New to this...

[Guest]

Hi everyone.


So, I'm a junior in college and I just started getting really bad panic attacks in January. I was controlling them pretty well, until I had a gigantic panic in the middle of a physiology exam. It is so strange that I have this, because I am one of the most outgoing people I think you will ever meet. I love wakeboarding, snowboarding, and doing a lot of extreme sports. I want to skydive sometime, but I'm afraid with this new panic/anxiety that I will not be able to handle it, which sucks. When I first started getting attacks, I got them all the time, and in the most random places - sitting in lecture, watching TV, while I was sleeping, etc. Now, I've learned to control the panics so they don't gain control of me. But now I find myself having a low level of anxiety all the time. Its just really strange. I don't want to be dependent on medicine, so I'm not taking anything. I pop a beta blocker before exams so I can't shake or have a fast heart rate, but I just hope that this feeling will eventually leave. Can anyone else relate to this?

 

[Guest]

I can relate to panic attacks, the kind that landed me in the ER which some people find weird but with me they were that extreme due to the rapid heart rate, freezing cold skin and extremities and a feeling of nervousness in my heart. I thought my first one was a heart attack or stroke but the tests confirmed neither. I had a hard time accepting the fact that this condition gives you physical symptoms of something worse but in reality I know that an attack cannot kill a person. I have taken meds and hate it that I have to be dependent on them. I haven't had an attack since but still don't feel like my old self. I'm less outgoing and less active all together. I do feel relief however from being on edge and the meds are effective in tamping down anxiety.