Feeling so defeated.. another panic attack

[Gg22]

Hi everyone

I am feeling so defeated and anxious today I have been suffering with crippling anxiety for about 2 months now. After numerous ER visits and Dr visits I have been told my symptoms are caused from anxiety.
I mainly get a feeling like I'm going to die all the time and leave my baby son behind. Whenever I get any weird body sensations I assume I'm dying and panic. It is so exhausting. I find it hard to believe anxiety can cause physical symptoms and not convinced I don't have a medical issue. I randomly get adrenaline rushes which lead to sweating , diarrhoea, uncontrollable shaking and weakness of my limbs. This scares me and leads me to believe i am sick.
The past two weeks I have started meditation, colouring to ease my mind and had my first psychologist session on Friday. I have been good for 3 days and I had a weird feeling Last night and had a panic attack for no reason!!! I am feeling so upset I slept so terrible as I was scared. Every time I'm trying to sleep I feel like I can't breathe and gasp for air. I guess I was hoping I wouldn't have anymore once I tried to help myself so I feel like I have been set back. I am just so sick of feeling like this and don't know what to do.
I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just needed to get it out

[Ggrand]

Hello Dear Gg22..

A warm welcome to our Beyond Blue Forums..

I am so sorry that it’s taken a while for you to get a reply..sometimes posts get pushed back for no reason..

Anxiety is the pits...I’m so sorry your struggling with it...I remember when I first had an anxiety attack..I felt the same as you are feeling now..scared, confused as to what’s happening..I reached out to my gp and psychologist and was told stress/anxiety can make us think that we have health issues...I think the more we centre our thoughts on what is happening to our body at the time it’s happening can and usually does increase the physical systems...

I was having a anxiety attack and my friend called an ambulance, she was scared for me...On the way to the hospital..the paramedics needed to slow my breathing down as well as my racing thoughts...I was told to hold one hand out in front of me..then with the other hand, take any finger and trace the held out hand very slowly breathing in 4/5 seconds tracing up one finger, then hold for a 5 seconds, then breathe out while tracing down the same finger for 7 seconds..then repeat each finger..only breathing what’s comfortable for you....With a few minutes of doing this, my breathing slowed down..because my mind is counting and tracing..it had room to think of the symptoms I was feeling..(Distraction)..

Distracting your thoughts away from what you’re feeling and thinking is one of the best way that I personally find to manage my anxiety attacks..

At night when I lay down to sleep..I put you tube on and select a gentle peaceful sleep story, and fully concentrate on listening to the person reading and the story...I usual fall sleep before the story has finished..Not sure if these will work for you...I hope they do...

If you check out our anxiety threads...search “Anxiety” you will finds lots of threads there that might help you..and feel free to to talk and join in the conversation if you feel up it...

Talk here anytime you feel up to it..and keep us updated on how your feeling..no pressure..we are here to help you as much as we can..

Kind thoughts with care..

Grandy..

[Petal22]

Hello,

Sorry you are feeling this way.... I had crippling anxiety aswell.... i agree it is very exhausting....,I have now recovered... you will get through it... it won’t last forever..
that’s great you are seeing a phycologist they will be able to give you many tools..... have you thought about medication to help manage your anxiety?

Things will get better.... keep persevering 😊

[White_Rose]

Dear GG22

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am so very sorry you had to wait for your first reply. Sometimes this happens but it is not helpful to you. I hope you will continue to post here.

Anxiety can be excruciatingly debilitating. We feel all sorts of emotions and bodily aches and pains. Hardly surprising we believe we are going to die or at least have a horrible illness. When I had an an anxiety attack I was absolutely terrified. I had never experienced anything like it and had no idea what was happening. Like you I had trips to hospital and got sent home after all the tests and being told it was anxiety or a panic attack. I think panic is a good word for it because that's how it feels. No idea what to do, what would happen, how to even tell someone. It's very cruel.

I was always reassured about calling an ambulance. "It's OK you don't know what's happening, you need to get checked out". Goodness me what a journey. After a while I learned to recognise the signals that said this was going to happen. If you can, when you think this is going to happen can you notice what your body is doing? I know this is not easy but it can help to stop or reduce the panic.

Panic happens for no obvious reason. Your body goes into panic mode for nothing you can identify. With the help of your psychologist you may be able to pinpoint your triggers and work on reducing them. I never got this far. All I could do was to manage when it happened. Eventually these attacks went away and I had no more for many years. You can imagine how upset I became when one happened out of the blue recently.

I learned to control these times with the help of a book called Living With IT by Bev Aisbett. I recommend you get this if you can. It's an easy read with some cartoons. IT is anxiety. I imagined I was floating down a stream in a little boat. IT was on the bank jumping up and down trying to get me to stop floating away. It was good because I could see the anxiety, nasty spiky thing, but it could not get to me. I felt safe. It's still uncomfortable but manageable. Once I could see the anxiety and knew where it was I felt better. This gave me more confidence and my trips to ER basically stopped.

It is about feeling safe and confident enough to look at this thing and move away. I know, not easy but doable with practice.

There are two other IT books if you find the first one useful. Living with IT and Living IT up. Enjoy.

Mary

[Mussopossum]

I can so relate to what you are going through. I have severe health anxiety. If I see a spot or feel a lump im convinced I am dying and it is a catastrophic response. I go to the emergency department and am so embarassed the way that I am reacting over something so little however to me, im fixating on the issue and that I am dying.

My heart pounds i feel sick, Im on the toilet every 5 minutes. Some times I cannot even look at or say a word associated with sickness and death as im convinced if I do it will come true and happen to me. I cant watch a TV show that has someone terminally ill as believe it will happen to me.