LeMoustache wrote: Everyone I've talked to who's had panic attack focuses on the psychological symptoms, but what about situations like this? Has anybody else had crazy physical anxiety?

I have a friend who experienced something similar to what you described. He was at work and thought he was having a heart-attack so they called an ambulance. Quickly upon taking his vitals, the paramedics informed him he was having a panic attack. He was pretty freaked out by it. Honestly, I don't think this is as unusual as people think. I think many people just don't talk about it because they feel embarrassed about it.

But, I can relate to that feeling of losing control. It's particularly scary when you can feel you are about to pass out and you can't stop it from happening, like what used to happen to me. It's happened when I was alone and I've come very close in public places. Thankfully, I never hurt myself and someone eventually came to my rescue.

Still, a very scary experience that I am very glad I haven't had to deal with it a very long time. I'm not medicated so I don't know what brought the change, except maybe learning to distract myself or take naps when my brain is going 100 miles an hour.

I've had some degree of anxiety for the last 16 years or so. The attacks started around age 15. I was drinking pretty much daily, chain smoking while drinking, and chewing tobacco constantly. They would hit me and I thought I was dying or going insane. After each attack I'd try to shake it off and pretend it didn't happen, but it kept happening, even while I was drunk. Fear or the attacks themselves caused further anxiety. I was soon in a state of perpetual anxiety and dread that oscillated between bad and worse but never went away.

At the time I had no context for any of this. My brain started doing crazy shit. Negative feedback loops fed with adrenaline tortured me all day and kept me up late into the night. Every fucked up thought that entered my head sent waves of tension through my body and granted that thought a certain legitimacy, made it concrete and very real. The more disturbing the thought the louder my body would reply. NOTHING was off limits. It would escalate until I was exhausted and able to sleep, usually a few hours before I had to wake up.

Throughout this I had been missing a lot of school (never missed work though!) and my Mom was getting pissed. She was convinced I was depressed and took me to an Indian psychiatrist that somebody recommended, fortunately for me. He told me to go buy a book that described everything I had been going through almost perfectly, even the fucked up mental games. This helped tremendously. Until then I was afraid to tell anyone anything because I knew it would scare them too. The book told me I wasn't evil or insane and helped tame the psychological side of things relatively quickly though it took a lot longer for my body to heal.

Since then the anxiety has come and gone. I think of it as how my body acts when I mistreat or neglect some part of it. Typically for me, it's the same culprits every time.

Things that cause it/make it worse:

lack of sleep
lack of exercise
too much alcohol
too much caffeine
nicotine
sugar
bitchy girl/boyfriend (stress)

Things that make it better

book telling you you're not insane
sleep
exercise
vitamins
kava
ginseng
sleepy time herbs(Valerian, hops, skullcap, chamomile, etc)

Most of the current drugs weren't around when I first started getting this so I've made due without them. If I tried all of the above in earnest and none of it worked I would definitely try the drugs, but that hasn't been necessary (save a bottle of Ativan that goes on plane rides with me). Usually if I simply stop abusing my body it starts to feel better.

panic attacks are terrible, not to mention scary. not sure if i've ever had one, cilinically speaking, but i've definitely had something along similar lines, and it feels kinda like bodily revolt, like your body is waging war on you. it's an awful feeling, writhing inside your skin like a helpless, self-relfexive insect.

Eierdiebe wrote:panic attacks are terrible, not to mention scary. not sure if i've ever had one, cilinically speaking, but i've definitely had something along similar lines, and it feels kinda like bodily revolt, like your body is waging war on you. it's an awful feeling, writhing inside your skin like a helpless, self-relfexive insect.

Yes. I'm convinced an anxiety/panic attack or even a simple common cold is the body's way of revolting. It's as if the body is telling you it's had enough of your crap so it does something really extreme to get your attention and force you to change your ways. It's very interesting the mind-body connection, isn't it?

it's terrible. the body always has the last laugh.

Once every few years my heart rate will speed up and I'll break into a disgusting cold sweat, which will cause me to think that I'm having a heart attack, which makes this worse until my body shuts off and I hit the deck.

Last year I had one of these episodes and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and passed out, shattering the glass and cutting up my feet. Totally freaked my wife out.

Doctors say I'm healthy and have offered one helpful suggestion (although it may be psychological), I massage the carotid artery in my neck and it seems to calm me down and slow my heart rate.

I have had these episodes at work and almost passed out in my seat. The strange thing is that thinking about my heart can trigger this. I'm healthier than most people, used to be a collegiate track athlete and have completed 5 marathons with respectable finish times (which makes me think that maybe I've "worn out" the ol ticker which in turn makes me crazier).

Fun shit.

lewd jaw wrote:Fun shit.

This is obvious, but have you tried meditation?
I used to have what you describe- feeling weird stuff with my heart going on, (almost like it would skip a beat sometimes) but after adopting different techniques to keep myself calmer in general, I don't have that problem anymore.

hellyes!! wrote:

LeMoustache wrote: Everyone I've talked to who's had panic attack focuses on the psychological symptoms, but what about situations like this? Has anybody else had crazy physical anxiety?

I have a friend who experienced something similar to what you described. He was at work and thought he was having a heart-attack so they called an ambulance. Quickly upon taking his vitals, the paramedics informed him he was having a panic attack. He was pretty freaked out by it. Honestly, I don't think this is as unusual as people think. I think many people just don't talk about it because they feel embarrassed about it.

But, I can relate to that feeling of losing control. It's particularly scary when you can feel you are about to pass out and you can't stop it from happening, like what used to happen to me. It's happened when I was alone and I've come very close in public places. Thankfully, I never hurt myself and someone eventually came to my rescue.

Still, a very scary experience that I am very glad I haven't had to deal with it a very long time. I'm not medicated so I don't know what brought the change, except maybe learning to distract myself or take naps when my brain is going 100 miles an hour.

I had no idea that so many people had these same experiences. I didn't even know what it was for the longest time when it was happening to me. I was too embarassed as well, to say anything to anybody about it. It happened to me fairly often when I was younger (the passing out). The attacks haven't been as severe recently (no more passing out), but they started to be triggered much more often by different situations that never bothered me before....mostly with stressful social situations involving large groups of people, noise, etc. I'm currently still learning coping mechanisms that work for me.

Eierdiebe wrote:it's terrible. the body always has the last laugh.

i often like to think of it as my body betraying me. but revolt might be better.

hellyes!! wrote:It's very interesting the mind-body connection, isn't it?

I prefer not to think of them as separate entities...more like a single entity with some weird 'subjective' consciousness model applied...