Panic attacks

[MrsJ]

Hi all,
I’ve suffered from health anxiety since a choking incident with my son around 4 years ago but over the last few weeks I’ve been experiencing panic attacks.
The first one came from nowhere and I didn’t put it down to a panic attack at first as I’d never experienced one before, I genuinely thought I was going to collapse and die. Since then I’ve had 2 more severe ones and two minor episodes where I’ve felt like I need to catch my breath momentarily then my heart goes crazy for around 10 seconds and my arms tingle and then I go back to normal again.
The more severe panic attacks I feel ‘off’ for a little while before and then when it hits I feel like I can’t get enough air into my lungs and my heart rate is really fast for around 10-15mins and I am convinced that I’m going to have a heart attack or drop dead, it’s horrendous. I get tingly arms and I’ve also been experiencing an ache around my heart which is really unpleasant and worrying.
Due to my history with health anxiety these attacks are impacting my life massively as the anxious part of me is convinced I have a heart problem and it’s not a panic attack. After the first attack I was taken to A&E as my heart rate wouldn’t slow down and my left arm went numb, they did bloods and an ECG, all of which came back perfectly normal but the doubt is eating away at me.
Does anyone else experiencing similar symptoms and feelings to what I’m experiencing, especially the ache around the heart

 

[karl7]

Hi all,
I’ve suffered from health anxiety since a choking incident with my son around 4 years ago but over the last few weeks I’ve been experiencing panic attacks.
The first one came from nowhere and I didn’t put it down to a panic attack at first as I’d never experienced one before, I genuinely thought I was going to collapse and die. Since then I’ve had 2 more severe ones and two minor episodes where I’ve felt like I need to catch my breath momentarily then my heart goes crazy for around 10 seconds and my arms tingle and then I go back to normal again.
The more severe panic attacks I feel ‘off’ for a little while before and then when it hits I feel like I can’t get enough air into my lungs and my heart rate is really fast for around 10-15mins and I am convinced that I’m going to have a heart attack or drop dead, it’s horrendous. I get tingly arms and I’ve also been experiencing an ache around my heart which is really unpleasant and worrying.
Due to my history with health anxiety these attacks are impacting my life massively as the anxious part of me is convinced I have a heart problem and it’s not a panic attack. After the first attack I was taken to A&E as my heart rate wouldn’t slow down and my left arm went numb, they did bloods and an ECG, all of which came back perfectly normal but the doubt is eating away at me.
Does anyone else experiencing similar symptoms and feelings to what I’m experiencing, especially the ache around the heart

i used to have apnic attacks at school when i was forced to read in front of the class.....my heart would pound at million times a second and the sweat would be dripping down my neck in anticipation, and when id read id be hyperventiliating.....since i left school i have always avoided public speaking.....do your panic attacks have any triggers?

 

[MrsJ]

i used to have apnic attacks at school when i was forced to read in front of the class.....my heart would pound at million times a second and the sweat would be dripping down my neck in anticipation, and when id read id be hyperventiliating.....since i left school i have always avoided public speaking.....do your panic attacks have any triggers?

Hi Karl,
No there is no trigger for them at all, they seem to be completely out of the blue. I’ve only started experiencing them recently so wondering if subconsciously worrying about the health of my family with the current pandemic is causing it. I’ve definitely been more anxious since the first one I had but I can’t say anything is triggering them

 

[Mario82]

Hi

I used to have a fear of choking when I was younger, I lost tons of weight and looked skeletal. Mostly over it now thankfully. It might be that your son's choking incident has subconsciously made you more aware of your breathing anf your throat and with coronavirus hitting it has become a trigger.

How do you feel about eating yourself? You could have pseudodysphagia, it causes panic attacks and pain around the heart and in the chest and throat.

 

[MrsJ]

Hi

I used to have a fear of choking when I was younger, I lost tons of weight and looked skeletal. Mostly over it now thankfully. It might be that your son's choking incident has subconsciously made you more aware of your breathing anf your throat and with coronavirus hitting it has become a trigger.

How do you feel about eating yourself? You could have pseudodysphagia, it causes panic attacks and pain around the heart and in the chest and throat.

Hi Mario. Thank you for your reply, I’m sorry to hear you’ve experienced the dreaded anxiety too but glad you’re almost there in terms of getting over it. The choking thing has always bothered me more in the sense of seeing someone else choking, but the last few weeks since this “new” form of anxiety has hit me with the panic attacks I haven’t experienced before I feel quite conscious of choking myself when eating. I was also convinced that when I was eating it was making me feel unwell (I don’t think it was, I think it was the anxiety making me believe that)
I've had one or two days of feeling better which have been welcomed as the last 4 weeks have been terrible. I’ve never heard of of the condition you mentioned but will most definitely google it. Thank you

 

[Mario82]

Hi Mario. Thank you for your reply, I’m sorry to hear you’ve experienced the dreaded anxiety too but glad you’re almost there in terms of getting over it. The choking thing has always bothered me more in the sense of seeing someone else choking, but the last few weeks since this “new” form of anxiety has hit me with the panic attacks I haven’t experienced before I feel quite conscious of choking myself when eating. I was also convinced that when I was eating it was making me feel unwell (I don’t think it was, I think it was the anxiety making me believe that)
I've had one or two days of feeling better which have been welcomed as the last 4 weeks have been terrible. I’ve never heard of of the condition you mentioned but will most definitely google it. Thank you

You're welcome.it happened to me in 2006, got over it after a year by 2007, then it came back 2013-early 2016. CBT can help, it helped me.

It does seem like what happened to your kid has been a trigger about worrying about someone choking, I worry about it with other people as well. I was down to 7 stone (i am 5 foot 5 so very skinny). What you have to remember is it is very unlikely to happen with food, as your body is designed not to choke. Whatever you do, try and eat meals even if it's only soups, you don't wanna get ill and lose lots of weight because you're not eating, I know from experience it isn't healthy. You will be fine, but maybe don't look into that condition too much as you might find it triggering and it might do you more harm than good.

 

[MrsJ]

Right now I’m feeling the the food thing is such an issue for me. I have no appetite whatsoever and only eating because I’m worried about becoming unwell from it. I was eating normally up until the first panic attack a few weeks ago and since then I feel like my whole life has revolved around constantly looking for every tiny sensation in my body and wether I’m going to have another attack or not. The worry is on another level to anything I’ve experienced before but the weight loss, even though it makes sense that I would have lost weight from not eating, I’m now worrying I have some sort of cancer and that’s the cause. I feel so silly saying it out loud as it is irrational but it’s all I think about is that I’m going to fall ill in some way

 

[Berg]

Hello!

My chest can take days before it goes back to normal After a serious attack, I also recently had an ECG and all came back fine. much like you my attacks vary from several minutes of palpitations and tingles to 20-30 minutes of dizziness, numbness of hands and feet, sweating etc followed my 2-3 hours of profusely shivering.


my psychiatrist has given me zopiclone for sleep and diazepam to take during the day and my attacks have now stopped (fingers crossed) I take diazepam early in the afternoon to calm my nerves (my attacks are usually in the evenings although sometimes afternoon too) and it has helped an awful lot and sees me through the day nice and relaxed. I know medication isn’t always a one size fits all/easy fix but I’d rather medicate during this testing and uncomfortable time than live with anxiety crawling out of my skin.

I feel for you and hope you find something that works for you soon. Definitely speak to dr if you haven’t x