A lot of times I am just sitting (I think relaxing!) Watching TV, when out of the blue I start to feel funny, my muscles hurt, I can't catch my breath, I feel faint, sick, trembly, I feel out of control. I just have to ride with it, but it terrifies me as I think I'm going to pass out....I have had these when I'm out , but I didn't think it would happen just sitting. They last about 10 or 20 minutes. And of course I get more now as I am afraid of them coming, kinda expect them. Is this what you would call a panic attack? I don't know.
Thank you for your time xx
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Funkyfaerie
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Hi! I've had attacks like this before when I was watching TV with my son. It really frightened me because I went from totally fine to almost paralysed for about 10minutes. I think it was just a really bad anxiety attack.
Yes, of course. Your nerves are sensitised and will have a tendency to cause surges of energy at any given time until they become de-sensitised by accepting the feelings. You are right in that they will keep coming while you fear them because fear keeps your nerves sensitised and the very reason why acceptance and learning to lose your fear of them will see them gradually lose their intensity and disappear. It may help a little If you look at them as a rush of adrenalin instead of a panic attack because that is all it is and completely harmless. Allow yourself to let them come and see them through with as much acceptance as you can manage. The more you practice, the easier it will get. For more information, read any book by Dr Claire Weekes. If you follow her teachings about acceptance, you will recover.
It just seemed crazy, that when I've battled the mornings, and the day, you sometimes feel a little better in the evening, and then these panics arrive.....I am reading Claire Weekes as you suggested to me last time. I also have a book of hers called "Essential help for you nerves"
I find it amazing really how you can literally make yourself feel so awful from nowhere.
Been there, done that. I spent a long time trying to figure out why. Waste of time, honest. Once anxiety develops there is no rhyme nor reason behind it so just learn to accept it. Thumbs up for the book too. It's the one i bought 😁
Yes! I do get them out of nowhere and many times since the moment I wake up I am expecting/looking for the symptoms. It is horrible because you are doing nothing and it just hits you. I had one 2 nights ago and I am still shaken and my hands are clammy. Trying to ignore it and work.
It's so unexplainable when it comes out of the blue.... I experienced that today. For the last 2 years I have had my anxiety 98% in control, had symptoms but managed it well, did not interfere with anything in my life. Today I was with a client (ironically I am a social worker and work in mental health) and I started feeling so off... I felt derealization for a brief moment and then felt faint, dizzy, eyes were blurry and out of focus, just overall felt extremely ill. Felt fine all morning and boom, went down hill. It made me feel as though my blood sugar was low, or that I was experiencing something medically related. It's hard to believe that it can come on so suddenly and create so many physical symptoms. I had to leave work and am now relaxing in bed, still coming down from the shakey, uneasy feeling. You're definitely not alone.
ABSOLUTELY—you can have a panic attack while relaxing in front of the TV, at a movie theatre, or even while browsing through the self-help section of a book store. Hopefully, knowing that you are not alone in this terrifying experience will make it easier to deal with the next panic bomb that drops out of your sky without warning.
It is extremely frustrating when, just about the time you think you’ve made some progress in dealing with your anxiety, it creeps up on you from behind and kicks you in the butt. But the unfortunate truth is that, depending on your level of sensitivity at any given moment, a voice, a sound, a thought, a smell, or even a few words of movie or TV dialog can elicit a panic response seemingly from “out of the blue.”
But try to remember that panic attacks don’t come out of nowhere—they have physical and emotional triggers—that are controllable, though some triggers are more difficult to understand and control than others.
One trick I’ve learned over time is that, rather than giving in to the physical manifestations of a panic attack (the nausea, weakness, pounding heart, dizziness, feeling like you are dying), focus instead on finding a trigger. It may be something you overheard, or smelled, or thought. It will probably seem insignificant. But if you rewind your mental DVR by about ten minutes, and then hit PLAY, you can usually find it. And even if you can’t, the process of looking distracts you from the whole process of panic. I try to make a little game of it. I give myself one point if I can find the trigger. Then, if I am successful, I treat myself to a small reward. A piece of dark chocolate or a Starbucks latte.
Taking a time out mid-panic to forensically dissect the events that led up to the attack gives me a sense of being in control—and “panic” can’t exist in the same mental space with “control.”
My game may sound silly, and it is certainly not a cure, but identifying triggers and making note of them can be a helpful technique to add to your panic kit!
IT is SOOO easy..........to have that happen while watching TV......
There is a TV show on TLC, called.............. Dr Pimple Popper........ARUGHHH...........no no no nope, can not and will not even PEEK............ewwww just writing about it makes me sick.
These symptoms and a few other things are what got me diagnosed with a Panic disorder. Basically, I go through something stressful but at the time I'm fine. A little stressed, but fine. Then six month or a week or a year later, I'll be watching tv or reading, and then BOOM. Panic attack. It's because when youre relaxing your brain is like, "ok, well this is now a good time to deal with that situation that happened x amount of time ago." Basically your brains way of protecting you during a stressful time, and then dealing with the stress after it's all said and done. Very frustrating. Made me not want to ever relax because I'd always freak out.
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