Health Anxiety Since Panic Attack

[zerogzg]

Hello! I have some questions regarding my health anxiety and if anyone can relate.

Last December of 2016, I got a MASSIVE panic attack in a bus as it arrived to my bus stop. The Ambulance had to come get me because I though I was having a heart attack. At the end, the doctor at hospital said it was a panic attack.

After this event, my left arm often has tingling, muscle weakness, and when i stretch it it feels tight. These symptoms come and go, but have been persistent for 7 months now. I was given some excises to do, and they helped a bit, but the pain is still there.

Recently, my left leg started hurting too. Its going to be a month now. I was diagnosed with sciatica, which I believed, and the pain has gotten better, but again it comes and goes.

Finally, for a week now, I have had a strange - like like pressure-ish - feeling on my left side of my face. Random body small muscle twitches, electrical like feelings in body and mild headaches.

My left arm or left leg usually never hurt at the same time, its usually one or the other. Also, the pain is also usually brought up by doing too much work with my left arm or reclining it and waking too much makes my leg hurt, or other times the pain is for no reason. All this has made me spiral down the through that I might have a brain tumor. It just that all these symptoms being on my left side trip me out so bad! I have a history of anxiety, but I got it treated and under control (panic attack free for 3 years). Of course in that history, I never had the symptoms I have now. I had the regular chest pressure feeling. But then it all came back and I don't know if these symptoms are anxiety of a tumor. I haven't had a panic attack in a few months, mostly just bad anxiety. I have xanax, but rather not take them.

Has anyone had similar symptoms?

[tamlovee]

I haven't had those symptoms but you could always get a second opinion. That way you can rule it out and maybe that can help you.

[dobbiemaster]

yes i have.... the same thing i had a panic attack out of nowhere... never even heard them before and called the nhs who ended up sending a ambulance as i had chest pains etc thought it was a heart attack... since then i had chest pains randomly through out the day, tingles in my arm, headaches etc....for well over a year. it took me that long to realise i was actually fine as it would of happened by now lol... i do still worry about it even though i know deep down its ok i do still get chest pains very rarely...usually when stressed/worrying about something. its totally normal i did get CBT therapy and they said anxiety will give you actual physical pains as described so just try to put it to the back of your mind. you have had a checkup 7mth ago if you had a dodgy ticker it would of shown up on there.

[zerogzg]

thank you very much for telling me about your experience! Sucks that yo have to deal with that too. Your reply made me feel a bit calmer :)

[Hahneclipse73]

That was the same as me. I never knew anxiety could phiscally affect you the way it can and mine came out of nowhere and was a first for me. I had a random panic attack one day when I didnt even really feel stressed. I started gasping for air because I was panicing from what I believe was an ecoptic beat. Heart raced, dizzy, couldn't take deep breaths, nervous, etc. Then after that I was plagued with health anxiety. I was getting ecoptics and everytime threw me into a panic. Tight chest, felt like someone was squeezing as tight as they could (that lasted persistently for about 8 days). Knots in neck (still have them), Shaking, fear of death, accelerated heart rate, weird feelings in abdomen, twitching, werid feelings in arms, jaw pain, ocassional headaches and I'm sure a bunch of other things. That all started for me about three months ago, I only took maybe 15 lorazapam pills the whole time. I wouldn't say I'm better now but I definitely feel much better then I did. What I did was just try and relax as much as I could, stay busy, be around people, exercise, use lavender products, camomile tea, drink tons of water, no caffeine (which I never had before), bought massagers, heat pad. I also found a lot of help from watching this guy Dennis Simek on YouTube. He calls himself The Anxiety Guy and makes tons of video's about how to overcome it and they were extremely helpful for me.

[orthagonal]

Worst panic attack I ever had involved both my arms going numb and tingly like when a limb falls asleep, and my heart racing so fast I thought I would explode. Limb tingling is an extremely common symptom of panic attacks; in fact, when I get one that causes my hands to tingle a bit it actually calms me a little because I know for sure that it's a panic attack. I've definitely had sensations of numbness and tingling in my jaw and face due to anxiety.

I'll comment on the Xanax, as I also have a prescription but I'm very careful about using them. I always, always try to cope my way through a PA with breathing, calming music and sounds (I use a cool jazz station on pandora + rainymood) and positive thinking but if it doesn't work, they I'll occasionally use 1mg of Xanax. And I'll tell you, it kills the PA dead in like 15-20 minutes. Like you'll be wondering if you should've even taken one because that's how hard it stops a PA.

Benzos are a serious drug, and the fact that you are wary about using them is a good sign. I went a long, long time before I got a scrip for them, I was worried that I'd be running to the medicine cabinet every time I felt a little nervous. What I found was that, once I knew that I had a way to stop a panic attack in its tracks if I absolutely needed to, it made me able to cope with the PAs better without the drug. Now, drugs affect everyone differently, and for every person saying that this or that benzo is a lifesaver, you'll find someone else saying they became horribly addicted to them. It can go either way, so definitely be careful and mindful about using them and rely first on your coping strategies, but also don't suffer needlessly.