa. Hopeful that he is right and we can get back to a more normal existence.
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