Please need reassurance that I'm not dying

[bellabum]

I'm either dying or have been having a panic attack for 5 hours and 20 minutes.

I didn't continue with citalopram because I couldn't cope with the side affects.

my husband is berating because i have just drunk half a bottle of wine to try to calm myself down because I can't cope with the tight feelings in my chest and is telling me we need t get to the bottom of it now and keps questioning me. i just need to be left alone.

I feel terrible and am now truly scared that I am actually having some sort of heart episode. I keep getting fluttering, skipped beats and my chest hurst when i walk. i can't lie down because that hurts and now feel as though i'm on some sort of amphetamine.

Should I go to A & E? please help.

[Captain America]

i don't know if i'm the right person to respond since i've gone to A&E about a dozen times. the test for me whether to go or not is if it's something i've felt before. are these new sensations?

absolutely the symptoms you describe can be caused by anxiety. i'm a health anxer tho so...

[bellabum]

Not quite like this, but I am ill with a throat infection too and have had a bad week with a bad meeting about my son's Asperger's yesterday and a major meeting at his school tomorrow.

[Captain America]

well it certainly sounds like anxiety especially with what you have going on. have you had the usual that we have around here, like previous trips to A&E, ekg's, etc?

[bellabum]

ECG's - fine. Blood tests (usual) -all fine.

Does feel very different, but I've never had a panic attack while ill before - could that be it? A combination? Maybe getting a chest infection as well as the throat infection?

[bellabum]

Plus, after 6 hours, if it was a heart attack, I'd be dead or collapsed by now, wouldn't I?

Lips aren't blue, although i am pale, but I've been pale for a few days because I've been ill.

[Zotamis]

You are not dying, I have chest pains everyday. Its probably just because your sick and having an attack. I know I feel different when I have and attack and I'm ill. Just try to relax.

[bellabum]

I'm actually starting to calm a little (I know alcohol isn't the answer, but after 5 hours I needed something to try to bring me back down).

Either that or it's posting/reading on here and realising that this is a bad attack because i am having a bad week and I've got through them before so I will continue to do so.

Funny thing is, i thought I was in control of them. over the last three weeks, when i've felt one coming one I've squirted some rescue remedy and talked myself down - just didn't work today.

Any ideas why?

[Captain America]

probably because you're sick. like when i have a hangover (not very often thank goodness) i find i can't stop them in the tracks like i can when i feel good.
also you have a lot of extra stress going on right now so your baseline anxiety is already high.
get through the next few days, and the weekend will be a piece of cake!

glad to hear you're calming down.

[bellabum]

a piece of cake is probably the answer!

and an early night.

I'll let you all know how I get on tomorrow and whether I "fight or flight" at the school tomorrow.

[Captain America]

mmm. cake.

[Mikke]

Dear bellabum..

Have you struggled with anxiety before, or is this your first attack?
If you are a panic sufferer, you need not to worry.
If you haven't had a panic attack before, you could see a doctor to be sure there is nothing with a physical root going on.
But again - if you have had panic before, you are describing a very typical panic attack and don't need to call an ambulance unless this would make you more comfortable.

The breathing difficulties, the palpitations and the skipped beats are among the most common symptoms of an anxiety attack.

However, the skipped beats don't usually come along with shorter attacks. Maybe it's this heart symptoms you are not familiar with? This is logical if you haven't had a very long attack before.
The skipped beats a \re a symptom that most often shows up after prolonged stress. You have had an attack for several hours, which has given your blood a fair amount of time to be flooded with stresshormones that will make your heart fire at a bit uneven rate which feels like skipped beats but are in reality extra beats (but it's not at all dangerous, your heart will not stop and you will not have an heart attack).

Rest assured that you wouldn't even think of having a piece of cake if you were having a heart attack :)

If I where you, I'd see me doctor to get some diazepam or oxazepam for the next episode of extreme anxiety, it's much better and actually a lot healthier at calming you down than alcohol.

[bellabum]

I do actually have a heart murmur, but my GP has told me these symptoms are nothing to do with it - just panic.

[Zotamis]

Bellabum, im glad you've calmed down a bit. I get palpataions myself and my doctor thought I had a murmur.

I went though numerous tests, ECG, Cardiological exams, Ive hade my chest ultra-sound

guess what the doctors found?

nada, there is nothing physlically wrong with me, its ALL anxiety.

So, I went through somthing simmilair to your situation before.
Ill tell you what helped me, I paint and draw. It takes my mind of everything, and I can relax.

Hope this helps