New Here

[Anxiousashley]

I’m new here but just trying to find some way to discuss my anxiety with people who know exactly how it feels. My anxiety for me started when I was put on Mirena. It was almost 5 years before I figured out that the Mirena might have been the cause of it all. Since then, I’ve had a very stress filled life, was on Zoloft on and off for years and came off of medication about 2 years ago. Shortly after that, I was laid off from my job of 11 years and the anxiety hit back harder than ever! I can never really say what causes it, it’s just a general feeling of uneasiness almost all the time. It becomes difficult to breathe, I get shaky, my muscles get tense, seemingly for no reason at all. Then a couple of weeks ago, I had what I have deduced was the worst panic attack of my life. I was driving home and suddenly my left arm started tingling and the muscles in my hand started going stiff. Then it spread to my right side and I had to pull over and call 911 because I had no idea what it was. After a number of heart tests, they never really said what it was, leading me to conclude that perhaps it had just been a severe anxiety attack. Since then, I have become terribly anxious of even driving myself home every day because I follow the same route home as that day and even though I try not to think about it, I think subconciously it’s there all the time. I’m trying not to go back on medication, but my anxiety has gotten to an almost unbearable and intolerable level. I am hoping that maybe talking to people that know exactly what this feels like might help. Also curious to know if anyone else has had a similar experience with a panic attack like mine.

 

[Cuchculan]

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you as member. Here you are with like minded people. So you are never alone. Panic attacks can hit us all for various reasons. Like a signal we send to the mind that we are in danger and the mind responds. We all have various triggers. Different things that set our panic attacks off. But everything is all linked together. We get a pain. Our mind gets a thought as to what it thinks that pain might be. We react to that thought. That brings about our symptoms. Change how we think or how we react and we can bring things back under control. But never easy. Takes a lot of working on. That is what you are here for.

 

[Izthewiz]

I’m new here but just trying to find some way to discuss my anxiety with people who know exactly how it feels. My anxiety for me started when I was put on Mirena. It was almost 5 years before I figured out that the Mirena might have been the cause of it all. Since then, I’ve had a very stress filled life, was on Zoloft on and off for years and came off of medication about 2 years ago. Shortly after that, I was laid off from my job of 11 years and the anxiety hit back harder than ever! I can never really say what causes it, it’s just a general feeling of uneasiness almost all the time. It becomes difficult to breathe, I get shaky, my muscles get tense, seemingly for no reason at all. Then a couple of weeks ago, I had what I have deduced was the worst panic attack of my life. I was driving home and suddenly my left arm started tingling and the muscles in my hand started going stiff. Then it spread to my right side and I had to pull over and call 911 because I had no idea what it was. After a number of heart tests, they never really said what it was, leading me to conclude that perhaps it had just been a severe anxiety attack. Since then, I have become terribly anxious of even driving myself home every day because I follow the same route home as that day and even though I try not to think about it, I think subconciously it’s there all the time. I’m trying not to go back on medication, but my anxiety has gotten to an almost unbearable and intolerable level. I am hoping that maybe talking to people that know exactly what this feels like might help. Also curious to know if anyone else has had a similar experience with a panic attack like mine.

Hello sorry you're going through all these things.
I'm not sure how I feel about the meds some people need them more then others.
I've never gone on these not sure I will.
But if you're able to maybe get into some form of therapy or a local support group to help and talk about what you're going through it may cause anxiety less frequent.

 

[smilingsoul]

Welcome Aashley. Its good you discovered your symptoms were due to panic attacks. It can seem very simple to avoid the thing that seemed to cause anxiety once, but by doing so you reinforce the idea that it was actually a threat. It is not at all easy to come to grips with this; there are therapists trained in how to get you to where you can emotionally handle learning that your trigger is safe. Please know that anxiety and panic are very treatable. I first started getting them in my 20's, and didn't know what they were - which was very frightening. I now go months or years between bouts, and nothing has been as bad as those early days! Its never fun, and it seems like life would be so much easier without them; but we have to live with what is, rather than what we wish it was.