View Full Version : continual panic attacks/adrenaline rushes
Dear all
I am very desperate and hope that some of you may give me peace of mind. I've been suffering with HA for multiple years. This time, however, its different. For the last week or so, I have been suffering with very strong general anxiety, it's tied to no particular object, but can be spawned by any object I see, any sound I hear, any thought I have (often irrational and intrusive thoughts). In these moments I always get adrenaline/panic rushes, knots in stomach, skin tingling, feeling like I'm going crazy. These things happen continually, sometimes I have a rest for 20 minutes or so, but then it starts again. Needless to say I feel like I'm utterly losing my mind. I could mind my own business, hear a shout from somethere far away, and get a panic attack. Or, I talk to my mother, she mentiones a word, panic attack. I watch a TV program, some ski person is shown, panic attack. There is no system, and its relentless. Its as if my body can't process stimuli anymore and just thinks everything is scary. This also happens when I try to sleep. I close my eyes, and get the weirdest images and thoughts, that put me into a panic and wake me up. Continually......
I've told me therapist and we're trying to keep it at bay with xanax /3mg per day/ but even on this rater high dosage, it doesn't help. He also started me on escilatopram, but nothing yet.
In my mind I've the worst fears now....neurodegenerative sickness, particularly creutzfeldt jakob. I've had this fear before, but now it really feels like I'm losing my mind. Random anxiety about everything, medication doesn't help....I'm just waiting for the dementia to set in in about 3 months or so....
As I said I've had HA before...but this is the absolue worst ever....this is what i imagine hell to be.....
Does anyone have smth similar or rememer something similar? I feel so alone.
ankietyjoe
26-01-21, 14:01
This time, however, its different. .
Everybody that has experienced anxiety says this at some point. It never is. It's all part of the same response.
In my mind I've the worst fears now....neurodegenerative sickness, particularly creutzfeldt jakob. I've had this fear before, but now it really feels like I'm losing my mind. Random anxiety about everything, medication doesn't help....I'm just waiting for the dementia to set in in about 3 months or so....
As I said I've had HA before...but this is the absolue worst ever....this is what i imagine hell to be.....
What makes you think it's that? How do even know what it is?
Does anyone have smth similar or rememer something similar? I feel so alone.
Thousands of people on here have been through the same thing. Every symptom you mention is relatively common.
Thank you for your reply, Joe.
I know everyone probably thinks 'with me its different', 'this time it's real'.... but with me it really does feel different. I have feelings of panic about random things all day long. Without xanax is unbearable, but even with xanax its there....
I was just wondering if anyone ever experienced this, for days? This is totally new to me.
Yes, absolutely, sometimes I've had it for days or even weeks on end.
I agree with the others. It's not 'different'. Maybe more intense or worse than it's been in the past, but not different. I know I'm nit picking but even something as simple as a word or punctuation influences what you perceive and feel. For example, a simple statement like "Maybe I need to try something different." changes when you add a question mark as it becomes a reassurance seeking technique - "Maybe I need to try something different?"
What you describe has been posted here more times than I can count... literally pages of similar posts. The positive is that you're in therapy and there are meds that can help quiet the thoughts and give you some peace while you work on your anxiety. Just be careful with the Xanax... that stuff is great but it can become addictive. Might be worth speaking to your therapist/doctor about a longer term med solution.
Hope you feel better soon.
Positive thoughts
ankietyjoe
26-01-21, 16:08
I was just wondering if anyone ever experienced this, for days? This is totally new to me.
I already answered that. Yes, most people experience it.
I also asked another question.
About Creutufeldt Jakob? The internet, ofc! And then the family stories, medical journals etc.
i know its rare, but still possible for someone at my age 35 to get it, either the sporadic one or the variant (just very late).
It really does feel like somethig like this. I can see myself in these stories, i feel very sinilar to what these poor ppl felt...its so sad abd scary!
Hey its me again. This morning I feel like I'm losing it. This morning, i'm in a huge panic without any reasons, I've got wave after wave of fear and panic washing over me (every 7 minutes or so). I am crazy restless and can't comcentrate on anything.... are there really a lot of others who have had this? This seems to me to be way too extreme to be a psychological issue. I'm sure there's something wrong with my brain.
I'm also confused all the time, have a spotty memory, can't focus,..
I mean this in the kindest possible way, but...
You have a horrible but ultimately harmless mental illness, and it'll get much easier once you accept this. While you keep on treating it as a big deal you're just reinforcing the panic pathways in your brain.
