Have you ever had a panic attack?

O.A.P · 30-04-2014 11:41PM

Good thread OP,
Yeah I get them too and have done for about 15 years or more. I never told anyone about them, including misses OAP.
I got one in the docs waiting room two months ago while waiting for a medical exam and decided to tell him about it when he asked me a few questions.
He has put me on Seroxat, Zimovane (sleeping pills) and an appointment with a shrink .
I don't know if this is better or not, these drugs have changed me I think but I have not had an attack since ?

Rothko · 30-04-2014 11:47PM

Yeah, I've had them due to social anxiety and acrophobia.

previous user · 01-05-2014 12:38AM

I had a large anxiety attack a couple of months ago, don't know if its the same thing, couldnt get out of bed for a day, was paralysed, shaking, felt like a large chasm was ahead just, in my life, a large dark bottomless chasm.
I've been having them on and off due to me getting older and not having a proper job with income and still trying to figure out what I want to do in life.

01-05-2014 12:38AM

I used to get them in school. I remember the principal telling me I was "too young to be getting panic attack" and to cop on pretty much. They were terrifying! As many have said, I thought I was getting a heart attack the first time.

Haven't got one now in about 8 years.

Aoifums · 01-05-2014 01:32AM

I used to get them pretty badly. There was a period of time a few years ago where I'd have about ten a day. I still have one or two a week now but it's nothing compared to how bad they used to be. I get sort of milder ones more frequently but I manage to talk myself through them and the symptoms are far less severe so I don't really count them.

Call Me Jimmy · 01-05-2014 01:37AM

During a severe panic attack do the limbs spasm and curl up? I had something like that one time, felt like i was about to burst.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 01-05-2014 01:40AM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Used to have the odd one after a night on the XTC's but that was an age ago

same, i got my only one 2 days after popping a blue ghost which was way too strong for me. jsut woke up at 2am and thought i was dying. was pacing the house and woke everyone and wanted to call 999 but the housemate talked me out and told me what it was and that you can't die from a panic attack. then just like that i was grand again. doubt i'll ever get one again, i never really suffer from that kind of stuff. my life is stress free baby!

danslevent · 01-05-2014 01:56AM

Was bullied for a few months in school, before I moved, and was provoked into having one. I used to be very shy and a guy in my class really took advantage of that. I was late for class one day and the teacher wasn't there, the guy held the door closed on me while shouting "no body likes you" there was glass panel on the door so I could see his face and hear everyone laughing. It was like my breaking point, I ran off and hid in a cubicle. genuinely couldn't breathe, the walls felt like there were closing in on me and I felt like I was going to faint...i was reeling. One of the worst experiences of my life.

Haven't gotten one since and it seems like it was mild in comparison to what other posters have described. .. But it was so terrifying, the heart palpitations, dizziness and lack of oxygen was a feeling I never want to have again. I really feel for people who get them on a daily basis

I am pie · 01-05-2014 04:25AM

once after/during strong acid trip and once again on a date with my now wife who escorted me too hospital! understanding what happened was comforting.

Pinch Flat · 01-05-2014 07:31AM

I went through a sh!t time when the economy collapsed here in 2009. Was under severe stress.

Never knew what a panic attack was until I was laid off from a job out if the blue. Initial reaction was fine, but as I was driving home I got this fit of panic so bad I couldn't breathe. I did think it was something else like a heart attack or stroke or something really nasty.

Nothing had happened like that to me before. I had to pull in and gather myself for a few minutes before driving on again. Not pleasant and thankfully never had anything like it since then

Teyla Emmagan · 01-05-2014 08:03AM

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

During a severe panic attack do the limbs spasm and curl up? I had something like that one time, felt like i was about to burst.

