Fainting

[Claireabell]

Until I joined this website, I had never really had the chance to talk to other people about their symptoms and mine. About a year after my first panic attack I started to faint. I used to hyperventilate so badly I would faint. I could feel that it was about to happen and that would make me breathe even more. I remember my doctor telling me that it was impossible to faint due to a panic attack which made me feel like something else was going on. I was sent for tests but I really felt that my doctor did not believe me.
It lasted for a couple of months, I lost two stone in weight and to be honest I felt like I had had a nervous breakdown. I know my family were worried and when I turned up at my doctors crying and said that I couldn't take no more, I wanted to kill myself, he perscribed me beta-blockers and said I can't give you anything else because of your age..Keep trying the relaxation..
Those memories have never gone away and when I do feel faint I think the same thing is going to happen to me. It hasn't happened for years but the feelings are still there. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Meg]

Claire

It is possible to faint when hyperventilating . It happens when your blood gases get out of sync that the body gets you to faint in order that it can take over and put that distortion right again.

If you are going to faint , it generally happens within the first few panics and not something that we progress to at all.

You can ensure that you will not faint by breathing into a paper bag for a couple of minutes or by breathing through cupped hands. This keeps the blood gases more stable .

Ideally you need to learn to breathe slower and try to breath on the out breath for longer than breathing in. A yoga/ tai chi/ meditation class wil teach you this.

How Do You Do The Breathing (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4042)
Breathing.. wow (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4037)
Breathing Techniques (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4044)





Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[seh1980]

hi Claire,

Fainting is quite a common fear amongst anxiety sufferers. Though it has happened to you in the past, it seems to be something that you have gotten over. It sounds like it happened when you were at your worst and you seem past that now. Also, think back to when you did faint..did anything really bad happen because you fainted? I'm assuming that it didn't so even if you did faint again - why would anything be different?

Sarah :D

"Life is too important to take seriously" Corky Siegal