question for everyone

[ItWillPass]

I have been thinking a lot about panic... and why I am a sufferer. I find it strange that I have never experienced anything that terrible in my life. I had a few scary medical situations... but never anything really life threatening. It seems strange to me that I am a panic sufferer. Is anyone else in this boat? I would imagine a panic sufferer would be a person who has gone through some sort of life threatening crisis. Is there anyone else who has lived a pretty "normal" and mild life, and is still suffering a great deal from panic and anxiety?

[jill]

Hi Heidi

I lead a pritty normal life but what is normal? LOL

Since coming on this site i've found that allthough i lead a normal life there are alot of things i can change, the way i think is one among other things. This site has been a god send to me, i don't know weather there has to be a reason why we suffer these horrible things but for me there was. Changeing certain things has slowed Mr Panic down. People in all walks of life can suffer panic, anxiety it dose't matter who you are or what you do Mr Panic is not fussy in who he picks.
The main thing to remember is, we WILL defeat him it just takes time.


TAKE CARE

Jill:D

[KW]

Hi Heidi

I know what you're saying, it doesn't seem to make sense why we should feel this way. Personally alot of my anxiety, PA's and phobia developed when i was a child. Our personalities develop at a young age and my dad picked on me alot as a child which i think may have contributed to me being shy and thinking negatively. But we all have different reasons... just another thought anxiety has always been in my family.... my great nan suffered with agrophobia, my nan had anxiety and my mum is a very nervous person.. i often wonder, like you do, and think maybe my family have shown the habit to each generation.. i don't blame my mum but if all i saw was a nervous person as a child then i learnt how to be like that too....

KW

[seh1980]

hi Heidi,

I know exactly what you mean. I had a very 'normal' and even a very priviledged life with no real stress or problems. When I was 21, I had an epileptic seizure one day out of the blue that really, really unnerved me! Last summer, I had what I thought was another one, but it turned out that it was in fact a panic attack. That's when all my troubles started.

It can be different for each person. For many people, there is no real trigger and for others, there something happens which they know started it all off.

Sarah :D

[Laurie28]

Hiya,

No life threatening situations for me either!!!

Some ups and down in childhood and adulthood but doesn't everyone!!!

Love
Lucky

[mico]

Good Question

I wish I knew myself, but I'll still try and answer.

I think half of it is hereditary (as already mentioned). I've came across a few people on this site who have relatives that have suffered at some time in their lives. I know that this is true for me too.

I also think that the other half is learned (or should that be learnt? [:I] I don't know). I remember my first day at school, I did not want to go, I kicked and screamed, but I had to go in the end. Much of my life is similar, I would rather shy away from a lot of things than face them, and I learnt that from an early age. Went through much of my life like that, and still do...but I'm working on it, and it is getting better.

Life is what you make of it though; If you view it as being tough, then it will be. Those hurdles that face you everyday with your anxiety may seem huge to you, and I know myself at the start I would do my best to avoid them. But if you view them as challenges and nothing else (they usually are pretty trivial, even if they don't seem that way) then your life becomes easier. Each of them challenges gives you a little more confidence and takes you one step closer to where you want to be. In the end, facing those situations can actually be easier than not facing them. I just wish I knew that from an early age, then maybe I wouldn't be where I am now.

I guess everyone learns some negative traits at some point in their lives, from where they can build the foundations for their anxiety to sit on. I just think one of my negative traits is avoidance. Maybe yours is different.... Maybe I'm not making any sense [:P].

mico

[Meg]

Hi ,
According to the stats people about 16% with first degree relatives and 60% with any relative are the hereditary numbers.

I had a brilliant upbringing and life with no issues at all - it was bereavements that did mine.

I suddenly started thinking wierd stuff like people resting in lay bys might actually be dead not resting - all came from finding my neighbour dead in his garden - he'd been there 3 days and my Dad died a few days later .

I developed these negative thought patterns in under a week and panic followed.

I think that never having had to deal with anything really personally traumatic was worse as it meant it really hit me hard when it did happen. I had always been fine and thrived on drama at work .





Meg

It is impossible to get out of a problem by using the same kind of thinking that it took to get into it.
- Albert Einstein.

[Elle-Kay]

I had what I think you could class as a stressful situation that I'm 99.9% sure has caused my anxiety, but I don't remember one little bit of it :)

I was in a head-on car accident at the age of about 18 months. Both cars involved were written off, I had a cut in the back of my head and a broken thigh near the hip joint (very unusual in a child so young, apparently), my dad had glass in the eyes and a broken sternum, and a family friend had a ruptured spleen. My mum was luckily unhurt apart from bruises, and the chap who skidded round the corner into us at 70mph got away without a scratch on him - go figure! I spent 6 weeks on my back in gallows traction, and had to learn to walk again.

