Suffering from Anxiety

[jeremyleemikel]

Hello to you all. My name is Jeremy. Since June 2017, my life changed and it has been a struggle each and every day. I thought I was having a heart attack on July 3, 2017. I went to the e.r. and the tests showed no heart attack, I left the e.r. still having chest pains not knowing what in the world was going on with me. My doctor prescribed to me some Xanax, it seemed to help a bit, but I was still suffering chest pains and pains in my left arm. I was ordered to see a Cardiologist, after many different tests, my heart is in very good shape. He told me I am suffering from anxiety and I need to calm down and breath. Well after months of dealing with chest pain and suffering on a daily basis of having panic attacks (learning that is what it was I was experiencing), I then began researching how to beat this and how to cope with it. It was until in December of 2017 that my doctor put me on Lexapro because I had a major panic attack in November around my birthday, I thought I was dying from a heart attack. I laid down, starting breathing, trying to just calm myself down. I made an appointment with my doctor and she placed me on Lexapro, that changed everything for me. The lexapro has helped me tremendously. The chest pain stopped after a few days, I felt so much better. I did have a panic attack on Christmas morning, I laid down and did some breathing exercises and the pain went away after about 15 minutes of breathing therapy. This is all new to me, I never thought I would suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. I am learning what triggers some of the attacks and doing my best to combat them. My 18 year old did just become a United States Marine and my daughter had went away for the summer with family, I believe that the change in my daily life triggered all this on me. The day I saw my son graduate from boot camp, I stood there and I cried so much, I hugged him and I didn't want to let him go. When I saw my daughter come off of the plane after her summer away, I did the same thing, I stood there crying. It has been a struggle having my son away and becoming a man, but I am so proud of him. I guess my overall fear of the unknown and what could happen to him being in the military just took over and it made me suffer these anxiety and panic attacks. Things that never bothered me now seem to affect me and at times I can feel my chest tighten and I can feel myself start to stress, I just start my breathing therapy and when I need to, I have the Xanax there when I feel I need it. I worry about becoming an addict so I am trying to not rely on the medication as much and just try things to calm me down on my own. PRAYER has been a major thing for me to as a person of faith. I have tried to meditate and have listened to meditation music on YouTube and it does help some, but I wind up falling asleep.

[cmeanonymous]

Panic attacks are nasty. I’m always exhausted after I have one. I never felt like I was having a heart attack. I always got dizzy and tightening in my arms and nauseous. My doc gave me clonazepam to take as needed.

I used to have multiple panic attacks a day when I was first diagnosed. Now I’m down to like 1 or 2 a year. That’s huge! But it was a lot of work to get there.

Now I just deal with a lot of anxiety and over worrying. It’s easier to deal with lol

[jeremyleemikel in reply to cmeanonymous]

So true, I am learning that after knowing it is not my heart, I know I am okay and I just have to think to myself that I am not being chased by a grizzly bear, that I am okay. I used to check my pulse with my phone and I would panic because my heart rate was up higher than it should be. I have since stopped checking my pulse rate because it would trigger a panic attack, now I just do some breathing exercises and I just calm down.