Hi I have just joined as have been suffering with a terrible anxiety and panic attacks for the last couple of weeks. Even before that I had been waking up in the middle of a night in a panicky feeling with work in my mind. I have been suffering sleep disturbances for a very long time, on and off anyway.
My physical symptoms have been so numerous that the list would make War and Peace look pretty thin But some include feeling of not being able to breath (I thought I was having an asthma attack and rushed to my doctor who said it's only one of the symptoms and my lungs were fine; I also just have realised that it is probably acid reflux as apparently can feel like asthma and makes you need to clear your throat a lot), racing heart and palpitations and fear of dying (but of course!), stomach pains and nausea, feeling like my lungs are 'itching', constant dry mouth and thirst, shakiness and twitching, inability to focus on anything, terrible muscle tension and aches, exhaustion (no wonder without sleep), headaches blah blah blah...
I have seen my doc so many times over the last few weeks that I feel really sorry for her now. She has put me on antidepressants which I should have started last night but my friend gave me some tranquillisers and I took that as my hands were shaking so much that it was almost impossible to type.
I have just got up from bed -after maybe three hours of sleep - and taken another librium and now feeling a bit sleepy so fingers crossed.
Oh, and just discovered a new symptom, tingling of my head or mainly forehead and face...
I have been trying to self medicate with wine quite a bit as the panic/thread is so bad especially at night time but stopped as it just made me worse. My doctor has been really good but didn't tell her the self medication bit. I will start my antidepressants in a day or two as want to first get over this worst bit immediately.
Sorry for a long post but had to do something to stop yet another panic attack... But it has been helpful to read other people's stories and identify the same things.