Panic/Anxiety Attacks: Support, Advice, Help, Treatment Options (MRI, Ativan, medication)

[DareToDream]

Originally Posted by clb76

Does anyone have anxiety/panic that is worse in the morning when they wake up? Mine seems to be bad in the morning like right now. I take my Xanax after I start getting ready for work but when I first wake up it's much worse than at night or mid-day. A lot of people feel worse at night I think but for me it's the morning yet once I get moving and go to work it usually gets better. My Mom is having routine surgery today but part of today's anxiety could be because of that. It's hard to tell....

Hello fellow New Hampshirite <g>! When my anxiety/panic is "acting up", mornings are worse for me than afternoons/evenings/nights and always has been. I think part of yours, at least this morning is because of your mom's surgery, so it's not really an "abnormal" reaction - anxiety in this situation is actually pretty normal.

In my case, I think mornings are worse because I'm not a morning person and I really do not function all that well in the morning, which tends to make me feel "off-balance" emotionally and mentally, if that makes any sense. Once I get into my routine, I'm much better.

Panic/anxiety is an odd critter - sometimes it hits out of the blue, sometimes you can figure out where it's coming from. If it's the type that I can figure out, it's much easier to deal with, at least for me.

Hope your Mom does well with her surgery!

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by RH1

Lindsey - I know a bit how you feel about misinterpreting things out of the corner of your eye. I'm perpetually thinking I'm about to stand on my cat, which granted isn't scary, but it's definitely worse when my general anxiety is. Is it worse when you're tired? I get very jumpy at any noises when I'm like that too - that scares me. At night I'm always thinking someone's in the garden or trying to break in.

OH, yes its worse when I am tired. I am far more likely to see something out of the corner of my eye and misinterpret. I don't have a time of day that I am worse but there are things that make me worse. When someone knocks on my door, it literally frightens me to death. The problem with that over the last couple days is I have ordered several things from Amazon and a few other places, well the UPS man knocks once on the door and leaves the package on the doorstep and goes away. Well I come to the door and call out to see who it is and no one answers me back. Which of course makes me REALLY anxious but then I look out the window and see no one there.

Whats interesting is that when I am away from home I am fine. Although I did have a scare the other day. I had to drive on the highway to get to my vet to take my dog for her shots. Well at one point a cop hit his lights as I passed him and pulled in behind me. As it turns out he was following someone else. BUT it shook me up for the rest of the day. It has to be something extreme like that to get too me though.

[RH1]

Originally Posted by Lindsey_Mcfarren

Whats interesting is that when I am away from home I am fine. Although I did have a scare the other day. I had to drive on the highway to get to my vet to take my dog for her shots. Well at one point a cop hit his lights as I passed him and pulled in behind me. As it turns out he was following someone else. BUT it shook me up for the rest of the day. It has to be something extreme like that to get too me though.

That is interesting about it being OK when you're away from home.

On the driving thing - I can understand that! They just generally make me nervous whatever I'm doing or they're doing! I think driving can just raise your general anxiety levels anyway so you get extra sensitive to stuff.

Something that ALWAYS used to get me was that there was a toll bridge (I don't know whether that's called the same in the USA - bridges you have to pay to get across) along a regular route I do that's single carriageway all the way and you always get stuck behind slow vehicles.

The toll bridge was always a good place to get past stuff if they had 2 booths open, but you had to be really quick about it, like foot to the floor as soon as the road opened out, money handed over, wheel-spin to beat the other car or tractor or whatever. By the time I got past the thing I used to be so hyper and my heart would be racing so hard I'd almost always go into a panic and take ages to get my breathing back under control. It took me ages to learn to relax when I was coming up to it! How silly of me

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Last night out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something skitter across the living room floor. Of course I assumed that I was imagining things.

Well it ended up being a HUGE spider. I almost had a panic attack but I killed it.

[RH1]

Originally Posted by Lindsey_Mcfarren

Last night out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something skitter across the living room floor. Of course I assumed that I was imagining things.

Well it ended up being a HUGE spider. I almost had a panic attack but I killed it.

