Any Freepers have anxiety/anxity attacks?

me | Jul7, 2003 | self

[Moleman]

Hello all, Recently I have been battling general anxiety and now worsening eppisodes of anxiety. Nausea, fear, heart rate up for silly reasons. Going out to eat, driving, being with crowds. Does anyone have any advice? I have already made an appointment with a doctor to discuss my situation.

Thank you, Moleman

[cmsgop]

Bump!

[week 71]

Quit drinking coffee. Make sure your blood sugar is where it should be.

[Corin Stormhands]

Any Freepers have anxiety/anxity attacks?

Perty much ever time I see that dang Freep-a-thon sign pop up.

Seriesly, see your doctor. Watch your intake of salt, sugar and caffeine.

[Support Free Republic]

Lighten Up, Francis!

Fundraising posts only happen quarterly, and are gone as soon as we meet the goal. Help make it happen.

[catonsville]

See your doctor. He will do some blood tests to see if it is not something physical ( overactive thyroid) than may prescribe some medication/ therapy.
It is treatable and reversable

[TheSpottedOwl]

I started taking St. John's Wort years ago when I found that I no longer was able to drive without freaking out. A divorce also helped :)

Listen to your doctor.

[irishtenor]

Philippians 4: 6-7. Best advice I can give. My wife suffered through these. It is not pleasant. We worked it out together. She is a lot better now.

[boris]

"Quit drinking coffee."

I call it 'essence of consciousness.'

I once said that "Engineering operates on caffeine and sugar."

Since being diagnosed as a diabetic with terrible foot pain, that's "Caffeine and Nutrasweet."...

--Boris

[ThinkingMan]

See your doc. I suffered through these recently due to a huge load of stress that almost cost me my marriage of 12 years. I am normally a fairly laid back person, but the anxiety attacks changed my personality completely. I have mostly overcome the attacks with no medication, but I knew what was going on due to helping my wife through a much more serious case.

Several years ago my wife started out having a few anxiety attacks, she did not get help of any kind and the attacks grew into full-blown depression. She eventually ended up in the hospital and finally started being treated for depression.

I do not tell you this to worry you, just to advise you of the possible seriousness of the situation. Please talk to your doctor before it gets any worse. Prayer helps a lot as well.

[Rudder]

Although very frightening, anxiety attacks are not one bit dangerous. As soon as you fully understand that simple point your attacks will cease. Relax, you're safe.

Do not take Xanax, Valium or Ativan. These will not effect a cure, only a temporary relief, and are very addictive. These attacks are neurochemical (adrenalin) "false alarms" that signal that you are in danger---however, it's only a false alarm and you are perfectly safe.
(Advice I've given many, many former patients.)

[honeygrl]

I have anxiety attacks. Or, actually, HAD them for years. The docs tried all the regular stuff like paxil, buspar, and the other drugs that work in the same general way but I could never tolerate them because they made me really sick to my stomach. My current doc has finally let me have xanax and it works wonderfully. It is addictive but So are most drugs that treat anxiety. It makes you sleepy for an hour after each dose for a few days but after it gets into your system, it doesn't do that anymore. You can also take it on an as needed basis if you don't want to take meds everyday when you aren't having problems with anxiety everyday. The doctor will likely want to try the paxil/prozac/buspar type of drugs before something like xanax though. Personally, I prefer the xanax just because I can take it as needed if I want rather than be required to take it daily and it works very fast so I can try my own methods of calming the attacks if I want and wait to take the xanax if I can't calm myself down on my own. Good luck though getting the doctor to give you xanax. I had to switch doctors to get it because my old doctor refused to prescribe it to anyone since it can be abused. The stuff has really helped me a lot though and I haven't had a panic attack since I started taking it. I also don't lose my temper so easily either. I've tried valium in the past as well because it is similar to the xanax but it really didn't help me as well as the xanax does. You can also split the pill in half or in 1/4ths if you want so you can take the least possible amount to get you past the panic or anxiety attack. My attacks are mainly triggered by a couple of bad phobias I have but it takes a strong dose to calm me for a phobia related attack. Another good one is clonipin. It's more mild and works for my mom.

[honeygrl]

"These attacks are neurochemical (adrenalin) "false alarms" that signal that you are in danger---however, it's only a false alarm and you are perfectly safe."

But during one of the attacks, you can tell yourself as many times as you want that you are safe and there is no real danger but that does not fix it. I tried all the relaxation techniques before going the drug route and it just didn't work for me. I do know now how to recognize when an attack is trying to begin and can sometimes work through it without medicinal help. But most of the time, there is just too much stress around me to do that. Since I can't stop the stress around me (2 difficult children that drive you nuts to take them anywhere with only one adult to hold one and keep the other from getting in to everything), the only other option is to stop the stress inside me, which does require the xanax for me. My doctor totally agrees with me on the issue too. Have you ever had an anxiety or panic attack? It's terrifying.

[Rudder]

During an attack there is little room for rationalization or self- education. Learning about what is actually happening to your body, and your pereptions of that upheaval, can only occur, benefically, between attacks. Since there is no danger, then you should try to find what it is that you think is threatening you ( again, between attacks). Is it fear of loss of control? (that will not, despite your fears, happen). Is it fear of sudden, impending death? (the attack will not bring death.) The panic is caused by your perceptions of the body's reaction to too much (a sudden surge) adrenalin. The adenalin surge was triggered falsely because some thing (doesn't matter what) set off the false alarm. There is no danger: Try to get this perspective correct when you are in a periods of quiesence.

If you are taking Xanax and have been for over 6 months, and still having anxiety attacks, then I would say the Xanax is serving as a preventative from recovery by allowing you to place you faith in the drug instead of reality---which is: there is no danger.

I had a few panic attacks when I was an undergraduate and they are indeed terrifying--I feared impending sudden death...that was 40 years ago. It was, as you can see, a false alarm.

Good luck.

[honeygrl]

"If you are taking Xanax and have been for over 6 months, and still having anxiety attacks, then I would say the Xanax is serving as a preventative from recovery by allowing you to place you faith in the drug instead of reality---which is: there is no danger."

I've only been taking it for a month and a half right now. It has two purposes right now though. I haven't needed it for several weeks because I haven't been having anxiety attacks but I pulled a muscle in my neck so the doctor told m to just use the xanax I already have for a muscle relaxer and gave me a pain medication to work along with it. It's a really bad muscle pull and without a doubt a 10 on the pain scale level. Even with the strong pain med and the xanax to help it, it's still very painful but there isn't much more he can do on top of that. I just have to wait it out and take the meds when it's unbearable.

[Moleman]

Thank ytou all for your replys. I have stopped caffine and my primary has given me a small script for zanax (15 pills) as well as suggested I talk to a physc, which I have scheduled.