It's a panic response, it feels horrible but it can't harm you. Accept it and move on with your day as best you can.
Great advice from BlueIris.
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.
What makes it diggicult for me is just the constant nature of these anxiety attacks. Not triggered by any situation, any object, etc just random adrenalin/panic waves. I always understood it that panic attacks happen and tten leave you alone a bit, with me they seem to be always here. That makes doing anything really difficult, and makes you feel like you're really going crazy. Have you all really had this? Constant panic rushes? I dont just meamn feelings of dread or that theres something wrong. But actual small panic/fear rushes every 7 minutes?
Yes, I have. So have most of us here. That said, if you're not prepared to take the advice we offer there's not a lot we can do.
I am prepared to take your advice, and I'm doing the best I can. It's just very difficult bc it feels so weird.
Now for example, I'm sitting at my computer, and i smell lunch. My first gut reaction was panic: knot in stomach, skin tingling, fear. It makes no sense. Or rather, it makes sense as an early state of food aversion or smth like these poor people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases...
No, it makes sense that your fight or flight triggers are hypersensitised.
Think of it as a guard dog that barks at every tiny insignificant thing because it hasn't been trained. It's time to teach your inner guard dog what is and isn't worth barking at.
Ok, but even if it is that, how do I train it? It's just so strong, and so random, and the fear of such a horrible disease is so strong.
Start by looking at some of the self-help resources on here. Are you getting any help with your anxiety right now?
ankietyjoe
27-01-21, 12:10
About Creutufeldt Jakob? The internet, ofc! And then the family stories, medical journals etc.
i know its rare, but still possible for someone at my age 35 to get it, either the sporadic one or the variant (just very late).
It really does feel like somethig like this. I can see myself in these stories, i feel very sinilar to what these poor ppl felt...its so sad abd scary!
I knew the answer to the question before you answered it, because it's common for people to self diagnose, and then get into anxiety spirals about things they don't have. Massively common.
This is what you are doing right now. Creating a demon to fear, and then fearing it continually.
Listen to BlueIris. Try and stop the mental 'yeah but it's difficult'. We all know it's difficult, we've all been through it and come out the other side. The problem isn't your anxiety, it's how you're reacting to it. Don't put it up on a demonic pedestal, just mentally shrug it off even if you don't feel like you can. It's just sensation, nothing more.
Once you learn how to do that, it will be mostly beaten.
I know you're right. But it just feels like its smth more serious. I wish there was a test for it. Or just some med that could calm me down for 3 months and then I'd know I'm fine. Like this, the uncertainty, is pure torture. I feel like losing my mind and all tjis anxiety, nothing helps...how does one even cope
I say this with all the kindness in my heart, but... stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you keep on telling yourself how bad things are you're just locking yourself into a vicious cycle.
You have anxiety, it sucks, but it's up to you whether it's a soul-eating demon or just a blasted nuisance.
If you really want to get better, you need to move past the histrionics, acknowledge you have a mental health problem then start focusing on ways to get past it. I control mine (mostly) with medication, meditation and therapy sessions every few years, but different combinations work for different people.
ankietyjoe
27-01-21, 12:59
I wish there was a test for it. Or just some med that could calm me down for 3 months and then I'd know I'm fine.
There isn't a definitive test, and no such med exists.
You HAVE to just use acceptance, and re-learn your reaction to it. There really is no other way to beat anxiety. It doesn't exist. Everything else just supports acceptance and re-learning.
WiredIncorrectly
27-01-21, 15:25
Been there OP. Many times. If you have an anxiety diagnosis, and you're on medications, you have to accept right now you are not well mentally and your judgement and rationale is completely off.
You're fighting your mental illness all the time. That's going to have some negative knock on effects with your mental health. This is why they say anxiety is like a snowball. The speed of the snowball is irrelevant. You have a problem that is self perpetuating and feeding itself.
Every morning I have toilet anxiety. Which causes a fear of sickness, which then causes anxiety symptoms to appear. But I never let that fear progress. It tries to. It tries really hard to progress. But I have to sit there and say "You have a mental health problem James, deep breaths". And that's how it is.
The more you keep doing this, the less of a problem it becomes.
You've got to learn to manage the anxiety. Ride it out every time and each time the anxiety occupies less and less of your mind.
I hear you, I hear what you're all saying. And I, too, know anxiety so so well from years of Health Anxiety. All the feelings of being afraid of there being something, the obsessive worrying, the not wanting to do anything else than have 700 check ups.
