ADD & Panic Attacks

[rubystarsapphire]

I had what I thought was a panic attack, during a MRI on my foot, then again two years later during a pharmacological stress test. But its more accurate to call it a terror attack, because I didnt have the classic symptoms of losing your breath and heart trouble, feeling & thinking youre going to die. For me, it felt like after a few seconds into the test, I was aware of my anxiety, but fine. Then the anxiety started rising, quickly. Until the point it felt like terror & I was going to literally shriek like a mad woman if I didnt get out of the test NOW.

The thing is, I’ve had an MRI before where my whole body was in the machine and was fine, and this time it was just my foot up to my knee. I called out for help on the drug stress test and a tech came out to hold my hand and talk to me, but the panic kept rising quickly, to the point where my words were gone and I was going to scream bloody murder. During both ordeals, my mind knew perfectly well that I wasnt in danger. I even tried to calm the anxiety through breathing & counting. It didnt help at all. Getting out of the machines stopped the panic attack, if thats what it was, but left me shaken for an hour afterwards, both times.I felt like my body just took over & I had no control. Its a very scary, unsettling experience. I didnt feel like I was dying, it felt like pure terror.

Has anyone had this happen to them before?

Is this somehow related to my having ADD? (Im not on drugs for it.)

[Liber]

Anxiety and panic attacks can be comorbidities of ADHD. When they are triggered in association with ADHD's characteristic hyperfocus, they can lead to a state that is hard to get out of at the moment.

[ggg112]

I have, in correlation to what the other poster had stated in regards to stemming from hyper focus. I've never had an "incident," per say that sparked this. Mine unfortunately happens more often than I'd like and it's a combination of mental and physical fatigue and medication, as a little bit to much of either will kick things off and start hyper focus of dread and impending doom.Fortunately, I know why and what it is. Unfortunately, I haven't found clear cut interventions that drastically provides amelioration , more so just take the edge off.

For me it's another classic ADHD paradox, as subconsciously I go into a type of over drive while medicated to make up for time, efforts, etc. lost. However, with this I hyper focus on whatever falls under this umbrella and get a paranoid type of "F.O.G.," (fear, obligation, and guilt), over sleep, which then leads to me eventually not being productive, at times mentally, and literally frozen, ....with excessive time and sleep, (once my body basically collapses), required to reset ... starting the cycle over

For me at least, I find a lot of my symptoms come down to knowing my fluctuating strengths and weaknesses, and walking the constant fine line between taking to much action, being to analytical, etc. in comparison to the complete and polar opposite. I look at it in the lense of being similar to being a brittle diabetic, if that makes any sense.

[Gettingittogether]

I had a knee MRI a decade ago---got terrified.

Three decades ago I had a shoulder MRI during which I fully went into the machine--and managed it!

At the knee MRI I told the technician I was so much more scared that my earlier MRI.

The technician running the MRI says the older people get, the worse their MRI fear and anxiety gets. She said she had seen and heard that all the time. I got in this once before and was fine. Now I'm terrified.

I love roller coasters, and I still dream of riding new and super fast rollercoasters. But I imagine I will be a lot more afraid the next time I go than I was when I was younger.

There are open MRI machines that work for some body parts (not all). And there are meds that doctors can prescribe for people with really bad machine anxiety. I may have to get a calming med the next time I have to go deeply into the machine.