Panic Attacks

[LizM40]

Hello, I just thought I would drop in and say hello. I have been feeling really anxious and panicky at the moment. I have been feeling like this for 3 weeks. Although, I am on medication, I am wondering if they are wearing off as I have been on them for approx 18 months. My folks went away on holiday recently and I was left in the house on my own with the dog. I could not cope and I had a bad panic attack.. I had to go and stay with my sister and her family. Now, that my folks are back and I am back at home..I feel no better.

Last night, I did not sleep as I was worried about my sister (she is on holiday in Singapore) and my grandfather (got to find a residential home for him to go to) as my folks are going away again in January. I am scared really scared and I do not know what to do. I have to get up at a reasonable hour in the mornings otherwise I will feel really depressed.

I am frightened of the future as I have no job, but I am currently volunteering at the local hospital. I get tired very quickly and really panic at the end of the day. Hoping to hear from others in a similar situation. Love LizM40

[Pennylayne]

Hi Liz, sorry to hear that you are having a bit of a difficult time with anxiety right now. It does tend to come and go and some times are worse than others, when you are going through a bit of a bad patch you sort of get into a pattern of thinking the worst and the thoughts start going round and round.

I think you must be a fairly young person as you were saying about your family being away.

Are you able to talk to anyone in your family about how you feel? Do you find that they understand or not really?

I don't think that medication wears off but sometimes when the anxiety levels are high and your body is making lots of stress hormones the effect of the medication is a lot less noticeable.

Well done on being a volunteer.........that is always a good idea as it's something to put on your CV, you are gaining experience and also someone to give you a useful reference and also you are helping others at the same time.

It's really normal to be a bit anxious and the only real difference with us here is that our anxiety is more than usual and we don't manage to control it as well.

Anxiety is a normal part of being human and all of us stress about things like getting a job and also things like what will happen to our family members.

The tricky bit is being able to find a way to deal with it so that it doesn't figure so large in your life.

However take heart as there are ways .......

I really think that finding someone that you can confide in and that you can chat to when things are a worry is important. I think that in our busy modern lives we are missing out on the time spent chatting when often the things that are troubling us most come out. It's no wonder we turn to on forums on-line .......but when you are young it's really nice to have an older family member you can talk to and to tell about the things you are a bit scared of, without that you can feel a bit isolated and that's when the anxiety creeps in too.

I think that you may have been keeping lots of worries to yourself and after a while the worries etc began to cause your body to make lots of stress hormones and then you began to have the stress attacks.

They say a trouble shared is a trouble halved and you know it's true ........it doesn't seem half so bad but it does help to have a good listener.

Anyway ........if you can speak to someone in your family, and I don't know which medication you are taking but you may need to review that but there are also other methods of learning to deal with the anxiety. Some people benefit from counselling or CBT or just from learning some coping strategies.

Best Wishes PL

[LizM40 in reply to Pennylayne]

Thank You PL, that is very helpful. I am going to see a dr in the new year and review my medication. I am hoping that there might be something new out there for me to try. I will just have to keep going and keep myself busy. I will be glad when Xmas has been and gone for another year. Much love LizM40.

[over]

hi liz,i am a chinese.i have this anxiety years and still have it now.i don't fear of it ,but epilepsy,because epilipsy is sth new for me.i learn to living with anxiety with meditation and breathing exercise.it works for me.some time i still need medicine .and another thing is tell some one who you trust and very importent thing is change your way of mind.worrying is the trigger of anxiety,if you can move your mind from worrying to sth nice,and you will win.try the breathing ,and empty your head everyday for 30'',better with relaxing music.

[LizM40 in reply to over]

Hello Over, Thank you.. I will try relaxing music, but it is finding the time to listen to it! Much love LizM40.

[Melgil58]

Hello liz sorry your having one of the bad spells anxiety inflicts on us I think your suffering more from anxiety than panics which while bad tend to be short lived but intermittent you sound like your a big worrier like us all thinking the worst but I ask you to ask yourself how many times has what you worried would happen has happened not many times I bet you have like us all things people worry about our loved ones which is natural but in our case tends to be extreme. We have to learn we can't go everywhere with them to keep them safe we have to learn to let them do that for themselves which they'll do pretty well and another thing we should learn to like ourselves more and enjoy our own company as well as being in company with others I hope your anxiety will ease up we all deserve a bit of peace from anxiety and worrying you look after yourself and get back to happier times Mel