Palpitations and being unable to breathe with me. I don't know how it takes other people though.

diveout · 01-05-2014 08:08AM

No I don't have classic panic attacks, but I do get freeze responses when I am scared or threatened.

scrubber72 · 01-05-2014 08:14AM

In school i had them so bad i had to take 3 months off. Rumors spread that i had leukemia which didn't make it any better. Had about 10 from age 18 to now 41. Last bad one was late 2012. Didn't blackout like i used to but man it wears you out. Sweats and shakes with inability to breathe although when it was bad i passed out a lot. Funny thing is minor things can set it off but major stress i can deal with.

smurgen · 01-05-2014 08:26AM

Had one years back after a weekend of skiing/drinking and tonsilitious sitting at the desk on Monday morning.thought it was a heart attack so walked out of the office and into hospital without telling anyone or bringing anything with me.basically my body was run down,rock bottom and the panic attack was it's way of letting me know.worst thing about getting one is that the brain knows exactly what they're like and small things can trigger them thereafter.
Each and everyone of my male friends bar one got one abd we actually joke about it.we'd be a fairly open group. One of the lads started singing a darts song one day out of the blue after we had a heavy session in Liverpool and he was getting one,it was bizarre ha ha ha.

Calibos · 01-05-2014 08:34AM

Was still acclimatising to anxiety meds when I had one during a small argument. Gasping for air. Pins and needles in hands and feet. Despite it being my first I knew what it was as did the person I was arguing with, so quickly got it under control and thus paradoxically didn't panic in the classic sense.

gazzer · 01-05-2014 09:33AM

I had my first panic attack on New Years Day 1998. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had been out drinking and having late night for a good few nights leading up to New Years Day and I was walking home from my parents (lived 20 minutes away at the time) and all of a sudden I just felt this weird sensation all over me. It was like a massive amount of adrenaline shooting through my body along with the worst feeling of dread I had ever felt. I honestly felt I was going to drop dead on the spot.

I ran home. Told my partner what had happened and because I had never experienced a panic attack before I went straight to A and E. Spent 10 hours there to be told that I had had a panic attack and to go home and rest.

Didnt get any sleep that night and had another one the next day. I was convinced I had something physical wrong with me so went back to A & E and demanded they did tests. Of course the tests came back clear.

I am a fairly logical person so if something is happening to me there has to be a specific reason. Q me going on the internet, reading books, ringing different people, all the while having more panic attacks and a horrible feeling of depersonalisation. For the whole month of January 1998 I felt like I was in a dream like state, like I was floating outside my body. It was horrible.

I started avoiding going out, which meant I didnt go to work.

Over the next 3 months I became a shadow of my former self. I just wanted to sleep and avoid any situation that might trigger an attack.

Eventually I was referred to a psychiatrist who put me on Seroxat as well as sending me to a CBT to learn coping skills.

Within 6 weeks I started getting a lot better. By June I was back in work and slowly getting back to myself.

I had a few reoccurances over the next 3 years (when I stopped taking the medication). However since 2002 I take 10mg of Seroxat a day. I know it is not for everybody but it was a lifesaver for me.

I wouldnt wish a panic attack on my worst enemy. The feeling of hopelessness and out of control it brings it horrifying

Maphisto · 01-05-2014 09:54AM

A thought just occurred to me (well in truth I was rewatching the Sopranos) but my Dad used to have them as well.

Might be worth anyone affected checking back in their gene pool. It doesn't give you an answer but maybe a reason is a start.

All the best guys.

Temaz · 01-05-2014 10:28AM

I have suffered from them for years. They are awful and I wouldn't wish them on anyone!

Aphex · 01-05-2014 10:47AM

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

During a severe panic attack do the limbs spasm and curl up? I had something like that one time, felt like i was about to burst.

There can be many different symptoms. I used to shiver after one for some reason. They really drain you.

