anxiety/panic attacks/weird feeling in chest/alcohol

[louwilliams]

Hi Hun,

I used to be a big drinker up until about 4 months ago (afer 10 years at it my body started to object!) I was drinking between 2 and 3 bottles of chardonnay a night. my first panic attack was after a really heavy night out. 3 hours sleep etc etc. the reason you feel more edgy and anxious the day after you drink is because the alcohol in your body turns into sugar overnight so you get a massive sugar rush, either in the middle of the night that wakes you up, or the next day. Alcohol is one of the biggest triggers of pyshical symptoms in a panic attack-the sugar rush makes you think your having and attack...therefore you have one. if you do drink you need to either cut down a bit or make sure you drink lots of water before you go to sleep. drink fresh orange juice the next day as your blood sugar levels are up the wall and you need the vitamin c to stabilise your body. I may not be a doctor but believe me its true!

Hope this helps x

[NatashaH18]

Hi I'm now 18 and I feel I have a similar story. I used to go out drinking when I was 14(obviously now looking back it was a ridiculous age to drink!) and I never had a hangover, I used to get into clubs ect. In march of 2010 I had the worst experience of my life ill never forget it!

I had calmed down on going out and started concentrating on school. It was an ordinary weekend and I was just going to have a quite drink of WKD! With my best friend in my room. As soon as it kicked in I can't even begin to explain how strange I felt. People said to me oh your just feeling drunk. Trust me I know what feeling drunk is and this wasn't!!! I was soo dizzy I was zoned out from everything, if someone said something to me I would even have realised I'd answered with just a yes or ok. It's so hard to describe the feeling inside my head it was just weird. I remember lien in my bed thinking the walls were closing in on me. I ended up wee'in the bed as I just couldn't get up.

Next morning I woke up I was experiencing this horrible feeling straight away. I ended up going to hospital and being told I was having panic attacks but they just wouldn't understand that I was having panic attacks because of this horrible feeling inside.

I'm still not fully ok 3 years later although its calmed down a lot and I can control it. I've never touched alcohol since as I know I just go paranoid when I try. It had really upset me that this has happened as I have missed out on friends and family's '18th' even myself as they just don't understand why I don't drink.

What could this be?