Hyperventilation and whole body numbness

[AnxiouslyScared]

I had my first panic attack in 2014. I felt like I couldn't catch a full breath of air which is experienced ever since I was a kid but I never hyperventilated like I did then. My husband kept saying "do you wanna go to the hospital?!" Which triggered my panic attack cause I always thought it was normal cause my aunt would experience that also (she also has an anxiety disorder). Well after I finished hyperventilating the back of my hands started going numb then it slowly spread throughout my whole body and I had to pee really bad and my mouth got really dry and felt like cotton mouth. I'm wondering if this had been anyone's experience with hyperventilation? It hasn't happened since then but I'm just wondering.

[AnxiouslyScared]

Can I get this post moved to the panic attack section of the forum? I just realized it doesn't belong under health anxiety. Thank you in advance.

[Catherine S]

Hyperventilation is just an imbalance of carbon dioxide and oxygen, which happens during a panic attack. It'd be really helpful if we were just about to go into battle...or even just getting into an argument which is why we come away trembling, because our nervous system makes sure that blood flow is reduced to parts of the body not needed such as bladder and bowel. ..hence the feeling of wanting to empty both, and more blood flow to parts that are important such as muscles, heart and lungs and alters the balance of the chemicals that control our breathing, in other words, in battle we'd need to breathe harder and faster. And there's then loads of adrenaline pumping around too.

Difference is that even if the fear is only imaginary your body still reacts the same, but when you're just going about your normal day those feelings are 100 times more noticeable than they would be in a real situation. Just think how swiftly your nervous system reacts to a sudden loud noise, all your senses are on immediate alert and this makes you 'jump out of your skin ' yes? it's all the same. Then afterwards it can take a while for everything to get back to normal and recovery from a panic attack can be different for everybody.

ISB x

[AnxiouslyScared]

Thank you I still believe :) we should be considered super heroes with all our adrenaline pumping through our bodies lol. My husband craves adrenaline rushes and I always tell him "I'll gladly give you mine but you wouldn't like constantly having adrenaline when you're in a situation that you don't need it." When it happened I thought I was having a stroke since my mom (also has anxiety) had always been afraid of that especially since a member of the family suffered from one. So i did end up going to the er and they did a d dimer and ekg and that's when i got my official GAD diagnoses. After that I've learned to control my breathing when I feel like I can't get a breath of air.