Wondering if i had a panic attack?

[worriedsick]

Ok in the past i have experienced a thud in my chest which i was told is probably heart papilitations and can be caused from too much caffeine which i do drink alot of soda and eat chocalate some. I had a similar incident to this happen ab out 3 months back as well well here is what happened.

I was sitting in the computer chair reading over something just browsing like i usually do all of a sudden felt faint and weak. I jumped up because i got scared and noticed my heart was beating very VERy fast. It felt like it was going through the roof. Kept feeling like i was light headed and that i wasnt in the world really it felt weird. I had told my mom and she had said to sit down and breath. I had did this and eventually the heart and everything went back to normal. This same thing had happened a few months back where i all of a sudden got a faint or light headed feeling and my heart sped up and felt like tight in my body and stuff.

I will tell you that i have been known as a "worrier". Everytime i hear about a disease or something i think there is a chance i have it. I can always be seen feeling over my body and often worry i have different types of things wrong with me. This has affected my life very much and i hear that heart papilitations can be caused from stress and anxiety too. I have been to the doctor twice about a worry of lymp nodes swollen but but after teh first visit he said everything was ok it was a infection, the second time he checked me and said everything was ok. They listen to my heart at checkups and stuff and nothing is wrong with my heart that they say at least. I am just always worrying and ALWAYS feeling all over my body for various lumps and anything else i can find. I was wondering if this is causing my attacks? I have only had a few of these but i get REALLY scared and think im going to die.

Do you guys think that i have anxiety attacks here? What is something good to do when i get these? They usually only last about 1 minute and stuff starts to slow down. but for that time i am always scared to go out in public as in fear of it happening out in public. Can i please get some help here does anyone think i do or don't have this? Help is appreciated here i am very worried! Thank you

 

[RedFacedBandit]

This has happened to me a bunch of times, i almost can't breathe and i panic and stand up and feel like i'm going to faint, i also grab my chest. It lasts about 15 seconds. It happens about once every month or so.


It's just an overload of gas in your asphogus/stomach, relax. :wink:

If you ever seen the movie doc holywood, you will remember the scene where the kid couldn't breathe and was fainty, he went to the doc and he gave him a can of coke, he sipped it and burped and felt better.

 

[Telmari]

Hey worriedsick,

I know what you mean about your heart beating really fast as a result of caffeine - I have had that at times, and also at other times due to the use of some prescriptions I have to treat my asthma. Usually I find that these kinds of things go away pretty quickly... but if they start to last much longer, it could be a sign something more serious is up.

As far as worrying about having a disease or other issue, I know it's hard, but the more you can rely on your regular checkups to be the "detectors", rather than yourself, the better you'll do. I've been like that at times- - worried I might get cancer or some other disease and not realize it/have medical attention on it until it was too late - but I think if you see your physician regularly, and point out any specific areas that might be troubling you, you'll be able to rest a little easier.

These sounds like mild panic attacks perhaps, but I am betting they would go away if you were able to deal with the stress & anxiety that seems to be there in general. Are the other things you're worried about, beyond coming down with the latest disease?

Maybe some of them are contributing to an overall heightened worry state. It might be helpful to sit down and take a look at the things that are causing you the most worry or anxiety, and address them head on. Sure, you might be worried about having a disease or something, but what's the real cause behind it? Are you afraid of hospitals? doctors? getting sick? what other people might think? dying?

Often times for myself, I find worry or anxiety are precipitated by some other issue that I haven't quite addressed properly - either I've avoided, or haven't dealt with. Of course, these might not be your experiences, but maybe just taking a look at these kinds of things will help you anyways.

-T

 

[kimmy72]

Hello worriedsick
I am new to the forum, and as I was looking around at the topics, I found yours and had to reply

My husband was just diagnosed with having severe panic attacks. He has them nonstop, even moreso when he is at work.
What you have described here about feeling weak and faint while you are sitting at work is just what he has been doing for months now, along with many other symptoms. He says that he almost blacks out that the feeling is so strong.
He has described to me as a feeling of everything around him is just a dream. He is to the point to where he has become so detached from the world around him that he cannot drive at all.
He has lost all interest in things that he used to love to do, and will sleep the day away when he can just because he says that lately being awake and being asleep are basically the same thing to him.
He often has a feeling of being outside of his body... which our therapist said that was called "depersonalization".

Since I have known him, he has always been the nervous type, always shaking physically.... But it's not until the past few months that he has been noticing his pulse runs anywhere from 100 to 120 at rest... as well as his B/P has been borderline hypertension. He has twitches in his neck sometimes, and has an all around feeling of numbness emotionally.
He has also become a tad bit depressed over dealing with it all.

Being Bipolar, as well as suffering from anxiety/panic attacks myself, it pains me to see him suffering this way.
We have both been leaning on one another even more so the past few months now, just to get by until a brighter day finds us.
I talked him into going in to see my therapist and pdoc last week, and they have put him on Klonopin and Celexa.
He expressed to me a feeling of hopelessness, and failure in that he feels like he should be able to fix himself without meds. But, on the contrary, I convinced him that he needed to hold on for a few more weeks to allow the meds to get into his system.
Because of dealing with my own mental illness, I was/am convinced that I will be there for him no matter what. I have underwent alot of rapid cycling from my Bipolar, as well as alot of panic attacks (more than normally) the past 2 weeks. But, it is worth it to me.
These things are not new to me... but they are new to him. So, I intend to be his strength as best as I can until the storm blows over.

Sorry... lol I get kinda on a tangent once and again :
But anyway, I hope that you feel better soon.
I just wanted to share this with you so that perhaps you could better understand if this is what is going on with you as well.

Take care .... kimmy