Back again with the Panic Attacks

[thigrachet]

Hi everybody!!

I am so gutted that I am here in the forums again! I used to have Panic Attacks two years ago and they went away! Well I took Citalopram for a year and I came off the medication and everything was fine since the day before yesterday!

Ahhh I was in Holiday in Nice ( france) and I was in a gig! I went to see Madonna! During the show I started to feel weird, my hands started to sweat and I was feeling very cold!! Then I started to have the tunnel vision and feeling numb! I told my partner that I felt that I was going to faint, then I started to feel that I had to leave the stadium! It was full of people and I could not move, I I went to the security and tried to explain to him that I was going to faint but they do not speak English!! Only French!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh then everything started to feel worst, cause then I thought I was going to die in Nice, far away from my family and that there were nothing they could do for me! So I started shaking and trembling! It was horrible, so I spent one hour under a blanket and they were giving me water and telling me to calm down!

So I came back to London last night and today I am at work and around 3:30pm I had a hugeeeeeee panic attack again!! I told my colleague that was in the room with me and she never heard about it!! So I explained to her and she was very supportive!
So it was horrible and I am feeling a little bit weird still! Cause I know I will have to go home soon and I am worried that I will have another one on the way home!
Ahh I just wanted to talk to someone and take this feeling out of my chest! I really wish they would never come back! But they did!
And I hope they will go away!
Kisses to everyone!

T

[xxlisaxx08]

Was this the first time you've been far away from home since the panic attacks?

Gigs are really hard for me too, although i still try to go to loads (its the only thing that tempts me to leave the house) I think its all the people and you start to question things such as what will happen if you need to leave? etc Having security not speaking english must have been really bad!

I think what you have to do is try not to think that this is you slipping back to the way were you were and just accept it as a relapse (and nothing more) You were away from from home and probably more stressed about this than you realised. But honestly don't play on this to much for your own sake I did that when I relapsed and thats how my agoraphobia came back again.

Take care x

[Bill]

A crowded gig can cause a feeling of being trapped.
Feeling trapped causes stress because you feel there's no escape.
Feeling there's no escape will cause fear.
Fear cause more stress which then causes panic.
Panic cause a feeling of being ill and dying.
Feeling ill causes more stress.
More stress intensifies the panic.
After the panic attack subsides, fear still remains.
This remaining fear will cause worry.
Worry causes stress.
Stress causes panic and so on in a cycle.

When you have a panic, you have to remember it's just a normal reaction to a stressful situation but once the stress is removed, the panics will also stop.

However, you also have to remember that if you let the attack worry you, you could induce further panics which could mean you feeling you need to retreat to a place of safety.

However, this place of safety is actually a "trap" like being in a crowded gig because you become afraid of leaving it because of fear of more panics. This worry then causes more panics every time you try to push your boundaries.

Therefore, when you suffer a panic, it's important to remember it was "normal" reaction to something caused you to feel stressed and Not to worry about it but instead carry on as you were before because if you do this, panics will never make you feel so afraid again because you'll know what's really happening and that it Does pass.

To ease symptoms of panic, just slow the breathing taking deep breaths through the nose and releasing through the mouth because all that's happening is hyperventilating (fast shallow breathing) which causes an oxygen/carbon dioxide imbalance making you feel you're going to pass out, but that's all that would happen if you don't slow your breathing pattern.

Panics can be caused by various stresses. It could be too much stress at home or in the workplace. It could also be caused by too much "emotional" stress such as a previous experience that had caused hurt. However, after one panic has occurred, fear of them occurring again also causes stress that can actually cause them. :hugs: