I was diagnosed with panic disorder and with symptoms of GAD in December time. My first panic attack was in September, it happened for no reason and that caused me to live in fear of having another one.
But since then my anxiety has gotten worse and i have anxiety all day every day. I have so many symptoms. Today i confused myself for some reason, i thought to myself if i actually have panic disorder anymore because i really can’t tell if i have panic attacks. Im so anxious everyday and I can’t distinguish when i have panic attacks or not. So i keep asking myself ‘Is it panic attacks or just an anxious state?’ I don’t even know what a panic attack feels like anymore because of this constant anxiety.
I only knew that it was a panic attack in September because i had no other feelings of anxiety, it was a wave of all these anxious feelings - a panic attack. Then afterwards i was confused to what happened and realised it was a panic attack, and then they began happening more and more until now where I’m just anxious and don’t know if i have panic attacks.
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Aozora___3
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Aozora_3, you were prescribed the perfect medication for your problem: three x 5mg diazepam/valium each day. It brings almost instant relief of the symptoms you describe. It is truly a 'wonder drug' for those experiencing anxiety.
You are very lucky to have been prescribed it.
But you treat it as if it's rat poison. You cut the tablets in half and take one and then stop. So it should come as no surprise to you that your anxiety and panic attacks are continuing.
They are continuing because you choose for them to continue.
I’ve been feeling highly depressed this week so I’m not doing so well with what people say to me. Even my boyfriend gives me “constructive criticism” for having anxiety.
When we have anxiety disorder it's quite common to get depressed about it. It's secondary depression and when the anxiety comes to an end so will the depression.
Diazepam taken 3 times a day will bring you respite from your anxiety but it's not a long term medication, it's usually not prescribed for more than 10 weeks. Many years ago I took it 3 times a day for a year and realised that to come off it I needed to gradually reduce the dose over a period of time.
There are of course many other meds for anxiety that can be taken indefinately but my understanding is that you have to wait 3 to 4 weeks fir them to kick in. Whereas the respite that diazepam brings is instant.
Of course, meds bring relief but they don't bring a cure. And most people don't want to be on meds for ever given the choice. To recover involves changing the way we think about anxiety and the symptoms of anxiety and this means either talking therapy or studying a good self help book.
As I've probably said before, the self help method I believe in is the acceptance method devised many years ago by Doctor Claire Weekes and explained in her short book 'Self help with your nerves' available from Amazon new or used for a few £$. Many people have found it life changing.
Hello
I am sorry you are suffering and even more so at such a young age , anxiety when it starts can be so confusing and make us so fearful but so young as you are it can make it harder to deal with as we are yet to have experienced much in life so big that we have to deal with
I have not read any other posts you have written maybe I should have I am just answering on this one you have written and wanted to say I hope you are getting plenty of support from your Doctor , parents maybe and friends and that you should not give yourself a hard tome because you feel the way you do but look after yourself like you would if anything else was wrong with you
The more you keep thinking about what happened and how you feel the more anxious you will become and it will take over your every waking hour , I know it is not easy but try not to question what has happened how you feel and so on , if you can accept it " Just for now " you will give the anxiety less control and less control means less fear and less anxiety
I think for your age you are coping very well and you express how you feel very well to , having people to talk to that won't judge you can be a huge help and I hope you find some strength and comfort in that
Try and think that we only have today , let tomorrow take care if itself you never know all these stresses may not turn out to be as bad as you think they will be
It’s so hard! I have stresses about applying for medical school this year then getting good grades and then im doing a 10 week volunteering trip this summer.
I am trying to relax at night times, but every day is college then work then more work x
It may have been a lot of years ago for me now but I can still cast my mind back and I know how stressful wanting to get good grades can feel like and at your age you feel the world is on your shoulders and I know now they seem to put more pressure on the younger one's but I am a big believer in fate and if you are meant to go to medical School you will and if not then you wait there will be something else that you were meant to do
Worrying about your grades won't change the results , as long as you try your best in whatever you do then you should always feel proud of the outcome because that is all we can ever ask of ourselves to try but not to the stage where it is making us ill as it seems to be doing to you
It is not Summer yet so don't over think the trip , see how you feel when it is time
If you have not already it could be a good idea to speak with your Tutors and tell them how you feel they could help you maybe to have less pressure as I am sure they don't want their students exhausted x
Ah thank you! You have good advice I’ll try and not worry too much about getting good grades, i just fear that bad grades means no medical school for me. But maybe I’ll find a different course to do, I don’t know.
Your grades will be whatever they are and whatever they are trust me you will go on to do something wonderful and what ever that is you will be good at it and you should be proud of yourself for all the effort you are putting in but please not to the extent of making yourself ill , nothing is worth making yourself ill over x
I have constant anxiety and have had a number of true panic attacks. They may feel different to everyone but for me a true panic event is an imminent feeling of doom. Like - I'm literally about to die and I'll go to the emergency room thinking I'm dying.
Whereas my anxiety is more like long term constant shaking (I feel jittery and shaky 24/7) and worrying about what negative things may happen to me in the future.
Stop right there , there are too many thinking errors you are making dear ,
first of all you have believed that you have anxiety disorder that something is wrong with your body . first of all lwts understand what is a panic attack.
a panic attack is a state of heightened anxiety where one becomes really scared for particular thing , the thing ia when there is no actual threat present , as in case of anxiety disorder , the body percieves somethingas threat anyhow , which is the symptoms , which create further anxiety and cycle continues . now your panic attacks have made you scared of the symptoms . you must be warching for symptoms all day , am i right?
what you have to understand is your body is just doing what its designed to in state of actual threat (which is a panic attack) . As long as you think that there is a threat , which you believe is another panic attack , then fight or flight system will be activated . the thing is to break the cycle . How? not fearing the anxiety and panic. how do you do that ? actually your symptoms are just a normal process of the body , what scares you is the fact that they remind you of your panic and anxiety , your brain has created an association with these symptoms and anxiety . once you stop fearing the symptoms , anxiety fairly reduces . next time a symptom appears , dont do anything to avoid it . Just feel it and ask yourself ,"is it this bad? is it as scary as i thought?" Most of the time you will that problems are exaggerated by our brain , which is fear . the fear of a problem is bigger than problem itself always , believe me. do it for few minutes at beginning and keep practicing it and you will overcome the fear.
you fear the next panic attack?
can you please tell me what exactly do you fear about a panic attack so i can further assist you
Though I don’t think j really know myself. I can handle my panic much better than before, but i do still fear my heart rate as it is always constantly high and i get my palpitations. Im not as scared of my palpitations anymore but sometimes it does make me panic. I have health anxiety so im scared to take tablets and makes me feel very anxious before i take one.
What im trying to say is that im not always aware if im having a panic attack or not because my body is always in a high anxious/panic mode. Sometimes i get this wave of dread and fear which maybe the panic attack coming on.
I think i fear panic attacks because i hate the dread feeling, and the nausea it causes. I find the high heart rate highly uncomfortable and it causes chest pains for me, and all of this causes ne to be depressed. So I fear the panic attack for the symptoms it causes me?
yes you fear the feeling of dread of panic mainly , i get it .Do you know we are taught everything from our elders but no one tells us how to deal with fear whole life . fear of something is as long as you are not familiar with it . i cant tell you how powerful is that . your fear of feeling of doom and dread that comes from panic is due to your unfamiliarity . you think this feeling as something bad , horrible , harmful . Did you ever thought from another perspective , that it is just a feeling like all other feelings of happiness , sadness , excitement . you probably dont fear the feelings i have discussed later. Once you realize that the feeling of dread is just an emotion , yes it feels scary but , ask yourself , can it harm me? is there really anything that can result from? will this be important after 2-3 months? Do you know when you question your fears to an extreme extent you will find out two things:
1)what you fear has a very low , or no probability to occur
2)the feared is not as bad as it is believed to be
But one thing to remember, dont dwell on thinking about anxiety and panic all day long . change your focus elsewhere . im sure you can find a lot of things to focus on . If you keep remembring the anxiety and panic during your other work , just gently refocus your attention , as many times required . with time you will notice that your brain doesnt pay that much attention to anxiety as it used to
Ah thank you for your advice, its really helpful. I am trying to focus on other things during the day rather than get panicked by one symptom that appears. I was never told how to deal with the fear and i find it difficult to find happiness as the only emotions i ever seem to feel is fear, anxiety or sadness or no emotion at all. Im a bundle of problems, but I’ll get better over time.
please be careful of how you adress yourself . saying "i only experience fear,anxiety and sadness", will only hinder your progress . just perceiving something from a different perspective can change whole situation like you can also think of anxiety as "my systems working good and trying to protect me from a danger"
Yeah i understand that my body is doing a normal reaction by going into a fight or flight mode. I study medical science so i am aware of these things, it’s just anxiety is a more psychological issue so it can be very hard to change your thinking. One day i will be positive and the next i can be very negative.
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