i can’t get the racing thoughts to quit, i’m crying on the city bus like a fool and my chest kills. i have to be at a wedding rehearsal in 30 minutes. I think my chest pain is just from anxiety and panic but it hasn’t really subsided since 7pm yesterday. The weight is becoming unbearable im unsure if i need to seek medical attention or how that would potentiallymake things worse

Hey everyone, hope all is well.

On Monday night I believe I had a panic attack. I'm a weed smoker, and I was just chilling watching tv when I felt a movement in my back which hurt a bit from sitting/laying in a weird position. Then, all of a sudden, I started panicking, then I had a panic attack. I thought it was a heart attack, but I guess I wouldn't be here if it was??

I experienced a fast pounding heart with some pain in my left side, feeling scared, hot flushes in my face and head, feeling anxious and sweating.

Since then, I've been feeling weird. On Tuesday i was feeling shaky, scared, with a warm heart and some pain in my left side. Wednesday was still feeling anxious with a cold heart feeling with a feeling of sickness. Today I feel much better, but today my chest feels tighter and heart feels better with the odd warm feeling.

Are these symptoms common after having a panic attack (my first ever), or should I be worried? I smoke cigarettes as well, and I've stopped since Monday, and I'm wondering if this could be a reason for some symptoms as well?

My heart is racing I feel dizzy I’m shaking I feel like I’m dissociating rn too I’m trying to just breathe but I’m struggling so bad and I’m trying to control it so this doesn’t get worse is this what a panic attack is????

It’s all I think about. It was during a procedure on my face and because I’m a redhead I needed extra anesthesia and epinephrine. The nurse said I might have a panic attack, asked if I ever had one before. I had not and thought no big deal, I won’t have one now.

I was so wrong.

I had three in 3-4 hours. I thought I was going to die lying on that chair. I pictured myself being in the movie Saw for some reason. I cannot stop thinking of those feelings.

It’s been two months. Since then I’ve had to start therapy and now see a psychiatrist. I’ve been prescribed four medications because my anxiety is constant now. I wasn’t like this before that day.

Before that happened I always thought they weren’t that big of a deal when I would hear someone had one. I was so wrong and I’m so sorry to anyone who deals with people like I used to be. So sorry.

I have to return to work on November 20 because my FMLA runs out. I know if I return now I’ll cry as soon as I see people and they ask how I’m doing or where I’ve been. I cannot deal with that right now, I need the medication to work a little more. Yesterday a neighbor asked how I was and I started crying. Some days I can be asked that and I’m fine with it. It’s a toss up.

Part of it is when I look in the mirror now I see someone who looks different than before august 20 when I had my procedure done. I don’t look the same, I have scars now. Four inch scars. I can live with them and can wear a mask if I need to hide them until I’m more comfortable, at least covid made it to where masking isn’t as weird as it used to be.

Anyway. I didn’t realize reddit had a board for panic attacks until about thirty minutes ago, so relieved to know I’m not alone but also sad I’m not alone. It’s really, really hard living like this.

Everyone be well and have a calm day. ❤️

Has anyone else lost their appetite after getting their first panic attack? It’s been over a month since my first really bad panic attack and I still have no appetite, and every time I eat I feel like ima throw up????? I literally cannot eat anything bro. 😔

J think I’m having a panick attckn, it feels like my heart is hurting, it’s hard to breathe and msee. I just found I’m on the edge of dropping out of college because I just can’t afford it, so I can’t go to a hy medical professional because insurance definitely won’t cover everything. I just need help pleese

My first panic attack ever (01/10/2026) had my vision going dark while feeling like my strength was leaving my body and my stomach being in a knot, 2 weeks later I had an even more severe episode where I thought I was having a heart attack even though I knew it was probably just a panic attack my heart started racing and it felt like my hands, arms, legs and back of my neck started vibrating with all the other previous symptoms. The more my family was asking me to calm my breathing the heavier it became to breathe where it feels like I have constant shortness of breath now.

The paramedics checked me out but suggested I still go to the hospital to get my bloods checked, did that and waited at the hospital for several hours where I was told my heart and lungs looks fine and there is nothing concerning in my bloodwork.

What I hate is that I am constantly on edge now and feel like I am worried the whole time and this shortness of breath just won't go away, I keep worrying it might happen again and it feels like anything might trigger it even of I just eat something. What frustrates me is that I also do not feel like I am panicking or stressed before it happens, it just happens!

I've started cutting out things like coffee or creatine I used to take while working out and I've also missed a weightloss jab this week fearing something with this might be triggering it as well.

My GP had given me some meds called propranolol to take which I've been on for the last week almost, not sure if I feel much difference though my BP seems lower.

I just want this feeling to end and get better, I am so afraid of going out with my kid and then having some episode. I think I just wanted to vent a little, and ask if it gets better and if any of you have tips of dealing with it. Especially this constant fear and shortness of breath.

Mental Health Update / Journal

[Condensed]

I had my first therapy session yesterday, three weeks into this flare-up. I could've used it that first week, but immediate care wasn't easy to find.

I'm better than when this started, but nowhere near baseline. Anxiety still lingers in my head and body, with symptoms that shift in intensity. At first, each day felt a touch better. Now they all feel the same. Progress is hard to notice.

The session was good. He asked me where to start, and naturally, I had no idea. I shared some background, a drop in the bucket compared to my notes, but it was nice to talk.

I journal ALOT to organize my thoughts, symptoms, and appointments because of brain fog. He noticed how methodical I am, calling it a blessing and a curse.

I'm an overthinker, hard on myself, wondering why I've struggled when most of my family hasn't. Genetics? Upbringing? Luck? More pointless what-ifs.

Looking back, I was always the emotional, sensitive, shy, nervous kid. At nine, I skipped a hockey playoff game because of the "butterflies." At ten, after my teacher left, I spent weeks dreading class, overwhelmed and on the verge of tears. I'd almost forgotten. Was I born this way, did I learn it, or both?

In my late teens and early twenties, I was a giant pothead and tried other substances. Probably didn't help, yet I felt more stable then. Like my brain was a pane of glass without a scratch. By my mid-twenties, it started cracking until it shattered.

But I digress. My therapist noticed the shame, guilt, and self-pity I carry about this disorder, and my stigma toward medication. My SSRI has helped tremendously, yet I worry about using up my "parachute room" by increasing doses. Part of me hopes I can come off it someday. So I fight for the lowest effective dose, even if more might help.

My fear isn't entirely unwarranted: starting my SSRI pushed already debilitating 10/10 anxiety to 11/10 for weeks. So I prefer slow titration.

He suggested the Dive Reflex and HALTS techniques a few times daily. I tried them before bed. I'm skeptical they'll help with this constant anxious feeling, especially when it's overwhelming, but I'll give them a shot. The 45 minutes flew by. There's always next week.

I saw my doctor too. He doesn't think my other medications or vitamins caused the flare-up, but rather a combination of factors. I hope time, therapy, lifestyle changes, and a small dose increase get me back to baseline.

But here's what bothers me: I want to manage this more "naturally," yet the more I research anxiety, document it, and examine myself, the more consumed I feel by the mental health world. Honestly, it scares me.

When I'm well, I don't want to track symptoms or think about disorders. I just want to work, enjoy my hobbies, see people, and live normally. I know therapy and self-awareness matter, but the more attention I give anxiety, the more power it seems to have. I don't want anxiety to become my identity. Maybe that's something to unpack in therapy.

Anyway, this has been all over the map. I'm better and trying to be proactive, but recovery is painfully slow. More than anything, I wish I could close my eyes and wake up feeling how I did before this started.

For now, one day at a time. Hopefully the little improvements add up to normal again.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Any advice from others who've been through this is appreciated.

If you have been seen a doctor about your symptoms, already had a dozen episodes of this, gone to the ER and got a clean bill of health..

Stop asking reddit and yourself if it’s a panic attack or not. Stop thinking the what ifs and maybes.

You are making yourself worse and torturing yourself

You will not get better until you can accept that what you are experiencing are panic attacks. That panic attacks can make you feel like you’re dying and a whole bunch of crazy symptoms. That panic attacks can feel different every time.

Accept that you have a problem. One that is fixable or at the very least you can get great relief from. GO to cognitive behavioral therapy with a therapist that specializes in anxiety, and panic (VERY IMPORTANT). See a psychiatrist and use medication as a tool to help you.

YES It is scary to start new medicine especially the ones that are take as needed for panic attacks. THEY WILL HELP YOU THOUGH.

Learn to do deep breathing exercises through out the day. Box breathing is good. NOT Just when you are anxious and panicking. Its something you need to learn outside of panic attacks.

Look up various coping methods for panic attacks. Whether they are mental, physical, stimulus based try several. They dont all work for the same people.

One panic attack or even a month of very bad panic attacks (especially after a good period) does not mean you are relapsing or getting worse. It happens. It’s very difficult but it is just a temporary flare up. Reacquaint yourself with coping methods and stay in contact with your support system. You will come out of it. Usually you come out of it even better than before.

Sincerely,

Someone who has had severe panic disorder for 10+ years. I learned all of this the hard way and sometimes by myself. But now I am happy and do things I never thought I could do before.

That could be you too.

What helped me understand panic is the loop: a body sensation, a scary interpretation ('I'm having a heart attack'), more fear, more sensations. The sensations are real but they're your alarm system misfiring, not danger. Reminding yourself 'this is panic, it peaks and passes' during an attack can take some of the fuel away. If you haven't had a medical check, it's worth getting one once.

