Can panic attacks be an ongoing thing...

[ritzbitz]

Can panic attacks be an ongoing thing... until the trigger that is causing the attack goes away?

It seems I had panic attack symptoms for almost 3 months off and on when I was talking to this girl. At first things were great then I could get her to date me and she still wanted to talk to me but I dreaded seeing her alot. I dreaded it because I eventually got to where I was extremely not myself, sweating profusely, nervous, bad feeling in stomach, wanting to leave. Eventually I got those "symptoms" even when I was NOT around her and it just seemed like an ongoing thing I couldn't get away from. It was MORE than stress in my opinion because I couldn't eat right, sleep right. I over thought like all the time, and I almost constantly had all those symptoms listed above.

JW, thanks.

 

[tdgower2]

yeah this seems to happen to me sometimes.
I can have the symptoms of panic attacks for weeks on end, this usually leads up to a final few days of having really bad attacks and then they go away again. I've had these for around 5 years now so i've become quite used to them, but it has got better over the years as before the attacks were so bad i wanted to kill myself lol. Sometimes i'm not my normal self so i tend not to talk to some people for a while as my attacks might make me say somehing silly.
Do you still have these attacks or have they gone away now? It seems they gradually go away as long as you stop worrying about the worrying haha.

Tom

 

[Sapphira]

Yes, absolutely. Panic attacks feed off of anxiety, stress and fear. Until you can confront those things, or until they are out of your life, it's very possible that one panic attack will lead to another and then to another... especially if you fear the panic attack as well.

In your case it sounds like you weren't able to get comfortable with the girl, or you were worried about something involving the girl which made you uneasy and irritable. And it must have been important to you, because it's all that was on your mind for a long time.

That's the perfect situation for a panic attack to develop. Are you feeling any better about things now?

 

[schmoopy]

The panic is triggered by uncontrollable anxiety. It sounds like this girl and the situation your putting yourself in makes you uncomfortable and encourages the attacks.

My advice is to keep plugging away and put yourself in the line of a panic attack. When you face them head on, you begin to learn how to control them.

Try meditation
Deep breathing exercises
Physical exercise to relieve stress
Yoga helps
You can also meditate by reading a book you love.