Oh dear, that was rather unfortunate! Spiders are actually one of the few things I'm fine with, in fact I have to carry them out of the house for my boyfriend, but then we don't really have any dangerous ones here.

I note the "almost" in your response - well done for not doing, you sound like you dealt with it OK! Every little 'almost' is progress.

I'm on quite a high today, I had my last counselling session this morning and I'm feeling OK about the whole thing. Might not be saying that tomorrow but I can't believe my general change in outlook since I started the sessions. Really hopeful that I'll get shot of this altogether one day.

Touching moment from the end if the session - I think I said a while ago that my counsellor had suggested visualising my anxiety and leaving it with her on the couch, which worked surprisingly well. Today she said "how about we let it fly out of the window now?" semi joking, but it was like the end of a film - this big white triangle flapping off over the horizon. Not saying it's all over now, but I just thought I'd share that with you all, I thought it was rather nice

[Fat Freddy]

I had panic attacks for years and they were triggered by the same things that seems to bother many people. But, they just stopped on their own.

It could have something to do with going on Atenalol, which I take for high blood pressure. I know Atenalol is sometimes prescribed for people who have stage fright, which I assume is anxiety related, so there could be some connection.

I had trouble standing in lines at stores, and sometimes I just had to leave my stuff and run outside. I could shop in the stores, but if I had to go deep inside a big store, that would be a problem.

Driving was a major problem. I was OK as long as there was a shoulder on the side of the road, but bridges, tunnels, walled freeways, and traffic jams that I couldn't escape from would set me off.

In city traffic, I had to plan my route so I could get where I was going by making only right turns. Being trapped in the left turn lane at a traffic light would trigger an attack.

All this is a thing of the past, and like I said, my "recovery" may have had something to do with my blood pressure medicine, but, it could also be that my body chemistry changed, or, maybe I just learned how to better fit in my skin.

[Suzet2262]

Ugh, I am having a stupid a** panic attack, a big one, it is taking all i have to be able to type this, sorry i didnt read anyones posts prior to thise one...i will when i calm down, i cant really concentrate on what anyone has written, and everyone deserves my full attention on what they write. I swear I cant calm my breathing down........this sucks so bad, and i really feel scared.. I hate these things...atleast typing helps somewhat..god i wish i make them go away forever

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by Suzet2262

Ugh, I am having a stupid a** panic attack, a big one, it is taking all i have to be able to type this, sorry i didnt read anyones posts prior to thise one...i will when i calm down, i cant really concentrate on what anyone has written, and everyone deserves my full attention on what they write. I swear I cant calm my breathing down........this sucks so bad, and i really feel scared.. I hate these things...atleast typing helps somewhat..god i wish i make them go away forever

I don't know if it would help but I wish so much someone could be there for you when this happens, to at least hold your hand like you mentioned the doctor did when you went with your husband. My heart truly does go out to you. Please talk to the doctor about posibly increasing your dose a little. Don't give up on the medication, you know from experience that it can take a little while to get the dosage correct. Try not to let yourself fall into a feeling of hopelessness that its not working. You have been feeling better from what you have said.

[kokomo]

I to have suffered from major panic/anxiety attacks. I went for about three months thinking I couldn't swallow food, it was horrible. I went to my regular doctor, they said I had a sinus infection (which I knew I had something much more serious than a sinus infection), so I took the antibiotic they prescribed and continued to suffer with my anxiety. I then went to my ear, nose, throat specialist and he shoved a mirror down my throat which made me gag, and said there were no growths, and no blockages in my throat. He laughed and told me there was nothing wrong with me and to go home and eat a steak. I told him I only wish I could.

I ended up having an ear surgery a few months later, and I got pnuemonia a couple of weeks after that and ended up at the local clinic where they treated me for dehydration, they actually hooked me up right then and there with an IV and gave me three bags of fluid. Before I left the doctor asked me if I was having any other problems and I thought what the heck I would give it another try, so I told her of my anxiety symptoms (not able to go out to a resteraunt, not able to go to the movies, not being able to swallow anything but rice krispies cereal and applesauce, not able to drive on the highway and wanting to get out of my vehicle at the stop lights on my way to work, feelings of not being able to breathe, heavy chest, tightining of all body muscles making my whole body hurt, dizziness, tunnel vision, and just litteraly freaking out.) She popped right off that I was suffering from anxiety/panic attacks.

