Is it a panic attack?

Blondy301

Im 30 year old female, extremely outgoing and always have been.

Over the past 5 years i have struggled with my weight and have been at my heaviest in the last 18 months. I know this has effected my confidence and been a major issue for me.

About two years ago i was at an Entraprenuer meeting and literally froze when it was my turn to speak, i started off fine and then stopped speaking midway so the forum holder basically stepped up and smoothed it over for me.
I spoke to her afterwards and she siad you were absolutely fine and then you stopped speaking. She suggested i try Toastmasters thatd shed never be able to speak publicly without it.

After that, the issue seemed to grow arms and legs, 6 months later i started having episodes whereby i felt panic in certain situations, it only lasted a few seconds and all i can describe it as is pure dread and wanting to run away from the person. I didnt have any pshyscial symptoms ie chest pain, breath shortness etc just a wave of dread from the bottom of my stomach. I am usually able to control it by distracting myself or tieing my shoe lace or fiddling with something and the person doesnt know how awkward i feel.

Only once i actually thought i was going to collapse, i told the person i didnt feel well and she went off to get my water. The second she left i was perfectly fine.

Over the past six months i have been fine again but i was out saturday night to dinner with a bunch of women and i was absolutely fine, i told a story to ten of them and was fine but later on in the dinner one of them asked me how was life and three of them were looking, and all of a sudden the wave came. I rode it out by pretending phone was ringing but it was awful. The only thing i know is happening is internal talk to myself whereby a voice in my head is saying oh they know they can see how anxious you are, the cat is out of the bag, what are you going to do, you look so awkward, you have to say something, your going to collapse.

This is all only lasting 10 maybe 20 seconds but puts the fear of god through me and its the only thing i take away from the evening. These are a bunch of girls who i dont feel any ways insecure or inferior or underminded etc to, if anything id be alot more confident that them. I just dont understand.

I have been to a public speaking class and done well. I have been to reiki etc and been told that im very sensitive and im picking up on other peoples anxiety but there was no way the woman on saturday night were anxious, they were drinking and i wasnt.

I would love to know more about what happens to me. I can get out of it. Following my bout of dread Sat night i was fine again and chatting away to everyone! I would love to undertand what it is. I really have so much i want to be able to do and i would love to be sure this dread thing doesnt happen.
I wonder if i loose the weight will i illimenate it and i am trying my best at the moment. I spoke to my doctor who said i can have anxiety tablets if i want but id rather work through it myself. I thought it was strange that it happended on Saturday after not happening for along time.

I am scared to get in certain situations in case it happens again. One example is i hate going to huge big supermarkets on my own. I know its ridiculous considering i have only had one epsiode (happened in tesco)where i couldnt talk myself out of and its only a matter of seconds but it feels soooo awful.

I would love to hear if anyone understands.

JuliusCaesar

We cannot diagnose here, and as we're mostly psychologists and psychotherapists, I think you'd get a better response in a different forum, so I'm moving your post. JC

asteroids over berlin

I used to have something similar, deeply conscious of what others would over analyse what i was saying - important thing to remember - be confident and speak out, i started to speak clearly, voice somewhat raisec and making eye contact with different people, this oozes confidence and people respect that and are ultimately will not notice anything except your confidence.
Lets face it, meetings are somewhat like a game, lots of opinions, whos right, whos wrong. You will come across great talkers who advance to senior management etc, just because they are talkers, a lot of the time their opinions are wrong but because of their ability to waffle, it goes unquestioned.

Be confident, try not to think just go for it, if you know your job you will succeed, after a few meetings your anxiousness will go and you will feel relaxed and confident

Sent from my phone!!

Blondy301

It is literally chit chat when the dread appears! I am now fine with the business and work situations.

It is like an outer body experience, I am talking and then all of a sudden I am thinking, they are all looking at me as I speak and the dread takes over. I am literally fine one minute and not the next!! It hasn't happened in months and then happened again on Saturday night. Id love to know why it happens, is it my confidence. When I look up panic, all I read about is full blown attacks. This is panic but only lasts seconds but is extremely uncomfortable and scary, I feel like im going to faint. I don't know how obvious it is to the person im with but I usually manage to cover it up.

asteroids over berlin

Blondy301 wrote: »

It is literally chit chat when the dread appears! I am now fine with the business and work situations.

It is like an outer body experience, I am talking and then all of a sudden I am thinking, they are all looking at me as I speak and the dread takes over. I am literally fine one minute and not the next!! It hasn't happened in months and then happened again on Saturday night. Id love to know why it happens, is it my confidence. When I look up panic, all I read about is full blown attacks. This is panic but only lasts seconds but is extremely uncomfortable and scary, I feel like im going to faint. I don't know how obvious it is to the person im with but I usually manage to cover it up.

I would take what you learned from the business scenario and apply it to the chit chat one, speak with confidence and relax, your thinking too much about it, peer pressures perhaps, just be confident and be honest when chatting, even if it is not an answer you would like to give, in such a case you could say i realise this and am working on it, it will come good - confidence confidence confidence! We are all in the same boat!

Graces7

I battled this for years. Was labelled agoraphobic etc. Finally it emerged I have ME and this is part of that. So now it is explained and no longer terrifies. Please get a full check up; knew someone who was told it was psychological and I told him to get a full check and he had mild Parkinsons.

So much we label psych etc is simply physical.

bootybouncer

I have been suffering from panic attacks for the last 16 years, the only thing I can say to you is that in all the moments of panic with thoughts and feelings of loosing control, running off, just flipping out or even the worst thoughts of up ending someone and legging it I have never done such any of them.

Its horrid I know and you really do never know when the next episode will take place but I found exercise and great boost to temper the anxiety and panic