What's wrong with me?!

[Ashpack]

Hi all,

This is my first post here. I am a 27 year old male and I have recently come up against panic/anxiety issues which is causing me great distress.

Firstly I don't understand why this is happening I don't feel I am or was an anxoius person in general but the past 6 months have been horrible. I first had a full blown panic attack completely out of the blue about 6 months ago. I was just going to bed and suddenly started to feel sick and this quickly progressed into hyperventilating etc and I thought I was going to die. It was horrible.

I have never had anything like this before. What has followed in the last 6 months is a lot of indigestion feeling sick and panic feelings so I was convinced something was wrong with me. So I went to the GP for first time in 10 years and had tests done and nothing was found to be wrong with me. My GP suggested I may have some form of anxiety. I have accepted I now have anxiety of some form but I still don't understand why and I am struggling to manage it. I am quite content with my life and I am not depressed. I have a good job which I enjoy and this is also one place other than home where I don't have any of these issues. I should add my job involves very little social interaction!

It mainly arises around social situations, travelling, eating out, sitting in a waiting room and it's hard to explain but situations where I am not in control or have no means of easily exiting a situation bring on these panic feelings. Even driving somewhere can make me panic and I did/still do enjoy driving.

I have only had the 1 full blown panic attack but I can feel smaller ones coming on all the time in these situations and start to feel sick , retch, get a dry mouth, struggle to swallow and cough. It's a horrible feeling which I just want it to go away. All the things I enjoy like eating out and visiting family I just dread now.

What can I do? :wall:

[viking111]

Sounds like you had lots of anxiety feelings built up and one day your brain could not handle it all and gave you a panic attack. And that's normal for anxiety. You should try to calm down and think more positively. And if it's possible for you, you could consult a therapist, which really helps from my personal experience.

[Ashpack]

I was not stressed or anxious at the time and I dont know if theres something in my subconscious thats causing this as im quite happy and content other than this I have not had any traumatic experiences in my life. The night it first came on it was literally out of the blue I thought I was having a heart attack! I had 999 dialled in the phone ready! Luckily since it has not got that bad.

I am visiting home again in January and going to a wedding which I'm kind of dreading as last time I just felt horrible the entire time.

I certainly need to seek some kind of help with this.

[Fishmanpa]

I was not stressed or anxious at the time...


Anxiety is like a campfire. When you're in the midst of a spiral the fire is burning bright and hot. When the flames die down, there's still a bed of red hot coals burning away just waiting for some more fuel. So you may "feel" you're not anxious but your body is on high alert and has a bed of hot anxiety coals inside just waiting to flare up. Just like a campfire, the hot coals of anxiety take a long time to finally go out.

Positive thoughts

[roseanxiety]

Really like the way you put that, Fishmanpa. I am going through a bout of anxiety now and have been on "high alert" to all symptoms that my body produces, no matter how innocuous they are. I hate this feeling.