She prescribed something that I haven't seen on anyone else's post, it is called Buspirone. It takes up to a month to completely get into your system and it did start to help a little bit but then I started going right back into the attacks. She strengthened the dosage and again it helped for a while, but the attacks came back, she then added Zoloft along with the Buspirone, and it took a while but finally she found the right combination and dosages of the two medications, (higher doses than are reccomended for anyone, but it works for me.) I have been functioning again for about three years now, and I'm much better.
Once in a while when I am under higher than usual stress I will get a little tinge of one but I can usually get through it without having to lay on my stomach on the couch thinking this is the only way I can breath.

There is help out there and your doctors just have to find the right mix and doses of medication for you. I would maybe suggest to you to ask your doctor about Buspirone along with Zoloft. It worked for me.

Good luck and I definetly know what you are going through. BEEN THERE AND DON'T WANNA GO BACK!!!!

[UNITE]

Originally Posted by kokomo

I to have suffered from major panic/anxiety attacks. I went for about three months thinking I couldn't swallow food, it was horrible. I went to my regular doctor, they said I had a sinus infection (which I knew I had something much more serious than a sinus infection), so I took the antibiotic they prescribed and continued to suffer with my anxiety. I then went to my ear, nose, throat specialist and he shoved a mirror down my throat which made me gag, and said there were no growths, and no blockages in my throat. He laughed and told me there was nothing wrong with me and to go home and eat a steak. I told him I only wish I could.

I ended up having an ear surgery a few months later, and I got pnuemonia a couple of weeks after that and ended up at the local clinic where they treated me for dehydration, they actually hooked me up right then and there with an IV and gave me three bags of fluid. Before I left the doctor asked me if I was having any other problems and I thought what the heck I would give it another try, so I told her of my anxiety symptoms (not able to go out to a resteraunt, not able to go to the movies, not being able to swallow anything but rice krispies cereal and applesauce, not able to drive on the highway and wanting to get out of my vehicle at the stop lights on my way to work, feelings of not being able to breathe, heavy chest, tightining of all body muscles making my whole body hurt, dizziness, tunnel vision, and just litteraly freaking out.) She popped right off that I was suffering from anxiety/panic attacks.

She prescribed something that I haven't seen on anyone else's post, it is called Buspirone. It takes up to a month to completely get into your system and it did start to help a little bit but then I started going right back into the attacks. She strengthened the dosage and again it helped for a while, but the attacks came back, she then added Zoloft along with the Buspirone, and it took a while but finally she found the right combination and dosages of the two medications, (higher doses than are reccomended for anyone, but it works for me.) I have been functioning again for about three years now, and I'm much better.
Once in a while when I am under higher than usual stress I will get a little tinge of one but I can usually get through it without having to lay on my stomach on the couch thinking this is the only way I can breath.

There is help out there and your doctors just have to find the right mix and doses of medication for you. I would maybe suggest to you to ask your doctor about Buspirone along with Zoloft. It worked for me.

Good luck and I definetly know what you are going through. BEEN THERE AND DON'T WANNA GO BACK!!!!

HEy kokomo, How are you? Long time no see.

I have been very different. There was a point and time where I chewed everyones head off. I was just always mad. NO reason for it. It just was. So I was also put on Zoloft. Only I was told that the bottom part of the back of your head, is your happy, mad, glad, sad,etc...and when this part of your brain, head, spine, is low on blood then things go bad, so this pill will fill that spot back up with blood. It worked for me as well. He kept me on them for about a year. I wanted off of them so he let me. I had to take them again a great time later. I again got off of them. I kinda use them as a fall back. You should not try to stay on this drug much past a year at a time. It is a major organ killer if taken too long and too much. I am told that is one of them drugs that is just really hard on major organs if it is took for too many years in a row, so please be careful with this one. I have heard that it can make you suicidal. Just please be careful with this drug, and make sure you give your body a break from all drugs every chance ya get. Well good luck