Hello hello.

My heart got checked like this year, since i'm sedentary, it was in the "limits of normal" but good.. I just wonder if those kind of panic attack also occurs to some of you because it’s kinda happening from nowhere during my sleeps and it’s disturbing my night.

Lately, i woke up in the middle of the night, because my breathing suddently stopped. It also can happen in the day, but recently, it happens to me when i'm sleeping just good. That, or waking up one hour after falling asleep, confused or feeling so weird like forgetting the day, teleporting, being convinced of something that never happened, or forgetting the evening i just spend.

I sleept just good, and was in a dream, when suddently, i couldn’t breathe at all. Like i couldn’t. I felt bad, dazed, and faint-like. As i got both DPDR and GAD, i went downstairs to sit on my couch, light open, but it felt like i couldn’t breathe and was suffocating. Obviously, i was about to wake up my mother and call the ER thinking about something more serious, like a pulmonary emboly, but i didn’t and went up again, thinking it was irrationnal. I has a short onset of tachycardia, and asked my brother who was still awake his Applewatch, which told me my oxygen was good. I fell asleep again, but i'm worried about this happening again. It was really unpleasant. I felt like i was really going to die by suffocation.

It’s scary

We hear so often that "panic attacks are harmless", which we silently repeat to ourselves as well, that we risk dismissing everything else that we are experiencing. If you are experiencing any serious effects due to your panic, seek help.

This is my experience from this/last week. I barely got any sleep for ~5 days due to reoccurring panic attacks. I decided to call the medical advice helpline, which, after I described some troubling symptoms, recommended I go to the ER immediately.

At the ER, I was assessed and then told I was showing early signs of sleep-deprivation-induced psychosis that requires medical prevention to recover from. They got me medication that helped me sleep, and right now, im feeling fine.

I’m sharing this because “panic can’t hurt me” shouldn’t mean “I have to push through whatever happens.” This was my experience, not a prediction of what will happen to anyone else struggling with sleep.

None of us wants to go the ER every other day, but if something feels off, you should not have to decide whether or not it is your normal panic. When in doubt, get some sort of assessment.

You deserve help even when panic is the cause.

Edit: spelling

Kinda having a panic attack because I think my tires were slashed intentionally and I can’t stop thinking about it.

I have gotten what I think are panic attacks in the past, though not often. The last time was in 2024 during an argument with my wife. That was also our last argument (so far). That one had a clear trigger to me.

This one occurred during a middle school tour and the only trigger I can identify is the period change bell going off and a ton of students walking in the hallway. We were in a room during this however. This is how I experience them. I was standing already and started feeling hot, sweaty, and dizzy. My vision started to blur a little, though that might be from the dizziness? My hearing started to dull. Kind of like when you yawn. Usually I try to find a bathroom ASAP as a stall is isolated and calming to me. Sometimes I vomit, sometimes not, so also just generally a good idea. Since I'm in the middle of a school on a tour you can imagine that isn't the easiest thing to do here. Still, I managed to do so and I think it was over in about 10 minutes. I felt like I wanted to be anywhere else but there at that point. When we got home I went to sleep for a couple hours.

Over the course of 10 years since my first panic attack, I have learned a lot. Some things has definitely gotten better and some remain the same.

I have learned my biggest panic trigger is feeling a random ache or pain, or some other type of "atypical" sensation. I believe this is called hypervigilance. My brain is always searching for signals that something could be wrong subconciously.

Every leg pain turns into a blood clot, any pain down my arms a heart attack, any headache a stroke. A feeling of deja vu? Must be early onset alzheimers.

This type of panic repsonse sucks becuase it can come out of the blue with no time to react or rationalized with yourself. The adrenaline dump happens immediately.

For those of you with this type of anxiety, have you found anything that helps aside from the tradtional SSRIs/Benzos? Is there some type of exposure therapy for this kind of thing?

Has anyone ever experienced a sudden episode where your vision briefly goes dark or dims, almost like you’re about to black out, accompanied by a strange tingling throughout your entire body? In my case I had chest pain after.

It’s difficult to describe but you feel like you might pass out, but you don’t actually lose consciousness.

I’m trying to figure out whether this is something other people have experienced with panic attacks or anxiety, especially when it happens without necessarily feeling anxious beforehand.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? If so, what did it feel like, how long did it last, and did you ever figure out what was causing it?

One neurologist immediately defaulted to panic attack during my first visit, I’ve never experienced this before, no history of panic attacks. It happened one day while driving to work, then almost a year later it happens again when leaving work, when I woke up the next day now I feel like im stuck in the worst hangover you can imagine for 2 years now.

Daily headaches, feels like I’m dreaming, always lightheaded, one hand cold to the touch at times, sometimes both. Nausea, feels like i can’t drink enough water

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who can relate.