I'm really glad I don't remember anything about it, but I find it amazing how it can influence my life 21 years on. My anxiety has always centred around travelling, being driven places by people I don't know, and generally being away from my safety net (home). It was triggered (as far as I can remember) when I was about 15 and travelling on a bus where the window broke - the windows broke in our car when it was hit, and the lawyers reports say that about a year later I started screaming uncontrollably when on a bus with my mum where the window smashed. Also, my dad experienced anxiety and panic attacks about driving for a time after the accident (he is well over it now).

As i say, I don't remember any of this, but it has obviously still influenced me.

I'll stop rambling now ;)

~* Do what you want. Nobody else will do it for you *~

[Caz Fab Pants]

I too have thought about this as my childhood was great and to my knowledge nothing ever happened to cause me to be this way.

I was confident, outgoing, very sociable and always a leader at school. I did go off the rails when I was about 14, got mixed up with an older man who was married (and VERY undesirable) and got into drugs. He used to hit me and mentally torture me but I still stayed with him. I have wondered whether my PA's have been caused by post traumatic stress although at the time I didn't see it as a big deal.

I did leave him when my parents enrolled me in a college which meant I would have to move away and live in. However I continued to take recreational drugs until I was 17 and a half when I had my first PA.

I didn't even know what a PA was but my boyfriend at the time had just lost his sister and had started suffering with them quite badly. During the summer holidays I went to visit him in London and in the middle of Walthamstow market I had a huge panic attack.

I do think my anxiety and tendency to get depressed is inheritted from my mother. She is a natural worrier and has had many bouts of depression which usually occurr during the winter months (SAD).

So like you Heidi I struggle to understand how after being such an extrovert I have ended up being agoraphobic and panicky in most social situations!!??

Sorry for getting carried away [:I]

Caroline :)
x

[sal]

Hi Heidi

I always believed you suffered because of past experience and to the nature of personality you are.

But through my work can see that isnt true. There are people there who wouldnt know a panic attack if it hit them and have had so much life experience and a horrible upbringing.

I believe contrary to what others believe that if it is going to happen to you you cant change it hon. Cards were marked well before we knew they were.

Not contradicting a lot of suffers are suffering from life experiences but some truly have no reasons like others. Cards we were dealt but sometimes believe they were dealt to people who knew they would fight it.





Love Sal xxxxx

[another_adam]

good question, i too think it runs in familys as my mum is a nervous person and has some social anxiety. The first possible symptom i could relate to social anxiety in my life was around 8 when we used to pick my sister up from playschool, i would wait in the car and if i saw anyone i knew walking past i would hide in the car.

I also believe everyone can conquer mental problems and live a happy life.

[oshun]

i had a difficult childhood so i put a lot of it down to that. lots of conflict in the family home etc etc

i tend to think that anxiety/panic is never for no reason, that even tho you can't remember what may have started it, there could be something locked away in your subconscious. it may not have been something life threatening, but things can seem different and frightening as a child. well this is my opinion:)

interesting question, oshun

[nomorepanic]

Heidi

I had hypnotherapy to try and find out why but it upset me more than helped. I had a lovely up-bringing and my mum brought me and my sister up alone when she divorced my dad when I was 10. It was not that that caused it I am certain.

My dad was a nervous person though and an alcoholic cos I think he suffered panic attacks but it was unheard of then so he suffered alone. He died before we ever got him so real help.

My 1st panic came out of the blue - after a heavy night drinking!

I am not even going to try and find out why I started suffering, I am just tryint to cope. I found that delving back into my past never helped me and I have to live for the future.

Good topic to post though and some interesting replies.

Nicola

[Caz Fab Pants]

Nic,

Think you're completely right.

I was told by a psychiatric nurse (who was fantastic I might add) that there is nothing to gain by going down that route ie trying to look for the cause behind it all. You may never find the reason and will end up with a tangled web and possibly even more unresolved issues to come to terms with.

There is also no way of changing whats happened in the past so like Nic said, its best to concentrate on the future.

Caroline :)
x

[Meg]

I think that if you need to dig that deep for a reason then its not worth hunting for it. If however there is something that spings to mind then it should be addressed.

There are several ways the first panic button can be pushed .

Chemical interactions ie alcohol, recreational and pharma drugs and imbalances within the body ie hypoglycaemia and thyroid problems
New emotional issues ie bereavements, accidents
Long standing emotional issues
Pure utter exhaustion

are a few common catagories .

I do believe though that once the acute phase is over then, in the main, we perpetuate the condition by our thought processes.



Meg

It is impossible to get out of a problem by using the same kind of thinking that it took to get into it.
- Albert Einstein.