Sharp as a Marble - Panic update

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Panic update

Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Last Thursday night I had a pretty horrible series of attacks which carried over into the morning. Missed work, again, but telecommuted the best I could (not everything works across our VPN). Really starting to fear for my job like I did the last time I had to go through this. My boss is pretty understanding, but she’ll soon be under pressure about my missed time and I’m completely out of Sick time anyway.

Last night I had some mild attacks while I was getting to sleep. I woke this morning and could just tell something was going to happen and about an hour ago I was hit with a major attack here at work, the worst since there’s no place I can go where I feel safe and instead everything is threatening (I don’t like to be around people when I have them). Took a 1mg Clonazepam and am waiting for the ‘zombie’ feeling that will soon hit me, but I can’t stop shaking or thinking I’m about to puke. I’m freezing and yet sweating like I just got through working out or something.

Man this sucks.

posted @ 12/27/2005 9:54:00 AM

Comments

Rob says:

on 12/28/2005 3:04:00 AM

Praying for you.

Wishing I could do more...

Debra says:

on 12/28/2005 7:53:00 AM

have you tried acupuncture? I have had some success with panic attacks, and we also have herbs that can calm you without making you feel like a zombie. Done properly acupuncture is virtually painless, a lot less painless than what you are going through, and it can help correct that imbalance which is causing you to sweat and freeze at the same time. The longer that goes on the more serious your symptoms will become.

Are you sweating more at the top of your head and your feet are freezing or is it more of all over thing?

Robb Allen says:

on 12/28/2005 8:16:00 AM

It's an all over thing.

Debra says:

on 12/28/2005 9:44:00 AM

That is better than the other answer. Florida has many good AP's (acupuncture physicians) I see from your history that you worked in what must have a very loud environment.

Do you have back, knee or ankle pain? Any riniging in the ears? If so, buzzing, keening or roaring?

there are a few other questions, which are extremely personal in nature, that would help cement a diagnosis but I'm not Bill Frist and I can't diagnose you from across the country.

I can tell you that in the hands of a competent and caring practitioner that you can be helped. In the meantime try keeping some really good dark chocolate around for when you feel an attack coming on, not too much, and remember that your breathing becomes more shallow as you panic which causes your heart to beat faster so it can pump oxygen to the extremities. When it beats that fast it can't fill up with oxygenated blood from the lungs which makes you dizzy and weak and breathe even shallower.

Also, when you start having an attack, ask for help. Distract yourself, make up a song about your kids, look at their pictures, take your shoes off and spread your feet flat on the ground. This sounds weird but nothing else seems to have worked for you.

I'm not saying that you are crazy but I found that the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman was very helpful in explaining what was going on in my brain when I had reactions to things. I find that knowing why decreases my anxiety.

I hope this helps.

Keith says:

on 12/29/2005 1:50:00 PM

Maybe you should keep a big fluffy quilt under your desk. Then you can pull it over your head when you need to be alone.

I kid because I care.

Robb Allen says:

on 12/29/2005 3:56:00 PM

Sorry, but the big, fluffy, elephant & zebra blanket stays home.

Keith says:

on 12/30/2005 2:27:00 PM

That's a great image. Your desk, at which sits a big, fluffy, elephant & zebra lump.

Robb Allen says:

on 12/30/2005 2:29:00 PM

Shhh... Not so loud. If I'm quiet, they might just all go away....

Laura Lee Donoho says:

on 1/7/2006 1:46:00 AM

That's scary. I've only had one panic attack in my life so far (but I do have what I call shake attacks from low blood sugar) My children were young and it was in the eighties and we were living in Indianapolis. I was driving down the interstate towards downtown because I had to take my four year old daughter to the eye doctor at The University.

As I got closer downtown I started to feel funny. My heart started racing and I felt short of breath and thought I was going to pass out. I started looking for a shoulder to pull off but there were none. I think I must have slowed down. I was really scared because I had both my four year old and two year old daughters in the backseat.

Finally, as I rounded a curve near downtown Indy in all that wild traffic I saw a shoulder and pulled over. I noticed a pickup truck pull over a little ahead of me and at first I felt dread because I remembered Steven Judy who I had read about in the paper. He had gotten a woman to pull her car over on the interstate, convinced her she had something wrong with her car and she and her children got in his car. He killed them all.

So I was sitting there thinking I was having a heart attack and here was a guy heading toward my car.

It turned out alright though. He asked me if I was okay, told me I was probably having a panic attack, (I had never heard of them) and asked me where I was headed. I told him that I wasn't quite sure how to get to the University Hospital (which could have been part of my panic in all that traffic) and he told me to follow him.

He led me there and then went on his way.

I stopped driving for a while after that, fearful that it would happen again. But, being an Army wife, I knew I needed to get over it and get in the car and drive so I got back behind the wheel.

Sorry this is so long.

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