continual panic attacks/adrenaline rushes

[WiredIncorrectly]

Been there OP. Many times. If you have an anxiety diagnosis, and you're on medications, you have to accept right now you are not well mentally and your judgement and rationale is completely off.

You're fighting your mental illness all the time. That's going to have some negative knock on effects with your mental health. This is why they say anxiety is like a snowball. The speed of the snowball is irrelevant. You have a problem that is self perpetuating and feeding itself.

Every morning I have toilet anxiety. Which causes a fear of sickness, which then causes anxiety symptoms to appear. But I never let that fear progress. It tries to. It tries really hard to progress. But I have to sit there and say "You have a mental health problem James, deep breaths". And that's how it is.

The more you keep doing this, the less of a problem it becomes.

You've got to learn to manage the anxiety. Ride it out every time and each time the anxiety occupies less and less of your mind.

[Mukio]

I hear you, I hear what you're all saying. And I, too, know anxiety so so well from years of Health Anxiety. All the feelings of being afraid of there being something, the obsessive worrying, the not wanting to do anything else than have 700 check ups.
What's difficult for me this time is just the intensity/quality of the fear. It's pure fear, not linked to anything, and just washes over me in waves upon waves....I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can be as strong as I want, it never leaves....I can't control it, and that's what scares me so much and gives me the feeling of it being something physically wrong

[ankietyjoe]

What's difficult for me this time is just the intensity/quality of the fear. It's pure fear, not linked to anything, and just washes over me in waves upon waves....I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can be as strong as I want, it never leaves....I can't control it, and that's what scares me so much and gives me the feeling of it being something physically wrong

Try and observe the fact that no matter what any of us are saying (and we have all been exactly where you are), you are still trying to tell us why it's hard for you, and why it's 'possibly' not just anxiety.

You really need to stop second guessing it. Anxiety can make you feel like you are going mad whilst on the edge of death. The longer you analyse it, the longer you will suffer.

It has taken you months/years to get to this place now, mainly because you haven't found the way of acceptance that works for you yet. It being there continually is again, normal. Normal for somebody that keeps looking for a terminal illness to explain away the sensation, right? You are the one creating the monsters under the bed, you are the one elevating todays anxiety into worse anxiety tomorrow. Try and take comfort in the fact that you are not alone though, and thousands of people experience exactly the same thing as you, and some of us a lot, lot worse. We still got through it.

Listen to Wired, create your own self mantra and practice it for weeks and weeks on end. You can't beat this overnight, so the faster you learn to just live with it (for now), the faster the recovery can start.

[pulisa]

Why not read PHR's threads on this board, Mukio...

[ankietyjoe]

Why not read PHR's threads on this board, Mukio...

*triggered

[Mukio]

Just a quick question about morning anxiety. I read on here that a lot of ppl get it. How is it for you? Mine is awful, and worries me: every day I wake up with waves of adrenalin shooting through my body, stomach churning, arms tingling, and heavy feelings of confusion. The last one is particulsrly distressing. Every morning I feel like I'm this close to losing my mind, forgetting everything, having hallucinations etc. It's really strong and worriesome. Does anyone else get morning anxiety of this intensity?

[Mr Polite]

Just a quick question about morning anxiety. I read on here that a lot of ppl get it. How is it for you? Mine is awful, and worries me: every day I wake up with waves of adrenalin shooting through my body, stomach churning, arms tingling, and heavy feelings of confusion. The last one is particulsrly distressing. Every morning I feel like I'm this close to losing my mind, forgetting everything, having hallucinations etc. It's really strong and worriesome. Does anyone else get morning anxiety of this intensity?

Your cortisol levels are at their highest in the morning which is probably why you are feeling this panicky when you awake. It’s a hormone in your body there to wake you up but it is a stress hormone so makes you feel particularly anxious if you are feeling anxious any way. Have a listen to the panic pod podcast. In the episode about panic attacks it describes what is going on with early morning panic.

[Mukio]

Thanks, Mr Polite. I know that morning spikes in anxiety are normal. But with me they are just so extreme, especially the feeling like I'm not even really here, like I'm losing it completely any second. So I am just looking for a bit of confirmation whether that's still normal or whether I really should be prepared for something bad.
My anxiety has been getting worse and worse over the last two weeks, and I am currently so out of it, I can't concentrate, constantly dizzy, dp/dr, confused, and just generally feeling like something really bad is up with my brain. This stuipd thought of vcjd is also always looming in the background....

[BlueIris]

They're extreme for a lot of people, Mukio. I know it's tough, but you need to just find some coping strategies and learn to treat them like the nuisance they are.

[Mukio]

Thanks, BlueIris. I know, I'm trying my best...but it's so hard... My psychiatrist has me on medication (Escitalopram 20mg, Xanax for when it's bad), but that seems to not help at all...
I had a lot of health anxiety phases in my past, and the xanax would always help. But now, it's like I'm taking a placebo...