hiya just thought i would introduce myself , my name is diane and im very new to anxiety as a whole, ive had in the past mild panic attacks which involved clammyness, light headedness, hot or cold flushes up until 6 weeks ago where i thought i was dying, from heart attack, i had the shivers with hot sweat, pain all around my neck and shoulders, tingling in my arms, headache... you name it i had it all within 10 minutes i went to a&e to be told i was healthy as a horse ecg was spot on, all the things that can be tested via my blood was perfect , blood pressure rather high (this was blamed on the whole waiting around in hospital) in 1 week i had 3/4 bouts of similar things ... i thought time to go to the drs... after a couple of visits i was told i was stressed (im far too happy go lucky for this and so laid back i might as well be horizontal ) i randomly mention this to one of my colleagues at work when she said she has panic attacks and told me what they do to her she asked if i was a sufferer of these my response was a bit of an inwardly chuckle and i said dont talk daft you have known me 2 years do i ever stress or panic .... to which she giggled and said no way and that was that ..... i went through another week where i had constant chest pains, diarrhoea which was when the penny dropped ..... i googled panic attacks and guess what ..... my symptoms matched i went back to the drs he signed me off work for 4 weeks and gave me sertraline started at 50mg once a day .... well..... the first 5 days on these were absolutely horrendous ..... i was having major panic attacks at least twice a day ... i got to the point where i wanted to refuse taking them so i googled sertraline it emerged that my anxiety may get worse before it got better i figured i would stick with them ... as i figured it couldnt get any worse .... after 2 weeks i started feeling allmost normal... apart from the odd day where i may have mild chest pains... or slight palpetations, the odd tingling, the odd spasm but it became more managable but this would only last until 6pm ish (i took them at 10am each day) i went back to the doctors i was upped to 100mg every day ... and within a week of this i was back at work as my manager had agreed to not go out 1:1 in the community (i work as a support worker with young adults with complex needs and learning difficulties and risk being launched by a tenant on a daily basis) but i love my job ..... well the first day back i felt awful .... anxieties kicked in big time on my way to work on the bus... i had to remind myself that supporting these people was what i was really good at.... anyhoo after a very tough challenge on the buses i got into work had a brew and got stuck in .... guess what i still loved my job.... my priorities had changed i thought these guys depend on me these guys need me .... i had a couple of pains around my chest area but fought them back ... and i got through.... the next day my pains had lessened just more of a dull ache ..... by no means am i well again but i like to think that i have found my own coping technique i dont know how long it will take to recover fully but i believe i will .... i understand i have been quite lucky as i was diagnosed pretty quickly by my doctor so my brains tricks couldnt grab a hold of me real tightly and ruin my life too much i have my first session of CBT in a couple of weeks and between the CBT and sertraline and my family and colleagues support and the many distractions there are in my job i know i will be free of panic attacks eventually
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