General Anxiety Disorder- 22 Year old female

[Kt1601]

Hi There,

I wanted to post on here so I know I am not alone with my anxiety..

I'm 22 and have been suffering with anxiety for 6 months.
I have always had an active social life and never really worried too much about things. Then me and my partner split up and all of a sudden I get my first panic attack, I was abit unsure as to what was happening to me. I just thought I would ride it out and sure enough it went within a few hours!
After having a couple more at work I was really starting to get worried! Then I had a really bad one at work when I thought I was going to die and had to go to hospital, where they told me I was just having a panic attack.
Since then I have obviously read up every little detail about anxiety and have been to the doctors and they diagnosed me with generalized panic disorder.
The doctor prescribed me Propananol, which does work to an extent but I do not want to rely on pills for the rest of my life!
However they do work BUT I still get panic attacks at night. Just before I'm about to drift off to sleep my body will go numb and I will go straight into an attack and then wont be able to sleep until I'm so tired I pass out. Does anyone else suffer with this?
Also I will get them, weirdly, if I take a paracetamol for a headache?! Then I think that I'm going to die from taking one paracetamol!
My social life is also affected, when I'm in a pub/club or even at the cinema I feel very anxious and I have to stay clear of alcohol because my anxiety worsens with a hangover!!
At the moment anxiety is controlling my life and it's so scary, I want it to go away so I can be me again!
These are my anxiety symptoms:
Heart Palpitations, Heart Racing, Dry Mouth, Shivers, Sore Throat, Heart Burn, irritableness, fear of dying, ear ache, headaches, weight gain, insomnia, feeling like my head is going to explode, blurred vision, chest pains, feeling like I'm not in my own body (if that makes sense), lack of motivation and there are probably some that I have forgot to mention.

I am also terrible for when I get a new symptom, to go on google and search for it. Obviously if there is a possibility that this symptom could mean 'disaster' this makes anxiety worse! So I have now banned google'ing' symptoms and either go on this website or www.talk2gether.nhs.uk (http://www.talk2gether.nhs.uk).

Thanks for reading this :) I hope people can relate to my situation :bighug1:
xx

[eeyorelover]

Welcome to the site!

I used to get panic attacks just as I started to drift off to sleep too. They were so scary because I always thought, what the heck do I have to panic about?? I'm in bed!
So first I thought of every horrible disease I could have and googled every one of them! Which in turn scared me awful!
Once I accepted that it was panic and not some mystery illness I learned relaxation techniques to relax my body and I would drift off to sleep without having the panic.

There are a few free ones on the net but for the life of me I can't remember the addy of the one I found. Sorry.

No more googling for either of us!!
It does nothing but scare the daylights out of us!
If you have a symptom best to look it up on the help pages to the left of the site or post about it and get some response from people who have been there!

Again welcome!
I know you will find lots of useful info and loads of supportive new friends here :)
xxx
Sandy

[guitarpants]

My experiences are very much the same as yours. They are hard to understand since it seemingly defies logic. All of my panic attacks occurred about an hour after falling asleep or right as I was going to bed/falling asleep. It seems like it's supposed to the time you are most relaxed. I also experienced almost all of the other symptoms that you have described. You are definitely not alone. It's good to know you are experiencing something millions of other people have experienced and you aren't suffering in solitude with some rare random affliction.

[MatthewH]

KT, you are not alone with this. As a 23 year old, i can relate to just about every single symptom you listed, and know what its like. At least you've had the courage to go to the doctor, which is what i should of done about 2 and a half years ago. Ive finally got an appointment on thursday.
Like you, i used to lead a very active social life. Now my days consist of planning every intricate detail, so that i know i have an 'escape route'. BUT - Ive not let my anxiety stop me from leading my life. I know that it is very difficult, but you cannot let this rule your life! Take it from me, its not easy to get on with your life when you have a constant fear hanging over you, but if you dont get out, things could become worse for you. (I.e. Agrophobia)
You're doing so much better than i have by the sounds of it though, and it won't always be like this for you, so best of luck!

[Idstain]

Hi I am sorry to hear what you are going through, I am 23 myself and went through pretty much the same thing. Please check out the book in my signature, it's incredible.

Just remember that it's not forever and you will get better !!

Good luck