KingOfFairview · 01-05-2014 11:56AM

Magine having one while you were bangin a mot

Be bad out

Call Me Jimmy · 01-05-2014 12:06PM

^^^
_ -
0 0

Aphex · 01-05-2014 12:29PM

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Magine having one while you were bangin a mot

Be bad out

A panic attack is a build up of adrenaline that has no where to go. I'd imagine having sex would be a means of ridding the adrenaline. It never happened to me during sex, but I have heard stories of it happening.

petes · 01-05-2014 12:37PM

Karsini wrote: »

Yes, have had them occasionally over the years but had them especially bad on three occasions late last year. Back on 19th September I had one and ended up in A&E because I genuinely thought it was my heart.

Same thing. Didn't know what was going on. Heart was going mental and of course the more I thought about what was going on the worse it got.

Ended up in A & E and spent a night or two in hospital. Wasn't fun

Haven't had one in a long time though, thankfully only two or three ever.

Would not wish them on anyone!

Chattastrophe! · 01-05-2014 12:48PM

I'd never had anxiety/panic issues before in my life. I have a four-month-old baby now, and for the first three months of his life, I had constant anxiety and regular massive panic attacks.

If I'd heard of anyone having "panic attacks" before all of this, I'd never really have understood it. My thoughts would basically have been, well why don't you just chill out, and y'know, stop panicking?!

But it's f*cking crazy. I'd be standing in the shower, and my whole world and all of everything would fall in on top of me and shatter as it all hit me. It's like entering another dimension, another reality, and it's impossible to explain. And in that moment you're sure you're dying, because in that moment you're already gone. You're removed from the world that you knew. It's terrifying.

And never mind the massive panic attacks, the underlying anxiety was overwhelming. Constantly shaking and sweating and unable to hold a conversation. Crying, almost always. I didn't know who I was anymore, or how to communicate in a normal way like a normal person.

I wouldn't say I'm fully out of the woods now, but thanks to a great mental health consultant in Holles St, I'm a hell of a lot better than I was, and improving all the time. I definitely had to seek out the help, it wasn't readily available, which is disappointing really. So many women suffer this way after childbirth, sure your hormones are all over the place! Thankfully I wasn't so far gone that I was unable to recognise the problem and ask for the help that I needed.

holystungun9 · 01-05-2014 12:49PM

I have to be so grateful for my life so far. There are many things I have no grasp off at all. Reading about these panic attacks has opened my eyes. It must be hell.
For example, I understand to some degree what a migraine is but have no experience and tbh the last time I had even a slight headache must have been when I was a kid if even then.
When I see ads for tablets for something for like Heartburn and indigestion I really don't have any experience. I can guess from the name what heartburn must feel like and indigestion must be non digested food cause pains in your stomach or something but I don't think I've ever had either.
Apart from a random 24 hour bug once every two years or so which might be some vomiting or running to the toilet, I seem to have gotten away with lots of bad stuff. I know I must be due a heart attack while being savaged by wild dogs while being hit by a bus in the near future as payback.

johnnyvegas22 · 01-05-2014 07:09PM

i get them when i'm out in public, i always think people are looking at me. its terrible i cant approach women because i start having one, has anyone been cured?

mikom · 01-05-2014 07:14PM

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Magine having one while you were bangin a mot
Be bad out

I think my missus had one in bed last night.

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

During a severe panic attack do the limbs spasm and curl up? I had something like that one time, felt like i was about to burst.

Yeah..... she definitely did have one.

Legs.Eleven · 01-05-2014 07:16PM

I really hope things improve for all you regular sufferers of them. I can't imagine.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 01-05-2014 07:18PM

johnnyvegas22 wrote: »

i get them when i'm out in public, i always think people are looking at me. its terrible i cant approach women because i start having one, has anyone been cured?

that's not a panic attack. a panic attack is when you really think you're dying.

johnnyvegas22 · 01-05-2014 07:24PM

georgiecasey wrote: »

that's not a panic attack. a panic attack is when you really think you're dying.

whoops sorry, i thought that was a panic attack, so what is it called when you start hyperventilating, go red and get really awkward

Have you ever had a panic attack?

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