What's difficult for me this time is just the intensity/quality of the fear. It's pure fear, not linked to anything, and just washes over me in waves upon waves....I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can be as strong as I want, it never leaves....I can't control it, and that's what scares me so much and gives me the feeling of it being something physically wrong
ankietyjoe
27-01-21, 16:22
What's difficult for me this time is just the intensity/quality of the fear. It's pure fear, not linked to anything, and just washes over me in waves upon waves....I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can be as strong as I want, it never leaves....I can't control it, and that's what scares me so much and gives me the feeling of it being something physically wrong
Try and observe the fact that no matter what any of us are saying (and we have all been exactly where you are), you are still trying to tell us why it's hard for you, and why it's 'possibly' not just anxiety.
You really need to stop second guessing it. Anxiety can make you feel like you are going mad whilst on the edge of death. The longer you analyse it, the longer you will suffer.
It has taken you months/years to get to this place now, mainly because you haven't found the way of acceptance that works for you yet. It being there continually is again, normal. Normal for somebody that keeps looking for a terminal illness to explain away the sensation, right? You are the one creating the monsters under the bed, you are the one elevating todays anxiety into worse anxiety tomorrow. Try and take comfort in the fact that you are not alone though, and thousands of people experience exactly the same thing as you, and some of us a lot, lot worse. We still got through it.
Listen to Wired, create your own self mantra and practice it for weeks and weeks on end. You can't beat this overnight, so the faster you learn to just live with it (for now), the faster the recovery can start.
Why not read PHR's threads on this board, Mukio...
ankietyjoe
27-01-21, 19:54
Why not read PHR's threads on this board, Mukio...
*triggered
Just a quick question about morning anxiety. I read on here that a lot of ppl get it. How is it for you? Mine is awful, and worries me: every day I wake up with waves of adrenalin shooting through my body, stomach churning, arms tingling, and heavy feelings of confusion. The last one is particulsrly distressing. Every morning I feel like I'm this close to losing my mind, forgetting everything, having hallucinations etc. It's really strong and worriesome. Does anyone else get morning anxiety of this intensity?
Just a quick question about morning anxiety. I read on here that a lot of ppl get it. How is it for you? Mine is awful, and worries me: every day I wake up with waves of adrenalin shooting through my body, stomach churning, arms tingling, and heavy feelings of confusion. The last one is particulsrly distressing. Every morning I feel like I'm this close to losing my mind, forgetting everything, having hallucinations etc. It's really strong and worriesome. Does anyone else get morning anxiety of this intensity?
Your cortisol levels are at their highest in the morning which is probably why you are feeling this panicky when you awake. It’s a hormone in your body there to wake you up but it is a stress hormone so makes you feel particularly anxious if you are feeling anxious any way. Have a listen to the panic pod podcast. In the episode about panic attacks it describes what is going on with early morning panic.
Thanks, Mr Polite. I know that morning spikes in anxiety are normal. But with me they are just so extreme, especially the feeling like I'm not even really here, like I'm losing it completely any second. So I am just looking for a bit of confirmation whether that's still normal or whether I really should be prepared for something bad.
My anxiety has been getting worse and worse over the last two weeks, and I am currently so out of it, I can't concentrate, constantly dizzy, dp/dr, confused, and just generally feeling like something really bad is up with my brain. This stuipd thought of vcjd is also always looming in the background....
They're extreme for a lot of people, Mukio. I know it's tough, but you need to just find some coping strategies and learn to treat them like the nuisance they are.
Thanks, BlueIris. I know, I'm trying my best...but it's so hard... My psychiatrist has me on medication (Escitalopram 20mg, Xanax for when it's bad), but that seems to not help at all...
I had a lot of health anxiety phases in my past, and the xanax would always help. But now, it's like I'm taking a placebo...
What other measures are you taking to deal with it? Meds are great, but you have to learn to retrain your brain, too.
WILLIAMthedude
04-02-21, 11:57
Hey, I can assure you that I understand exactly how you are feelings. I've said this to someone else but I think this appeals to you too,
"I understand how debilitating these things can be. I think the trick is to infuse your thinking with constructive and meaningful thoughts. Score your imagination and inner-monologue with beautiful and satisfying imagery and ambitions. We sometimes allow our minds to free-write dismal inner-monologues and feel stuck but these thoughts are not the status-quo and shouldn't be entertained. You're a vibrant, charismatic, and important person. Recognise your skills and abilities and set yourself benchmarks for purposeful actions. Pursue hobbies and interests that appeal to you."
There's more to be said.
By all means, reach out on william_taylor@hotmail.co.uk
Happy to discuss it further with you.
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