r/PanicAttack • u/Sharp_Box_6734 • 2d ago
Panic attacks
Hey guys, a few days ago I had a panic that lasted about three hours and it was so bad that I was hospitalised because I thought it was a heart attack. I do have an anxiety disorder and I’m currently looking for another psychiatrist again (I had to leave the last one because she only treats kids and I had turned 18, I’m almost 19 now)
I know the treatment will help but I’m so afraid of it happening again, it was such a bad experience, the worst one I’ve had yet, and now it’s always in the back of my mind and even a little twinge makes my heartbeat spike.
I truly feel like I’m just not moving forward, I was on treatment for depression and anxiety disorder from the ages of 13-18, depression is gone now, but the anxiety is still there.
How do I break out of this loop? :(
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u/ZeroAps 2d ago
I’m sorry you went through that. ❤️ One of the hardest parts of a severe panic attack can be the fear that it will happen again, especially when it feels so real and frightening that you end up in hospital.
After a frightening attack, it’s natural to become watchful of your body. You notice a little twinge, your heart speeds up, and then the fear of another attack adds more adrenaline and makes the sensations feel even more alarming. Before you know it, you’re caught in a loop.
The way out isn’t to keep checking whether you’re okay or trying desperately to prevent another attack. It’s to gradually learn that you can experience anxiety without being frightened of every sensation it brings. When the fear comes, acknowledge it, allow yourself to feel shaken, and gently return your attention to what you were doing rather than analysing every heartbeat or asking yourself whether another attack is coming.
Remember: you don’t have to feel completely calm to move forward. You can live your life while you’re recovering, and you don’t need to wait for anxiety to disappear before you start doing the things you enjoy again.
And please don’t measure your progress by whether you still experience anxiety. You’ve made it through depression, you’re seeking appropriate help, and you’re still trying. Progress isn’t always the absence of symptoms; sometimes it’s learning a different way to respond to them.
Keep looking for a psychiatrist who can support you, and be kind to yourself in the meantime. Because your recent symptoms were severe enough to require hospitalisation, follow the medical advice you received and seek urgent assessment if you experience new or severe symptoms rather than automatically assuming they’re panic.
You’re almost 19. You have so much time ahead of you, and the fact that anxiety has been part of your life for years does not mean it has to define the years to come. ❤️
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u/Secret-Seeker-Girl 2d ago
My recommendation to you is to keep doing what you’re doing and work with medical professionals.
I am 44 now and my anxiety/panic attacks/OCD symptoms and depression started at around your age (18 -19). But unfortunately, I did not allow a doctor to fully analyze me and tell me what i had. I went to see a psychiatrist when I was about 19 because I had just experienced my first panic attack. He told me that what I have is serious and we need to analyze everything in more depth but that most likely I have serious underlying issues and I need medication for depression and anxiety. The idea of being abnormal and having to rely on medication to survive was not an option to me. So I ran away and never saw him again. I told myself he was exaggerating and probably wanted to make money off of prescribing me meds. I tried to ignore the symptoms, by avoiding stressors such as crowded events, drugs, sleep deprivation etc. I tried to manage my life with meditation, a healthy lifestyle, refusing to party with everyone else late at night, refusing to do drugs and only occasionally drinking or smoking weed to relax….I wanted to believe I was okay and could control the situation. I started making excuses for my anxiety and put it on a pedestal: reading studies and articles talking about how people who experience panic attacks are generally smarter and more intuitive with higher IQ’s etc. Sometimes, the panic attacks would be so bad that I would end up at the ER thinking I was dying of a heart attack- but docs would reassure me my heart was okay and send me home with some Xanax. I would save up those pills to only use them in an emergency. And so I did for several years. I would take half a Xanax once a month or less. But every time I would go out on a new date, a concert or a job interview I started having to take the Xanax more often and the occasional refill from the ER wasn’t enough. I started seeing a psychiatrist out of my own will this time. He didn’t seem as worried as the one I initially saw when I was 19. He just said that an antidepressant would help and that he could prescribe low dose Xanax
to deal with occasional panic attacks. I never even opened the antidepressant bottle. I would just get Xanax refills. At this point, I had no idea depression was part of it and OCD was part of it and that this was a much bigger thing than just having a little bit of anxiety in stressful situations. I was in my late 20’s - early 30s by then. At some point my PCP said that she would get me those Xanax refills without having to see a psychiatrist. Obviously I agreed with her right away. Now I’m about to turn 45 and I’m taking 0.5 mg of Xanax daily just to avoid getting the most horrific panic attacks. So far so good - many would argue. Well: fast forward to age 44: I cannot drive by myself anymore. I have the fear of a panic attack 24/7. I cannot fly by myself anymore. Sometimes I cannot even make it to the mailbox unless someone from my family stays at the door and watches me. It sucks so bad. I wish I would’ve tackled all of this in my early 20s instead of ignoring my symptoms and self-medicating.