I need some relief!

piNkeLePhAntS

New member
I've had social anxiety all my life, and then about five years ago, anxiety attacks hit me extremely hard. I saw different doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists who prescribed me different medications. Eventually I was on a coctail of different meds including valium, seroquel, topamax, lexapro, xanax, klonopin, etc. From my experience, valium and xanax had no effect on me at all, and klonopin made me feel worse. I became fed up with all the drugs and stopped taking them. Eventually, my anxiety fixed itself enough so that I could live my life if I just avoided parties and other large groups of people. I thought everything was going good until the stress took it toll and I ended up collapsing twice on two different occassion in one week which caused two concussions, a broken cheak bone, a broken nose, and loss of feeling in my body.

Now at 21 years old, my anxiety has come back and its even worse. I wouldn't even call it anxiety, it's more like severe panic....CONSTANTLY. I strongly believe my anxiety has turned into agoraphobia. When I go anywhere out in public I start to sweat, I get heat flashes, shaking, racing heart beat and palpatations, dizziness, derealisation, depersonalisation, and numbness. I am now confined to my home and my boyfriend has to do all of my shopping for me. If I must leave my house to go to the bank or something like that, I use drive through services. I have lost both of my jobs, on one occassion I made it to my job but had to escape to the bathroom because I felt an attack coming on. I locked myself in the bathroom for 45 minutes until my boyfriend came and he literally had to carry me out to the car. Over the past two weeks I even started to have panic attacks in my home and when I am asleep. I am terrified that I will pass out again since that sensation becomes so overwhelming during an attack. I have tried aromatherapy, reiki, meditation, herbs (including kava kava, valerian, st. john's wort, passion flower, etc.), and self-hypnosis but these only work for a very limited amount of time. I made a doctors appointment for two weeks from now but if I don't even feel secure in my home, I dont know how I will make it to the doctors office.

I was wondering what medications other people have tried and if there is any way to calm a panic attack while its happening....or before it happens?
 
Have you tried Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) instead?

We need to realize that these thoughts and emotions we get are irrational, they are lies. Then we just need to notice them and thank our minds for them. Instead we'll use our values to guide us. We can't control our thoughts, anxiety, emotions, etc. But by focusing on what's going on around us instead of within us. And controlling our arms, legs and mouth. We can live a fuller life becoming observers to the inner turmoil that is our brains and bodies.
 

piNkeLePhAntS

New member
I realize that what's going on in my mind, my thoughts, my feelings, etc. are all causing my condition to become worse. But at the peak of a panic attack, controlling what's going on with my body is nearly impossible, even if I am telling myself that I am worked up over nothing. I have a very spiritual background and I practice religious science, which deal alot with controlling the thoughts and focusing on the positive. I think that I am pretty in touch with myself and accepting of my condition, and that alone hasn't helped my problem yet. I've also heard alot about treatment for agoraphobia by forcing yourself to go out in public and stay there until the panic attack subsides, but that doesn't work for me either. That's pretty much why I believe I need to be on medication.
 
ACT says the exact opposite, that we can't control our thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, etc. ACT also uses gradual exposure.

If you want to keep trying different medications, even though they don't help you, then good luck. All these meds have side effects that could be worse than the original problem.
 
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