Hello,

For a long time I've been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. However, they've recently got much, much worse. Each attack is intense, I'm filled with dread, I disassociate from reality, I keep thinking that I'll lose my mind and do something awful. I'm very scared.

A few days ago, I phoned my doctor, and he's given me a month's worth of 50mg Sertraline and, for the first week, 2mg of Diazepam. I'm currently on day four. The first three days were relatively calm, despite having a very distant feeling. However, this morning I had one of the worst panic attacks I've ever had. I don't know whether to believe that it's just to be expected in the first week of taking Sertraline, or whether SSRIs just make my panic attacks worse (I'd taken Citalopram for a while, and often took more than I was told to, which might have done damage I don't know).

I also suffer from rather bad headaches and have had tingles/loss of sensation. I went a while with the entire left-side of my face very tingly and almost numb. I don't know whether this is from the panic attacks, or whether it's neurological... At least I've had an MRI for that, so that's something.

Can anyone please tell me if this is normal, and what I should do?

Thank you

bk