My Heart / Breathing Panic Attacks Story - From the UK
Well - after reading so many threads on here for both reassurance and advice I felt now is a good time to put my experience and thoughts forward in the forum
Firstly though, I wanted to say a big thanks to this site and forum but more importantly to its users who have shared there experiences. I am what you call a "lurker" - oo-er! But the lurker now wants to be a sharer!The help the site has provided is invaluable.
So let us begin! [excuse my humour ! Us Brits are good at it! allegedly]
My Story Thus Far...
General health : Been physically active pretty much from 15 [gym] and I am currently 39. Last year or so I have dropped my eye off the ball and put on some bad weight [say 30 lbs of fat] however I hold it well although I dont think Id look good in a bikini! Ahem! [he said!]. No other health issues and generally a non stressed kind of guy.
Then it all changed...
Around a year ago I started to get dropped heart beats when I was relaxing or sitting watching TV. They were pretty loud and it would be 2 beats but I could feel them like there were hammers on my chest. Being slightly health concious [as Ive had an uneventful life medically thank god] I decided to have a full body MOT and also requested for an ECHO and ECG.Both came back "excellent" in that not a single issue. Also had a full blood bio performed with cholesterol at 5.3 which wasnt an issue.
<So that was all good and I spent the next 7 months with the same issue [dropped beats etc] but carried on as normal>
Then it all began...
5 months ago I got up in the morning and sat down to have a cup of Tea [English Breakfast might I add] when from out of nowhere I felt a shooting pain in arm, chest tightening and bit of dizziness. Now my immediate reaction was to stand up and then panic......but to make matters worse......my first thought was to put some clothes on as I was in my boxers. Clearly the most important thing when something like this is not to be found semi nekid! [to this day i dont know why I did this !]But I did and it was my immediate reaction whilst in panic and pain. I then came out of the room and asked my friend to call the Ambulance as I think I am having a heart attack. She dropped everything and called the Ambulance and they arrived within 5 mins.
Ambulance Care in the House : This was excellent.
Took my Blood Glucose : 9.5mmol - High
Took my BP : 190/110 - High
Hooked my up to an ECG : Normal
However, my heart was normal with no issues. However, due to the pain they took me in.....
Hospital Care...
Whilst at the Hospital i had 3 more ECGs and then two blood tests [Troponin] to detect for stroke . cardiac markers. Both tests,3 hours apart, came backl negative. They couldnt tell me what had happened and so I was discharged.
The next 2 weeks...
This was when it all went down hill! The following Sunday I went to the Cinema with my kids and 30 mins into it a full blown bells and whistles ferrari Panic Attack settled in....I had to get up and walk out the cinema and paced up and down like a mad hatter! At this stage, might I add, i was 50% sure that I was now experiencing Panic Attacks......but this one kind of semi confirmed it. It all lasted for 8 to 10 minutes. But hands down was the worse feeling and experience I have had.
Again, the following weeks i had one once every 3 days. They could be anywhere! Home, Work, Tube, Train. My 3rd one was from London Euston to Newcastle where 5 mins after Train left I had a full blown attack....I had to get up and rush to the small toilets and sit it out. However, at this stage I still thought it MAY be a Heart condition. But prayed to myself as naturally I am my own god
Now, in these two weeks I had another odd bout where if I laid down on my back i would think that id stop breathing and my heart would stop. This occured both the night before my first attack and then the next week or so after, However, its now subsided in general.
What was going on...
The most hardest part of all of this is that not many consultants tell you its Panic Attacks.Even when I was discharged from the Hospital they wouldnt say its this. They just said it could be stress.
So my search for "wtf is happening" had started
After reading pretty much half the interwebI felt that I had some answers....but certainly not all.
The approach
Is it my Heart....
So being a logical guy who loves a challenge and likes information I set out a somewhat high level plan! The first thing I had to do was totally rule out Heart! I am sitting here now with a 99.9 asuriety that its not my heart. How?
I went back to see a Private Cardiologist for the following
- Full Bloods
- Exercise ECG
- Echo
- Scan of the neck arteries for furring
All came back negative in that there was nothing wrong. In fact he said I was perfect. [I thought to myself thats what I mum thought of me when I was born!]. He said that the tests we have done indicate that theres nothing wrong but if i wantd it from 99% to 100% I could have a CT or MRI scan.
