EmMaxwell
28-02-11, 18:37
Hi everyone.
I thought I had been having panic attacks for years. Situations getting 'too much' and having extreme breakdowns - the lack of breath, the 'heavy weight' on my chest, the inability to remain standing. But a few months ago, I was laying in bed and I was so aware of my heart beat. It got worse and worse and I felt like all of the blood in my arms was trembling and I was starting to sweat a little bit. I woke my boyfriend and tried to explain what I was feeling. I explained that I'd only felt this way once before - about a year prior to the experience when I'd taken sleeping tablets and laid awake all night freaking out because I was convinced they were giving me a heart attack (so was pointless taking them anyway!). He suggested it might be a panic attack, but I told him I'd had panic attacks before and this wasn't it - also, at that exact moment there was nothing I was particularly panicked about.
I looked it up the next day, though, and hadn't realised there was a difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack. By going through symptoms, I think I'd previously been having anxiety attacks that I just misinterpreted as panic attacks, and that what I experienced that night (and have done a few times since then) was actually a real experience of a panic attack. I read on several websites that you can have panic attacks for no reason at all, whereas anxiety attacks are a reaction to extreme emotions. This might explain why it had actually happened, since at that moment I wasn't panicked - though have had this reaction when I've been laying awake stressing about things at nights too.
Am I right in what I'm saying? Is there a way I can stop them when I feel my heart start to pound so heavily?
I thought I had been having panic attacks for years. Situations getting 'too much' and having extreme breakdowns - the lack of breath, the 'heavy weight' on my chest, the inability to remain standing. But a few months ago, I was laying in bed and I was so aware of my heart beat. It got worse and worse and I felt like all of the blood in my arms was trembling and I was starting to sweat a little bit. I woke my boyfriend and tried to explain what I was feeling. I explained that I'd only felt this way once before - about a year prior to the experience when I'd taken sleeping tablets and laid awake all night freaking out because I was convinced they were giving me a heart attack (so was pointless taking them anyway!). He suggested it might be a panic attack, but I told him I'd had panic attacks before and this wasn't it - also, at that exact moment there was nothing I was particularly panicked about.
I looked it up the next day, though, and hadn't realised there was a difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack. By going through symptoms, I think I'd previously been having anxiety attacks that I just misinterpreted as panic attacks, and that what I experienced that night (and have done a few times since then) was actually a real experience of a panic attack. I read on several websites that you can have panic attacks for no reason at all, whereas anxiety attacks are a reaction to extreme emotions. This might explain why it had actually happened, since at that moment I wasn't panicked - though have had this reaction when I've been laying awake stressing about things at nights too.
Am I right in what I'm saying? Is there a way I can stop them when I feel my heart start to pound so heavily?