Being in athletics for 15 years and being a top flight distance runner winning two county XC titles and helping my county to a inter-county world trails gold medal and living a full life touring the country in races I though I would be the last person to have panic attacks, until a year ago last summer when things just fell apart for me
.. One day when training I started to feel sick and queasy and my heart just started to palpate( not in the same way as you would feel when exercising), so the next day decided to see my G.P. and checking me over found nothing wrong with me but decided to send me for a ECG the next day, the next day when I went for my ECG they found out they thought they found a problem with my electrical impulses that travel through my heart and down my legs, and when asking the doctor if I could continue running he told me no because he did not want me collapsing and this really put the frights up me and this was when my panic attacks started to kick in.
After being told that I would have to see a heart specialist I had to wait for three months
and in this time I had my first panic attack, it happened about 4 am when I was asleep and was having one of my normal nightmares since the ECG and woke with a heavy pain across my chest and felt panicky so got up but felt dizzy so had to lie down again and upon lying down my heart started to race like mad and made me feel worse but soon calmed down, so went down stairs to make my self a drink and started to thing what made this happen and thought it might of been my heart and this triggered a second attack when having my drink, which I got tingling in my chest and it felt a strange sensation like my heart was going to stop and started to tremble after the attack.
After my first attack I started to feel depressed and just thinking the worst all the time and started to feel that I wanted to be on my own all the time, which at one stage I did not come out of my bed room for two week's, but one evening decided to walk the dog to see if it made me feel better and this was when I had my second panic attack witch was completely different from the first, upon walking down the road I found that I could not breath at all but continued walking hoping it would go away but soon found that my vision was going blurred, then all my legs started to tingle and started to feel dizzy and my heart started to race and panicked more went and rang on someone's door for a ambulance which turned up to take me to hospital, and they let me out the same night.
After my second panic attack I felt worse still and felt dizzy and panicky and sweating most of the time and found it hard to go out, until the day I went to hospital for my ECG scan on my heart and was told that every thing was okay, and started to feel slightly better for a while and started to get into my running again until last Christmas when I started to have more panic attacks and most days I get a sensation that I am drowning, and when these clear up I start to get headaches and more dizziness again and also have had sudden night time panic attacks where I wake up shortness of breath and sweating almost like an asthma attack.
I have been to my G.P's almost twenty five times in three months but now he tells me there is nothing wrong with me but still have the odd panic attack and still find it very hard to get into my running that I love doing and because its hard now to do my running because of my panic attacks I still feel the blue's and if I had not gone for that first ECG a year ago I might still be a happy bunny running through the fields of the cross country sean.
Simon