So what else could it be?
Without boring people and to be honest - to be blunt and to the point the issue I beleive with me relates to 4 things
a) Diet [ was awful as I let myself go]
b) Emotional / Psychological / Emygdala [ I love stress and thrive off it but I was doing too much]
c) Overweight [yep i ate all the pies]
d) Oxygen [this ones VERY interesting]
So from the above
a) Diet : I have now switched to a Intermittent Fasting Protocol to reverse the pre-type 2 diabetes I am looking at and have got my waking BG back to 5.5mmol
b) The actual cause of my attacks are the threat response from the Amygdala. It senses thoughts and acts and reacts in a way that is not always right and thus releases the crazy amounts of Adrenalinec) Yep - this ones in check - aim is to get down to 10-12% body fat from 25%d) Oxygen - now this one is extremely intriguing for me. Would you beleive me if I told you that if I put myself in front of cool fresh air EVERYTIME i have had an attack it stops within a few seconds? Yep! this is what happens to me. Many of you may have read that Panic Attacks can occur when C02 levels fluctuate.
My view on the above is that when this fluctuation happens, the Amydala process the threat and BOOM! Adrenaline releases and you go in to full scale panic attack
Its also worth noting that I now also take the following which I beleive has also helped me
- A Super Multi Vitamin and Mineral [Quest]
- Magnesium [Drs Best]
- Garlic Tablets
- Selenium
- A high ratio EPA oil capsule
- 5htp at 100mg per day
So where am I now?...
Well after experiencing general heart and breathing issues and spending a small fortune to rule something serious out I feel that I now need to embrace and let the attack happen and pass. Knowing it wont kill me is the main thing that I try and do. I wont lie - it takes EVERYTHING out of me and i have still not been able to just sit there and face it head on. I have had to get up and get cool air. But I do beleive that I am getting closer to facing the Attack. Once my brain understands that I dont care about the attack I am confident this issue may get addressed to some scale.
The worse thing about this?...
The heart and breathing......it is THE most scariest part of the attacks and even before
My heart issues....
a) Pain in the middle of my chest
b) heaviness on the chest
c) sometimes throat restricts
d) the need to take deep breaths as I think somethings happening..
The above 4 are so painful to live with.....BUT i now know there in my MIND! Yep! I do.
However, the brain is such a complex muscle - it can make or break people and for me it tried to totally break me. But through my perserverience and a "No you cant beat me" attitude I feel that I am making head way. Dont get me wrong - 3 hours ago I had the start of Attack at work.....but I simply got up and did the 4 seconds in breathing and 8 seconds out and put myself in front of a cool AC unit and within Id say 15 to 30 seconds it was over.
Do I think I had cured myself? Nope! But do I know what I need to do? Yes! Acknowledge its not my heart and that I am not going to die.
This very idea of knowing this - will be part of the solution in how you can handle this.
As I said, I still havent had the strength to fight the attack and egg/goad it on as the panic gets too much and i have to do something. But I will get there!
Even now as I write this - theres a dull pain in my chest....but as I am thinking about things it disappears...and no its totally gone
So where now?...
Fix my Diet, Weight and Mind and take on an attack so that it just comes and goes.
Get back to the gym! That has been a fear to some degree in that I now almost get scared of the gym as it means my heart rate would go up! And this is totally alien to me as Ive been training for nearly 20 years!!
I will say one thing though - I have been in some dark places over the past 5 months - scared to my witts end, scared to be left alone, scared to go to the gym, and when I say "scared" i mean as in I think im going to have a heart attack and die. It is awful!
Do I still think I may have something wrong? I am 99% sure its not my heart. What else can I do? Have a full body scan [theres places do that MRI/CT and full cover of the body and yep its bloody expensive] and health check but am I being potentially obsessive? Id say so.
So whats the plan stan?...
Manage them and see how i go. I am trying to face one head on to let my brain know that its ok.....and i hope to do this in the coming days and weeks....
That's all folks! :-) I will be back to update but I wanted to share my story so far.....
PPS : One thing I did not touch on was how this is all part of Mental Health in that alot of the feelings we get are to do with emotional responses. But equally there are biochemistry issues going on. The types of reactions and comments I got from people when I said I had a panic attack was pretty eye opening. But this whole "thing" has taught me how to respect peoples mental health.
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Originally Posted by Ellie246
