losing my life

[deception2me]

i am 29 years old. ive never had anxeity until this year. ive been in an ambulance 9 times this year because i thought i was having a heart attack. needless to say, i wasnt. i know now that they were all panic attacks. I have all of the symptoms. Recently i quit my job due to my anxeity. my panic attacks last for hours and driving a truck with blurred vision isnt easy, or fun. since I quit, i have secluded myself away from friends and family. I talk to no one. I dont leave the house. Ive reached out for help in my community several times, with no answer. My depression is getting worse and worse. Ive had thoughts about hurting myself. Ive lived 28 years with out any of this, why now?

[Stormsky]

hi
was there anything that triggered your anxiety? stress, an event or illness?
Have you seen a gp yet? got any medication? with thoughts of hurting yourself you defintely need to seek help.
I know its hard, but secluding yourself is not good... you need support and you need to try and lead as normal a life as possible...(Before anxiety takes over and becomes deep seeded.)
Panic attacks are awful, but they wont hurt you physically... its just adrenaline...
Searching for why is very typical, sometimes there no answer to be found... perhaps youve just been too strong for too long... Its Nothing to be ashamed of.
You will get lots of support here anyway...x

[Em84]

Hi

Anxiety is a creepy little thing, started for me 2 years ago out of no where. I'm 27 I don't work as I have two kids and the husbands in the army but to be honest wouldn't want to work anyway as I struggle having panic attacks when alone with the baby....always scary thinking I'm gonna die infront of her and no one is around!

There's no magic pill for this....i wish there was! You can always talk to your GP who wi try and help an maybe prescribe anti-depressants that will help with the anxiety, it may take a couple of different types of you may find the first great! Everyone of us is different I've tried two meda and both I had a hard time with so now on nothing! It's better for me, not necessarily for everyone else.

People here will always be there for you and offer the support!

Xxx

[Meewah]

Its a visious circle. anxiety -thoughts-symptoms-more anxiety- more thoughts-more symptoms-On and On!!
You need to learn to break this cycle. Retrain your thinking. I feel the worse thing you can do is not work, I agree a driving job is not best but apply for much less demanding jobs so you can take your mind off this.

Only you can restart your life. You need to feel part of society again and occupy the mind. Gather self worth.

If you feel this is too much straight away then set a goal one step at a time. Try anything and everything, meditation,CBT,Massages, just to break any one of the cyclic events that spiral out of control. The longer you leave this the more your brain will rewire itself to trigger fight or flight responses to the slightest stressor.

Hope you all the best. Just to add, I am still here because I have learnt to live with my hard wired brain now. I have not rid myself of anxiety fully but I have the reigns and its my horse I am riding.

Oh and try your hardest to keep off the meds. They will psychologically increase the recovery period from a few months to years.

Mee

[AnxiousAnnie18]

I started with it when I was 14 and I'm now nearly 19 - it's such a horrible thing!
In some cases it's something inherited (which I believe is in my case) and comes on during teen/early 20's but yours sounds more like it's been triggered by something to me - can you think what? Sometimes you don't even know or sometimes it something so small and unimportant that it's unnoticeable unfortunately. I would speak with your GP and get a referral to a councellor or therapist, it probably sounds like something you wouldn't like to do but I think it would be really beneficial for you to speak with someone in confidence who you don't know and can tell them everything about what your feeling including the thoughts of hurting yourself. I would agree with trying to find a less demanding job as you really don't want to slip into staying home alone all the time as it just gets harder and harder to get back out there... good luck.

[belgarion]

There is so much to be said about panic and anxiety, it's an amazing subject and yet wastes so much of our lives. But where you are now is the worst place you've been in your life? Look at it this way. You've been checked over at hospitals a number of times and they say you're fine (once isn't enough!). That's a good thing! You have no worries about your body physically. SO it's something in your head.. My best advice is push hard for some CBT training. I don't know what the best CBT book is out there, but a 1-2-1 session is by far better. They helped me massively! They can change your thoughts from subconcious negativity, to concious positivity.

In the mean time. Distract yourself. I used to play online games, and found that every single symptom went away when I was in that other world. So I one day told myself that if just sitting in front of a game can do that, then there really is no reason for me to feel bad. I ignored my symptoms, which was hard, and they came back as different symptoms, which is again scary, but each time I tried hard to ignore and reassure myself that it's nothing and I'm in control and healthy. It took a while but worked. Then I challenged myself when before I would be afraid. Now I'm back to my old self. In fact I do more now just because I can. I feel lucky that it was only a few years I had issues and not more. They were dark times. Remember that you can't go back to not knowing what a panic attack is now and you might have more yet in your life, but you know what they are, and they don't harm you.

Good luck!