NYCgirl
05-10-05, 06:22
Hi. Just came across this forum. Looking for other people that are experiencing the same symptoms that I am. Here's my story:
I am a survivor of the World Trade Center attack (lost almost half my coworkers that day). Before then, I never had a panic attack in my life (I was 39 on 9/11.) About 3 months after the tragedy, I was eating lunch in our new office space and I suddenly lost the ability to swallow. Then, my neck started to tighten really badly and I got really upset. This passed and everything seemed ok for two years. Then, early last year, I started to develop flushes - I would turn bright red for no reason and it would pass. But, one day, it did not pass. I was with friends, watching a DVD (the Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton flic) and suddenly, when Nicholson's character started to have a heart attack in the film, I started to have a panic attack. It was BAD. I was sweating profusely, trembling, choking, no saliva, blood pressure skyrocketing, heart was palpitating profusely - my friends called an ambulance. The paramedics thought it was bad enough to take me to the hospital. In the emergency room, they asked if I had taken drugs - I had not. They concluded that this was a panic attack, shot me with Ativan and I slept in the ER for the night. A horrible experience.
My adrenaline continued to be out of control for several weeks and I was given a prescription for Ativan to calm me down. I only took the pill when I felt the symptoms were rising (I was leary of taking these pills). I had full medical tests and the doctors said that there was nothing physically wrong - this appeared to be all anxiety related.
While I have not had a full-blown attack since then, I do experience periods of choking - most recently watching the New Orleans coverage on CNN. The first night of media coverage - I jumped out of bed at 3am shaking and choking and had to really focus to calm myself down (as well as drink a lot of cold water). I continued to have pain down my left arm for several days - feeling like a heart attack was coming (which I kept telling myself "This is all anxiety - just calm down". I realized that watching CNN and seeing photos of missing people was subconsciously stirring up old feelings. I'm beginning to think (I'm pretty certain, actually) that I am suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from 9/11. Yet, sometimes the choking starts for no apparent reason at all - it is disturbing.
Do any of you attibute your panic attacks to a particular devastating event in your life? Does this ever go away by itself? I'm not one for psychiatry - I don't think that anyone can erase my memories of 9/11 - I just have to deal with it as best that I can. I should add that when this anxiety happens, I am not aware of any fear that I might have (it might be subconscious - but I am not outwardly scared of situations). I actually flew cross-country 4 months after 9/11 and I wasn't a nervous wreck about terrorism on the flight.
Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.
BTW - One thing I did do was eliminate caffeine from my diet - that only adds to anxiety.
I am a survivor of the World Trade Center attack (lost almost half my coworkers that day). Before then, I never had a panic attack in my life (I was 39 on 9/11.) About 3 months after the tragedy, I was eating lunch in our new office space and I suddenly lost the ability to swallow. Then, my neck started to tighten really badly and I got really upset. This passed and everything seemed ok for two years. Then, early last year, I started to develop flushes - I would turn bright red for no reason and it would pass. But, one day, it did not pass. I was with friends, watching a DVD (the Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton flic) and suddenly, when Nicholson's character started to have a heart attack in the film, I started to have a panic attack. It was BAD. I was sweating profusely, trembling, choking, no saliva, blood pressure skyrocketing, heart was palpitating profusely - my friends called an ambulance. The paramedics thought it was bad enough to take me to the hospital. In the emergency room, they asked if I had taken drugs - I had not. They concluded that this was a panic attack, shot me with Ativan and I slept in the ER for the night. A horrible experience.
My adrenaline continued to be out of control for several weeks and I was given a prescription for Ativan to calm me down. I only took the pill when I felt the symptoms were rising (I was leary of taking these pills). I had full medical tests and the doctors said that there was nothing physically wrong - this appeared to be all anxiety related.
While I have not had a full-blown attack since then, I do experience periods of choking - most recently watching the New Orleans coverage on CNN. The first night of media coverage - I jumped out of bed at 3am shaking and choking and had to really focus to calm myself down (as well as drink a lot of cold water). I continued to have pain down my left arm for several days - feeling like a heart attack was coming (which I kept telling myself "This is all anxiety - just calm down". I realized that watching CNN and seeing photos of missing people was subconsciously stirring up old feelings. I'm beginning to think (I'm pretty certain, actually) that I am suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from 9/11. Yet, sometimes the choking starts for no apparent reason at all - it is disturbing.
Do any of you attibute your panic attacks to a particular devastating event in your life? Does this ever go away by itself? I'm not one for psychiatry - I don't think that anyone can erase my memories of 9/11 - I just have to deal with it as best that I can. I should add that when this anxiety happens, I am not aware of any fear that I might have (it might be subconscious - but I am not outwardly scared of situations). I actually flew cross-country 4 months after 9/11 and I wasn't a nervous wreck about terrorism on the flight.
Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.
BTW - One thing I did do was eliminate caffeine from my diet - that only adds to anxiety.