Please help, need some advice..

[junglebungle]

Hello guys and girls...

I've signed up because i don't know what else to do, i think i'm going mad....

anyway, over the last few weeks or so, i've been getting symptons of anxiety and panic attacks, they used to just affect me at the evening and late night time, i would all of a sudden get up and feel so panicky, like i'm about to die or something, i get funny breathing like i can't breath properly, i feel like i have to pant really fast, then i quickly rush to another position, then i run to the toilet and look at my self in the mirror, or get a glass of water and feel like i need to drink that to make me feel right,

it's so strange, it's hard to explain, it's so scary, like my head starts swelling and i feel lightheaded... i get a wierd feeling in the back of my neck, like something is there putting pressure on it.

It used to just affect me at night, but it seems to be all the time now, but it comes in waves, like some effects are really strong sometimes sometimes it's very minor, like i just woke up, and right now i feel like my head is heavy, and "not there" so to speak, and i feel like i keep getting wierd pains in my head, and i always seems to pant now and then when breathing... i CONSTANTLY check my pulse and constantly, think that something is going to happen to me, something bad, worry i've got something inside me growing and killing me, it's really beginning to annoy me, i've done a lot of searching and most places seem to say anxiety and panic attacks, but why am i convinced it's something else?? it can't be that... it's like i know something is definately not right with my body, something is happening to me, i'm not the same as i used to be, it's like my body is telling me something? sometimes i feel like i'm falling, and dizzy.... sometimes i feel like i'm in a bubble, my chest goes all funny like my heart makes a weird feeling, like a bubble rising up, my arms goes funny... i must sound mad, but this is all what i feel... i have even dialed 999 about 6 times to get an ambulance out to me because i'm so worried something is happening to me!!


I have suffered with depression in the past, but never got any of what i get now... docs give me citalepram, but i've not took them because i can't sleep, i can't sleep anyway because i worry and i feel so wierd at night....

can anyone give me some advice? please and thank you so much, this is really beginning to put a strain on my life :(

Regards.

[gypsywomen]

if the docter gave you the mds take them they are verygood after couple of weeks you should start to feel better 100s on this site take them,,,

[blueangel]

I think the most important thing to remember, is that if you think you're going mad, you're not - because it means you still have insight, which is very important.

The symptoms you're describing are anxiety - I think all of us on here have them to some extent or another, but anxiety and panic come and go. Unfortunately, the physical effects of it are very unpleasant as your body gets flooded with hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are the ones that we produce in response to our brains thinking that we are under threat. When the levels of these hormones drop, the anxiety feelings subside and we start feeling reasonably OK again.

But the thing about this is the fear of fear - it's the thought that these feelings might happen again, this is what ties us up into panic reactions.

As gypsywomen says, if you've been given meds to help you, give them a try. They will take a couple of weeks to get into your system, but when you start feeling a bit more level again you can start to look at the causes of it and see whether some other therapies like counselling or CBT will help break the chains.

Hope this helps x

[BritTutor]

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[dodo]

As blueangel said, people who are going mad don't know they're going mad IYKWIM.

I had a spell of panic attacks after my daughter was born where I honestly thought I was going mad. All of a sudden out of nowhere I would get this like figet from my toes that would work its way up my body and I felt like I needed to scream or something. I was convinced I was going mad and I was so scared. Then I thought to myself, but you realise what's happening so you're not going mad.

If you were going mad other people would have picked up on it.