Anxiety/Panic Attacks

[TxMommy]

I was wondering what anxiety attacks look like to you and how mine compare with other people. What happens when you are experiencing one? How long do your attacks generally last?

For me it starts with a sudden dizzy/lightheaded feeling. Then I experience shortness of breath and tell myself over and over to take deep breaths. My heart starts racing (panic), my body feels weak and my hands tremble and are sweaty. Lastly my vision starts going from normal to dark as my panic increases. It's a horrible feeling. It only lasts a matter of minutes but while going through it, it feels like an eternity!

 

[KnightsPaintball]

When I have panic attacks they are anywhere from just shortness of breath, dizziness, and heart racing to a full blown panic attack combined with a psychotic episode where it starts out with shortness off breath, heart racing, and dizziness and escalate to sweating, me bawling in the fee-dal position, seeing things, hearing things, feeling like I'm being constantly stabbed in the heart, extreme pain, and more... They last anywhere from a few minutes to even a few hours at the worst...

 

[Vector man]

Normally It feels like everything around me is closing in, making it harder to breathe and talk.

When thinking about things I said or did in the past elevates my panic attacks to a whole new level. They are normally very VERY intense and can last from a couple seconds to over an hour.
And the adrenaline is the worst part, so much energy can go through me that i could stay up all night (if they ever get that bad).

 

[RobPhillips79]

My anxiety attacks don't look like much most of the time imo. I've learned to act normal even when it's pretty bad. However, it usually ends with me having to go to the toilet and process as number 2 as a number 1 if you know what I mean. Then I got OCD and am a germophobe so I gotta first put toilet paper on the seats or work my legs out. This is just the tip of the iceberg too and making it sound like it always happens the way I want it...
I find it interferes with my studies and social life the most.
When it gets severe, you can find me on the ground crawling, shivering and squealing in agony.

 

[Susie~Q]

I have the same symptoms that all of you folks have. In fact, the last few weeks, I have been fighting anxiety and it is awful. I hate the shortness of breath the worse, but, that is a main symptom. I had to go to the ER last week, they did the EKG, chest x-ray and other things to rule anything else out, but, I knew it was anxiety. I have had trouble with it since a fall down the stairs in the early 80's.

I find that reading the two books by Dr Claire Weekes helps a lot. One is called "Hope and Help for your Nerves" and the other is called "Peace from Nervous Suffering" They are written in easy to understand language and it is like she is sitting next to you talking.

My anxiety attacks usually start with either shortness of breath, or, with inner shaking, and extreme nervousness. I am that way now, it is hard for me to type even, I just feel like I will explode, no drugs help either, they work opposite. To add to the mess, I am in peri-menopause, and that does not help either. As I said, I think I have almost every symptom of anxiety there is and it sure does stink.

I pray we all get over this and that we allow the Lord's peace to calm us.

 

[SplendidTree]

I rarely get them now but when I do, I feel like I can't breathe. I feel like my heart races a million miles a minute and my stomach aches.

Sometimes stress in general aggravates my digestion.

 

[Ernestes]

Hi All,
Some effective tips to deal with depression.
Do take deep breath in fresh air,
Do start mild exercise like yoga,
Eat a well balanced diet,
If you do not eat well take multivitamin regularly,
Share your worries with your friends and family,
Drink 2/3 glass of water,
Avoid caffeine and other stimulants,
Avoid or limit alcohol consumption.

 

[anonym00s]

I once dealt with severe anxiety/panic attacks over the course of about 8-10 months. For me there was a specific trigger that started it all, although I am sure graduate school added to it. I had constant fears of having some disease or that something horrible would happen to me like a heart attack. I would get these heads pains and I would think the worst was happening to me and I would spiral into a panic attack that lasted a few minutes. For some reason I kept getting the image in my head of being carried away in an ambulance stretcher. I just remember that during the attacks I would have to sit or lay down. I would get these horrible ice pick headaches that were miserable. Even though these things lasted only minutes at a time, I would sometimes do strange things out of fear such as:

calling my roommate for no particular reason (I would ask "how are you, what time are you getting home?" in a calm sounding voice, even though I was in the middle of an attack);

skipping school; and

calling whoever else I could just to chat and hear their voice (I usually didn't tell them I was having a panic attack, and they usually didn't know).

I would also get chest pains that, not coincidentally, happened when major HW assignments due at school. Other times I would feel so weak like I just lost all my strength and I couldn't tell you why.

What helped was:

remembering the truth about who I am in Christ; and

having stable friends

I once mentioned to my friend that my chest was hurting again, to which he replied "No!" (as in, "no you will not go through that!") and he just patted me on the back to calm me down. For some reason, just hanging around him had a calming effect on me that reduced my anxiety. Not sure if I can fully explain, but the panic attacks just stopped soon after that and haven't come back (even though I no longer hang out with this person, unfortunately). I never tooks meds or anything like that and I finished my semester without that level of attacks. I can't remember the last time I had an anxiety or panic attack - it was probably 6-7 months ago.