P
Pako
New member
I am a 40 year old man in reasonably good health. I’m having these panic attacks.
I was born with a semi-rare blood clotting disorder that nearly killed me when I was a teenager. Around that time, I had a bunch of panic attacks. But once I saw a hematologist and got my illness under control, they went away when I was 21 or so.
Fast forward two decades. I just turned 40 on Friday. And they’re back, and worse than when I was a kid. They come out of nowhere. My heart pounds, I have trouble breathing, and I get dizzy and suddenly scared I’m going to die. When I was a teenager, these came once a month at most. Now, it’s weekly at least, and seems to be increasing in frequency. Since my birthday 5 days ago, I’ve had three attacks. I don’t know what to do because I do not have health insurance to see a professional, and nobody in my personal life has ever had this problem.
I suspect that I’m afraid of dying (even though I’m on blood thinners for life, it’s no guarantee I won’t throw a serious blood clot and check out), feeling weird about turning 40 (I’ve never felt “old” in my life until now). And maybe it’s some subconscious stress (Covid, the election, social unrest, my fragile financial situation, my upcoming second wedding in April). Most of the time, I feel fine. In fact, my life over the past 2 years is the best it’s ever been. I’ve fallen in love and gotten engaged, I have the highest paying job of my life to this point (that’s not saying much, since I started as a restaurant worker making $8/hr in college, but it’s still good for me), so I have some security (although less since Covid).
I don’t want to get into too much detail, but how do I know if I’m stressed? I don’t feel stressed. And what can I do to get rid of these panic attacks? Am I having a mid-life crisis? Is that even a thing? There must be a self-sufficient way to do this without going to a doctor who, in all likelihood, will just hand me a script for Xanax and warn me not to abuse it I’m a recovering heroin addict so that’s not a good idea, regardless of its effectiveness! Any advice about how you overcame this problem of panic attacks would be appreciated.
I was born with a semi-rare blood clotting disorder that nearly killed me when I was a teenager. Around that time, I had a bunch of panic attacks. But once I saw a hematologist and got my illness under control, they went away when I was 21 or so.
Fast forward two decades. I just turned 40 on Friday. And they’re back, and worse than when I was a kid. They come out of nowhere. My heart pounds, I have trouble breathing, and I get dizzy and suddenly scared I’m going to die. When I was a teenager, these came once a month at most. Now, it’s weekly at least, and seems to be increasing in frequency. Since my birthday 5 days ago, I’ve had three attacks. I don’t know what to do because I do not have health insurance to see a professional, and nobody in my personal life has ever had this problem.
I suspect that I’m afraid of dying (even though I’m on blood thinners for life, it’s no guarantee I won’t throw a serious blood clot and check out), feeling weird about turning 40 (I’ve never felt “old” in my life until now). And maybe it’s some subconscious stress (Covid, the election, social unrest, my fragile financial situation, my upcoming second wedding in April). Most of the time, I feel fine. In fact, my life over the past 2 years is the best it’s ever been. I’ve fallen in love and gotten engaged, I have the highest paying job of my life to this point (that’s not saying much, since I started as a restaurant worker making $8/hr in college, but it’s still good for me), so I have some security (although less since Covid).
I don’t want to get into too much detail, but how do I know if I’m stressed? I don’t feel stressed. And what can I do to get rid of these panic attacks? Am I having a mid-life crisis? Is that even a thing? There must be a self-sufficient way to do this without going to a doctor who, in all likelihood, will just hand me a script for Xanax and warn me not to abuse it I’m a recovering heroin addict so that’s not a good idea, regardless of its effectiveness! Any advice about how you overcame this problem of panic attacks would be appreciated.
